For You

Milton Charles plays a pipe organ while singing this song from the First National "Vitaphone" Picture "Spring is Here". For the first two minutes only the organ is heard while strange animated images are shown. Most are cut out animation using a lot of multiple exposures. The images are mostly literal depictions of the situations to be described in the lyrics, but for the most part the imagery here is free-form, dreamlike. The words Big Town can be seen as a skyline is revealed through star shaped and tree shaped cut ours. There is a ghostly single-masted ship, never mentioned in the song, whose mainsail is decorated with musical notes. It glides throughout the film in a recurring motif. There are also rural images including a woods, a country lane, and a farmhouse Finally at the two minute mark Mr. Charles is seen through the cut outs and begins to sing the lyric. His style is the kind that includes rolling "Rs" and his pitch is in the tenor range. While it can be seen he is seated at an organ his hands are not visible. Only his moving arms hint he is the organist. After his verse and chorus he breaks into a jazzy upbeat chorus where only his hands are visible. Then its time for the big finale with the images again appearing.

The Singing Organist (Live-Action)

Vitaphone "Spooney Melodies" short film featuring a performance by "Milton Charles, the singing organist." Live action with limited abstract animation (using paper cutouts and double exposures to accompany the music track).

This is a lost film; only one film of the five released in Warner Bros.' short-lived "Spooney Melodies" series has survived.

This film is an example of an early Vitaphone release. Vitaphone was a "sound on disk" system where the sound track for a film was supplied on records. Special projectors with built-in phonographs were used to present these films in the days before sound on film took over. Audiences must have been astounded with this film. The first two minutes supply nice music and dreamy images but then there he is - Milton Charles - Singing and his lips are fully in sync with the words. Not only that when we finally get to see him playing the organ everything is in still in sync.

By today's standards this song about a man who finds himself in the city while longing for the comforts of his country home may be corny but for its day it was a technical tour de force.