Musical Merry-Go-Round #1

This is the first of six musical shorts produced for MGM in which Martin Block appears as himself. He offers a selection of Freddy Martin songs. Martin was a Big Band leader who rose to prominence about 1950, who played not swing music, but "sweet" music, including arrangements of classical musical. Block also explains to Keenan Wynn how he chooses his music, which turns out to be invariably songs by Freddy Martin, despite having tens of thousands of records in the studio.

Block himself was an early disc jockey. While the nation was following the news of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, Block filled the time on New York's WNEW by playing music. Later, he ontroduced the "Make Believe Ballroom" (the format had been invented in Los Angeles), a show which, under various hosts, ran for decades on the radio channel. Certainly, by 1948, MGM thought this would be a good format for a series of musical shorts.

Musical Merry-Go-Round #1 (1948)

*** (out of 4) D.J.

Martin Block had this series based around him playing "records" when we will then flash to that musical act doing a number. It was also common to have a celebrity in the short and in this one we get Keenan Wynn who asks Block a couple fan questions. The main musical guest is Freddy Martin who does a couple good numbers including an excellent version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. If you're a fan of musical shorts from this era then you'll certainly want to check this one out. Freddy Martin did a couple shorts during this era but I was really impressed with his singing as well as his band mates who did a blues/big swing style that was very catchy. The stuff with Martin Block was someone entertaining but the comedy bits were a big dud. It was nice seeing Wynn even if he was just stopping by to pick up a paycheck.

Although I have never heard of him, apparently Martin Block was a famous disc jockey of his day and is featured in several confusing films. I say confusing because all six of the shorts he made ALL have the same title and came out in the same year! The only way to know which is which is by seeing which artists are featured in each one. In this case, the film highlights the most famous songs by Freddy Martin as well as has an interview where Keenan Wynn interviews Block.

As far as the Martin tunes go, the summary mentions two but the famous "Wizard of Oz" tune "Over the Rainbow" is also featured. All of the Freddy Martin pieces are very nice and you see him and his band performing them. The interview is fluff, but also reasonably entertaining. Not a bad little film...and mildly interesting.