The T.A.M.I. Show Collector's Edition, DVD 2010
Director: Steve Binder
112 minutes, 2010
"TAMI Show" director "Steve Binder" says on the commentary track of the new "Collector's Edition" DVD that "a lot of people kind of blocked getting this DVD out".
Perhaps that is why it took about 45 years to make it to home video, and why according to industry whispers, there is still some legal wrangling going on.
On October 28th and 29th in 1964, free tickets were given to all the local high school students in and around Santa Monica, California to attend the first ever "T.A.M.I. Show". "T.A.M.I." was used as a shortened version of the name "Teenage Awards Music International", also known as Teen Age Music International. This 1964 concert show was filmed in 2 days and the best of the film's footage was used for the two hour movie which was shown in theaters all around the world.
And after the uniformly excellent performances by all 12 acts, much of the credit for TAMI has to go to producer "Bill Sargent", whose "Electronovision" cameras-normally used for closed-circuit boxing-allowed superior images to be later blown up for 35mm film stock, and to director "Steve Binder", who directed the "Elvis Presley" 1968 "Comeback Special".
Binder, working without benefit of modern video and audio equipment, used 4 cameras and a mono audio feed, and mixed it all live over the space of 5 hours, creating a bold masterpiece of sound and vision.
The concert was filmed at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and was emceed by "Jan and Dean". The director "Steve Binder" begins the movie with great shots of the streets of Santa Monica showing "Jan and Dean" skate boarding on the streets and the rest of the groups getting ready for the concert.
"James Brown and The Flames" was at his best with his great singing and dancing as were "The Rolling Stones", "The Beach Boys", "Chuck Berry", "The Barbarians", "Marvin Gaye", "Gerry and The Pacemakers", "Lesley Gore", "Jan and Dean", "Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas", "Smokey Robinson and The Miracles", and "The Supremes". It was a concert composed of great music from both America and Britain. The film was released by American International Pictures on December 29, 1964. The stage in the auditorium held only the musicians and some fantastic go-go dancers, so the focus of these great early hi-def type camera's is completely on the great groups!
This show was the coolest big screen movie of it's time, filmed with great early hi-tech camera's and now it's finally on dvd! For years, no one could get the rights from all the great groups involved in this project, but they finally made a deal that satisfied all the groups, so now we finally get this music treasure on dvd. Shout! Factory's extras are new footage commentary by director "Steve Binder", along with the great original trailer, radio spots and a commemorative booklet.
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Legal Wrangling about T.A.M.I: I am Serene Tami Sargent, daughter of Bill Sargent. He always told me that the reason T.A.M.I. couldn't be released, other than the Beach Boys issue, was because no one person had all the rights. I believe he said Dick Clark had video rights - (Dad always sold Clark everything for a song when he was down on his luck) - but that the audio rights were still his. I could have that backwards, but I'm fairly sure that was the deal. What I AM sure of, is that when my father died he held the rights to some part of The T.A.M.I. Show, and that's why it took until years after his death to get it out to the public again. If Dad was right, then no one had the right to unilaterally release anything other than a silent movie with subtitles. Dad died without money or power, and had no attorney for what little estate he left behind. Could this be true? How do I research this?
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