- Description:
- DVD - Region 1. viewing copy. 1 videodisc of 1.
- Notes:
- Musical shorts, produced to merely fill out the film program, have in many cases acquired more value than the features they once supported. Filmed at the Paramount Studios in Astoria, Queens, these films offer opportunities to see and hear great artists in action.
Titles
+ Rhapsody in Black and Blue, A
- Director:
- Scotto, Aubrey
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1932
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- A husband who listens to jazz instead of mopping the floor is hit with a mop by his wife; he dreams he's King of Jazzmania, a land of soapsuds where Louis Armstrong performs 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You' and 'Shine'.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Bundle of Blues, A
- Director:
- Waller, Fred
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1933
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Duke Ellington and his orchestra play two jazz compositions plus 'Stormy Weather' (sung by Ivy Anderson).
+ Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho
- Director:
- Waller, Fred
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1933
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- This jazz musical short has a comedy plot about marital infidelity.
+ Ain’t Misbehavin’
- Director:
- Murray, Warren
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1941
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Fats Waller performs his best song and mugs for the camera with many a sky, risque comment in this 1941 soundie. A rare and impeccable record of one of the greatest showmen of jazz.
+ Symphony in Black
- Director:
- Waller, Fred
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1935
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Duke Ellington plays his symphonic jazz piece ('A Rhapsody of Negro Life') with his orchestra against slice-of-life background scenes. The four movements: 1) The Laborers, 2) A Triangle: Dance, Jealousy, Blues, 3) A Hymn of Sorrow, 4) Harlem Rhythm.
+ Jitterbug Party
- Director:
- Waller, Fred
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1934
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Cab Calloway performs two numbers at the Cotton Club, then takes his friends down to Harlem for a jitterbug party.
+ St. Louis Blues
- Director:
- Murphy, Dudley
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 16 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1929
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- In her only known film appearance, legendary blues singer Bessie Smith witnesses her lover's betrayal, then sings a powerful rendition of the title song.
+ Hoagy Carmichael
- Director:
- Roush, Leslie M.
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1939
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Cohen Film Collection introduces this classic jazz short starring Hoagy Carmichael and the Jack Teagarden Orchestra.
+ Ol’ King Cotton
- Director:
- Cozine, Ray
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1930
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- George is a shiftless father and husband, who lets his wife and old mother in law do all the work at his tumbledown farm, preferring to sleep under a tree. His wife finally threatens him into finding a job moving cartons in a warehouse.
+ Black and Tan Fantasy
- Director:
- Murphy, Dudley
- Production Co:
- RKO Pictures
- Running Time:
- Short. 19 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1929
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- Duke Ellington plays hot jazz in a fictional story that finds him down on his luck; he tries in vain to dissuade his friend, dancer Fredi Washington, from working with heart trouble even though it means work for his band. Sure enough, she collapses on stage…
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Those Blues
- Director:
- uncredited
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1932
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- With Songs, Performance
- Notes:
- Vincent Lopez and his orchestra give a performance.
+ Jazz a la Cuba
- Director:
- uncredited
- Production Co:
- Paramount Publix Corporation
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1933
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Performance, With Songs
- Notes:
- A Paramount short filmed featuring Don Aspiazu and his Orchestra.