Horace Heidt and His Californians (1929) - A very loud time capsule

If you have about ten minutes and want to feel like you've been hit over the head with a tuba, this is for you. History nerds will probably find it fascinating just because of how early the sound is.

Anyone looking for a story or a plot or even a single line of dialogue that isn't a song lyric should probably go watch The Block Signal instead. This is just a band doing their thing.

The first thing you notice is the sound quality. It’s crackly and thin, like it’s being played through a tin can buried under a pile of leaves. 🍂

It’s actually kind of charming in a weird way. You can hear the hiss of the old Vitaphone tech running in the background the whole time.

Horace Heidt stands there with this huge grin that looks like it was painted on his face. He’s very enthusiastic about his Californians.

The band members are all squeezed into the frame. They look like they’re worried if they move too far to the left, they’ll fall off the edge of the world. 🌎

There is this one guy playing the banjo who just stares directly into the lens. He doesn't blink for like thirty seconds straight.

It’s actually a bit creepy. I started wondering if he was a real person or just a very well-dressed mannequin they found in a dumpster behind the studio.

The music itself is that bouncy, frantic jazz that makes you want to do the Charleston even if you don't know how. It’s relentless.

There’s no real break between the songs. It just keeps coming at you.

I kept thinking about how different this feels from something like Don't Flirt. There’s zero attempt at being a "movie" here.

It’s just a recording. A document of a group of guys who were probably famous for a week and then forgotten until YouTube was invented.

The lighting is incredibly flat. Everyone looks a little bit like a ghost, or maybe they just didn't have good makeup back then.

There is a moment where the drummer does a little trick with his sticks. It’s the most exciting thing that happens, and he almost drops one. 🥁

I love that they kept that in. They probably couldn't afford to do a second take because film was expensive and sound was even pricier.

If you've seen Life in Hollywood No. 3, you know how awkward these early talkies can get. This is exactly that, but with more brass instruments.

The suits these guys wear are hilarious. The pants go up to their armpits.

I spent five minutes just looking at their hair. Everyone has that perfectly slicked-back look that must have required a gallon of grease per person.

It makes me miss the weirdness of silent films like The Raven. There was more mystery there.

Here, everything is just out in the open and very loud. It’s a bit exhausting for a ten-minute short.

The singer—I think it might be Murray Roth but the credits are a mess—has this vibrato that sounds like a shivering dog. It’s very 1920s.

You can tell they are all trying so hard to be "on." They want to prove that sound is the future of entertainment.

Sometimes the audio and video go slightly out of sync. It makes it look like they are all lip-syncing badly to a different band.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely even a movie.

But it’s a weird little window into a world that was just figuring out how to talk and sing on screen. It’s messy and loud and totally sincere.

I’d say watch it if you’re bored. Or if you want to see what people thought was cool right before the Great Depression hit. 🎷

Just don't expect it to change your life. It’s just some guys from California playing horns in a cold room a long time ago.