A must watch film and a new hobby to follow!

 I need to move to America!

Last night I watched a film that made me smile from beginning to end. Debz did the same.

If you’ve got Netflix, I implore you to watch the film ‘Bathtubs over Broadway.’

It follows a comedy writer on the David Letterman show by the name of Steve Young on a journey of discovery. As part of the show, there used to be a section ‘David’s record collection’ in which he’d highlight a wacky off the wall album. Steve, as the writer, used to go and find these records in record shops to feature and they were unusual, to say the least, zany albums.

And during the period of doing this, he started to fall in love with the music, a genre that no-one really knows about, basically, ‘Industrial showtunes.’

In America from the ‘50s through to the ‘80s, many American businesses used to put on shows for their employees that were like pep rallies, to give them a boost as they went about their business. A lot of this came in the form of theatrical shows, built around their businesses. And along with the shows, these companies produced soundtrack albums that their employees could take home and play to keep them enthused.

Steve became addicted to hunting these albums out and over years has built an impressive collection of them. These are albums that never went on sale, weren’t promoted and certainly never came close to charting, and so they eventually got lost in time.

Steve’s geekiness is stunningly brilliant. His obsession led him to others like him and now there is a sub-culture of record collectors who seek out these albums.

If there was anything like that in the UK, I too would be on that particular bandwagon, but sadly, I can’t see it ever being a thing here (if it did happen let me know!).

The film was 2hours of total joy for me. Eclectic, geeky, nerdy and totally joyous. I can’t remember the last time I watched something on telly that made me smile so much.

If I was going to start collecting records again, these are exactly the kind I would want.

I’ve spent over 50 years accumulating music that’s been popular and I’d happily start a new collection comprising of weirdness like these records. Actually, weirdness is the wrong word. Genius – that’s the word I should have used.

These shows must have been great to see, if you worked for the companies that produced them. And the music quality was reminiscent of the musicals and shows of their time.

So yes, it would be worth moving to America just to be able to go cratedigging for these musical gems on a regular basis.

It would be worth signing up to Netflix, if for no other reason than to see this film. Brilliant!

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