The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll celebrates a creative partnership that helped catapult American pop music and culture around the world.

From New Orleans to Blueberry Hill, the teaming of Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. and Dave Bartholomew is a legendary partnership that changed the course of mid-century music. Meeting at a Ninth Ward dive called The Hideaway, the two became songwriting partners, and under the banner of Imperial Records (where Bartholomew served as producer, arranger, and bandleader), they sold over 60 million records between 1949-62—a time when segregation dominated the airwaves.

Director and archivist Joe Lauro, who has created documentaries about The Supremes and The Four Tops, incorporates footage from a 45-minute performance found in the French National Archives as a treasured component for The Big Beat, which will screen Saturday, January 24, alongside Will Cowan's 1958 classic of the same name (also featuring Domino) as part of a Sound + Vision double bill. But the film delves deeper, looking at Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew's upbringing in New Orleans and how their environment drove their creativity.

We spoke with Lauro about the film and Fats Domino's impact on music and the icons of rock 'n' roll that came after him.

FilmLinc: What prompted you to do this film about Fats Domino and the dawn of rock?

Joe Lauro: I've always been a fan of music from New Orleans. I've spent a lot of time down there and I'm a big fan of rhythm and blues. I was always fascinated with how music picks up the regional culture around it. If rhythm and blues is from New Orleans, it's going to sound different than if you heard the same [genre] from Detroit. New Orleans produced such an amazing body of music and culture. I was fascinated in the early days with how Fats combined traditions of New Orleans like Mardi Gras and the marching bands and wove that into his sound along with [his musical partner] Dave Bartholomew.

Now, Fats is the musical patron saint of New Orleans and even took some of the mantle away from Louis Armstrong. But he was actually a very private and shy man. He didn't like to be interviewed. In his long career, there was very little controversy—that anyone really knew of, anyway. If you did a documentary on Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard or Chuck Berry, that would be very different.

Fats was rivaled only by Elvis in terms of record sales and yet he's often thought of as this roly poly unthreatening guy. He got kind of a bad rap later as this jolly oldies guy, but there is just so much more. What he still is and what he means to so many musicians and the influence he's had on them [is important] all the way from Paul McCartney to others. He was a major influence. He sold 60 million records by 1962.

FL: I learned from the film that Elvis had called him “The King of Rock 'n' Roll' and among the first rock songs John Lennon played was a Fats Domino song…

JL: The fact is that Paul McCartney and John Lennon told stories that when they were kids growing up in England, these records weren't available over there. But since they were in Liverpool, which is a major port, sailors would bring this stuff over there and that's how they got to hear this music.

Also, what happened was that in 1956 there was a big color 20th Century Fox film called The Girl Can't Help It with Jayne Mansfield and it played in the local cinema and there was Fats on screen singing “Blue Monday.” That was a very influential thing for many of them. There was Fats in it along with other influential rock 'n' rollers. In '56, John Lennon was 16 and McCartney was 14. They never denied how important Fats and Chuck Berry were to them.

FL: I can't imagine what music would have looked like had Fats not had the opportunity to play beyond the immediate sphere of New Orleans…

JL: Oh yeah, absolutely… And he toured the world, unlike some others. Fats played in England a lot as well as France, Germany, and Italy. They all knew him and loved him.

But this film really concentrates mostly on the early years. I'm obsessed with where this stuff comes from. I thought the story of where the Domino and Bartholomew families came from and how they got some of the influences that became their music was, to me, the rich part of the story. Everyone knows about Fats's career and I told that story, of course, but the film gives [a lot of time] to the period before the first record was made. That's what fascinated me as a filmmaker.

FL: Something that I wasn't aware of was the role Imperial Records played and how it popularized acts like Fats across racial barriers.

JL: There are four stars in this film. There's Fats, Dave Bartholomew, [producer] Cosimo Matassa, and Lewis Chudd, the owner of Imperial. Right after Wolrd War II, there were a lot of independent labels that came up. The big record labels [of the time] didn't think it was worthy of them to do a lot with rhythm and blues records. It was a niche market—too small for them, so they didn't focus on it. So all these guys started these little labels and Imperial was one of the early ones.

This was a mom and pop market that could feed a family very well. It was off the record with RCA and places like that, but for a guy working out of a storefront, it was quite a business and that's how these guys got their start. Ultimately they gave us the great music that we all cherish.

FL: It was amazing seeing on the eve of the Civil Rights marches that black kids and white kids were all filing in to see Fats Domino's shows. It's not the headliner when it comes to Civil Rights history, but that had to have had a tremendous impact.

JL: Fats told me that they used to have a rope that separated the white from the black audiences, so you couldn't go beyond the rope. But in fact, the kids would break through the rope and dance. For the most part, they didn't care if you were purple, black, pink, or whatever. They were there to see Fats and loved the music.

So in some small way—I'm not falsely saying rock ’n' roll brought about Civil Rights and integration—but it certainly did help. When the kids wanted to see [him play] they didn't care, and that is a sign or an element of change.

FL: Of course, on these tours, you get a sense of Fats's commitment to playing for his fans—touring eight months out of the year. It must have taken quite a toll.

JL: It must have. He was constantly on the road for years. Yeah, it was crazy and it was all very manual. They were in a couple of station wagons early on. They didn't have a bus at first. They all drove and it was like family.

FL: It was interesting seeing the influence Fats had, even very early on. You show in your movie old footage of Pat Boone singing “Ain't That a Shame…”

JL: It was great music and it took a white crooner like Pat Boone to bring it to another market. It was really different back then, and it changed with The Beatles, but prior to them, there were musicians and there were songwriters. The songwriters would write them and give them to the musicians. So back then it wasn't unusual that four artists from different record labels would cover the same songs, but just different versions. That changed with The Beatles.

FL: How would you assess Fats Domino's place in music history as it relates to the present? I know that's a lot to encapsulate…

JL: Oh boy… You know, in my opinion, the greatest thing that America has culturally given to the world is its music. And there are many different flavors and styles, but in my opinion, Fats is one of the innovators that falls in line with the best of them. He brought rhythm and blues into rock 'n' roll. He and Dave Bartholomew were second to Lennon and McCartney as a songwriting team. They were performing a lot of their own stuff, like Lennon and McCartney. There weren't that many people doing that at the time.

Fats was an innovator, and he and Bartholomew created great music that had melody and was simple so anyone could appreciate it. And it had that back-beat that all the kids wanted. That was rock 'n' roll, and if Fats wasn't there, then music would be very, very different.

The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll screens Saturday, January 24 at 3:00pm as part of a Sound + Vision double bill.