Bathtubs Over Broadway: The Tale of An Unknown Music Industry

Much like the subject of this documentary, I stumbled on to Bathtubs Over Broadway and was surprised that a whole world of music was just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. Steve Young also discovered this music mostly by accident, while creating a segment for the Late Show with David Letterman.

In searching for different, fringe-type songs to get a laugh from, Young opened the lost door to the art of Industrial Theatre: Songs written solely for the purpose of promoting products and concepts to specific trade audiences, and then forgotten.

In Bathtubs Over Broadway, Young follows these songs to their creators, and from there interviews the performers. Some have gone on to become household names (Florence Henderson, Martin Short) and others left in obscurity until this documentary.

He also speaks with other collectors of this genre, many of whom he has become friends with as they uncover more and more of these soundtracks, and in some cases film and video from the shows themselves. These productions were no half-baked attempt to emulate the musical theatre happening in NYC. In many cases, the production budgets for these one time events were higher than the running hits on Broadway. All to introduce a new product, say, by plumbing company American Standard.

The documentary ends with a satisfying tip of the hat to these creators and show folks. And you'll leave it with a smile on your face.

Bathtubs Over Broadway is available for streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play.

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LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

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