UNCLE SI AND THE SIRENS

Year Published: 1929

Description: Dating to 1929 and released by Cine Art, "Uncle Si and the Sirens" is a hilarious short film that mixes the excitement of the era's most hi-tech and revolutionary technology — television — with unclothed girls. This type of "nudie cutie" film was fairly common in the era, and Cine Art specialized in releasing these kind of titles. The plot of this film is more complex than most (they typically featured artists models and zero plot). Here, a farmer named Uncle Si sits at home reading about television, the most wonderful and marvelous invention of the age. In what might be a feverish dream, Uncle Si builds a primitive TV using radio tubes. He succeeds and the image of Miss Cynthia Squires, world famous temperance lecturer, appears on screen. Si's wife approves, but when Si changes channels a hula-hula dancer appears and then nude women. It turns out television really is incredible, right Si? Alas, Si's wife doesn't approve and, in a fit of pique, she destroys the device.