The storylines in Chaka Kahn’s recent video, Hello Happiness, all revolve around and within a motel phone booth. Set in the parking lot of a sketchy California transient establishment the action occurs mostly in and around a 1970s-style Airlight phone booth, through which all manner of derelict and ne’er-do-well pass. It’s like Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth but with more interesting storylines and enough material for a full-length movie spinoff.
My favorite spot is at 2:17, where Chaka Khan sings into the payphone. That’s cool stuff. If only a payphone handset could deliver such audio fidelity!
Editing of audio effects from within the phone booth seem pretty expert, with sounds of coins trickling down the slot and the handset slammed down edited to perfection. The robotic voice at the end, asking “If you’d like to make a call…” rings so familiar to me, even having not heard that particular jingle-like litany in years. Also familiar is the unfortunate plight of the dude who could not escape from the phone booth, even with attempted help of some well-intentioned passers-by. From the credits I will assume that character is the “Gangster”, played by Frederick Lawrence. Having already smashed the payphone handset to bits the dude has no way to call 911 or anyone else, leaving one to ask if he didn’t end up dying in that booth. Phone booths like the one in this video could be frighteningly difficult to escape from if you didn’t treat the doors with ginger respect.
I don’t know if it qualifies as a goof but if this was supposed to be set in the 1970s than why does an ESPN logo appear on the motel sign just before the credits roll? ESPN did not exist until late 1979 and would probably not have made its way to motel rooms for years to come.
My only gripe about the phone booth’s presentation is how the phone number shown is 555-3863. Why bother showing a fictional number at all when doing so injects an all-too-common suspension of belief in the film-making. For decades now movies and television almost always use “555” as the first three digits of a phone number, a custom I think should change. For a one-time charge to the movie-makers I think phone companies should be able to reserve a quantity of real-looking phone numbers for permanent usage in film and media. These phone numbers would look more believable in the film while preventing the scenario of someone unwittingly acquiring a phone number featured in a film years earlier.
As much as I like the song and the actors there appears to be no connection between the lyrics of the song and what happens in the video. Is this motel parking lot is a metaphorical dancefloor to which Chaka Khan wants to return? The video focuses on infidelity and the stereotypically smarmy world of phone booth denizens. The song itself is all about the music and getting to the dancefloor. I don’t get the connection, but it doesn’t matter.
As the credits roll on Hello Happiness we hear a sound of the payphone in the phone booth ringing. Chaka Kahn takes the call.