Filmic Friday 213: Bathtubs Over Broadway

Everyone has something they love (at least I hope so). We all have something that we love more than anyone else seems to. For me, I love a great (but obscure) book called October Dark by David Herter, and I seem to be the only one out there who does. I love this book, I read it yearly, and I share it aggressively with people around me and I'm sure they're tired of hearing about it.

Thing is, I am not alone, because everyone's got something to talk about - something they love to the point of annoying everyone around them or seeming weird because of it. All of my friends have at least one obscure thing they obsess over, and that's a good thing.

Bathtubs Over Broadway is an ode to this kind of niche obsession. It is a documentary that lets you know that, no matter what that thing you love is (provided it's not super illegal and/or harmful), you should absolutely love it, explore it, share it.

I mean, look at this blurry little poster!

Actually, this one's better. Look at this one.

Bathtubs Over Broadway follows the journey of Letterman writer Steve Young and his lengthy love-affair with, of all things, industrial musicals. If you've followed the rest of my blog, you may recall that I referenced both this film and industrial musicals in my Wednesdaymania about a Kellogg's-branded wrestling show. If not, then you can check that out here, or you can just keep reading this blog. It's not imperative that you read the Kellogg's blog.

Young finds his first industrial musical while looking up records for a bit on Letterman, and from there, the rest is history. He was hooked.

How could he not be?!

So what is an "industrial musical"?

Imagine, if you will, that you've got to go to a regional business conference for, say, General Motors or something. Any kind of job. But you have to go to this conference, and while you know the food will be decent, and you'll get to see that nice Cheryl lady from the western accounting branch again, you also know it's just another way for the big-wigs to try and con you into working harder for the same amount of money. Boring. Tedious. Annoying.

But when you arrive, you're shocked to find a stage set up - not just a podium with some boring business folks yapping at you about how you need to sell aggressively to grandma to get your quarterlies up to par or whatever, but a real stage with... are those pyrotechnic and lighting scaffolds? Wait, is that a band?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!

You're in your seat. The lights dim. Cheryl from western accounting is as confused as you are about all this.

And then an overture starts. Not just some company logo song from the latest commercial spots, but a song you've never heard before! The curtain raises, and... people are singing and dancing. It's a straight-up Broadway-style musical, but...

Wait...

The attractive blond in the shoes is singing about how to better sell things.

Is this...

Is this a GM-themed educational musical?

Holy cow, it is!

And that, my friends, is an industrial musical.

It's a fantastic way for companies to disseminate information to their workers while also showing off how profitable they've been (because these things were generally not that cheap!), and they were a hit.

But why are we only now hearing about these, we who were not at these conferences?

Because they were for internal use only. They were never marketed to the public. They were never meant for the public! But some of the souvenir albums and company films survived and made it out into the world. And Steve Young (among a few others!) found them.

At first, Steve just wanted to find all the albums. He wanted all of the original music. He wanted all of the productions. He wanted a complete collection.

So he reached out to others like him and found historians, collectors, and even some aging rockers determined to clutch to the weirdness! They shared some of their albums with him, he shared some of his with them, and it just started to balloon. Suddenly, it wasn't just about owning the music. He wanted to learn more!

Eventually, he started meeting people who had been in the musicals, he met dancers & singers, and most importantly, I think, he actually began meeting the very people who had crafted these strange and wonderful things!

And look at the joy he feels when he hears a song he's never heard before!

Eventually, all of this led Steve to writing a book about industrial musicals, but then something happened:

David Letterman retired.

The end of the movie follows Steve as he's closing out his office, getting together with his new industrial music friends and moving forward with his life. As he asks several times during the film: "what do you do when you're a comedy writer with comedy fatigue"? He doesn't quite know what to do with his life.

Except he does.

He's hanging out with Chita Rivera and Martin Short.

He's singing along with the cast from The Bathrooms are Coming.

He's writing new industrial music with one of the original composers.

So of course, you know the movie has to do it.

It ends with a big musical number about following your dreams, no matter what.

And yes, the older people in this crowd were in those original industrial musicals.

This is a triumphant movie. It's filled with sadness and nostalgia (several of these wonderful musicians and actors passed away before the movie came out, after all), but it's also filled with pure and unbridled joy. Why worry what others will think? If you're the best at making musicals about bathroom fixtures or silicones, then that is what you should do!

It's wonderful, and you should absolutely watch it.

It Will Change Your Life!

FC