[Steve Young and Sport Murphy, Everything’s Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals. New York: Blast Books, 2013.]
The now-vanished industrial musical was a form of capitalist celebration, a show extolling corporate products and services, performed for internal audiences only. O, the titles: Diesel Dazzle. Follow the Road: Highlights from the 1975 Dominion Road Machinery Announcement Meeting. Got to Investigate Silicones. Lucite, You and ’72. My favorite: The Bathrooms Are Coming!
I’ve had a vague acquaintance with industrials via selections from The 365 Days Project. This book, with 425 illustrations, has deepened that acquaintance. If only the songs could play as one turns the pages. But there is a website, with sample recordings. Don’t miss “My Bathroom”: “the only place where I can stay, making faces at my face.” A little Prufrockian, that.
Our daughter Rachel gave us this wonderful book. Thank you, RL.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Everything’s Coming Up Profits
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I heard a story about this on Weekend Edition last year. Nice interview that included Sheldon Harnick: http://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243204830/sales-take-center-stage-to-boost-morale-companies-burst-into-song
Thanks, Mike. The book’s website has a link too.
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