RCM Productions

Musical short starring Spade Cooley.

Jazz Soundie with Stan Kenton and his players.

Carolina Cotton Yodeling with the Spade Cooley's Western Dance Gang.

Louis Armstrong performs with Nicodemus on this Soundie from 1942.

Merle Travis dreaming of a Texas Home.

Harry Langdon lip syncs the title song and interacts with models.

R.C.M. Soundie

In this Soundie, the Mills Brothers sing the title song to a cut-out image of Dorothy Dandridge, which then comes to life and dances for them.

Dona Drake sings "Sticks and Stones".

The combination of The Four Tones & Lucius Brooks with Mildred Boyd to deliver "Baby, Are You Kiddin'?"

"Let's Scuffle" is a short subject -- a single song-and-dance number -- that appears to have been cut from a feature-length movie: to be precise, a 'race film'. (This was the term used by American cinema exhibitors in the 1940s and earlier for any movie with an all-black cast, intended primarily for distribution in black neighbourhoods at a time when many American cinemas were segregated.) The song-and-dance performer here is none other than the great Bill Robinson.

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra perform "Bli-Blip" with Marie Bryant and Paul White

Louis Armstrong and his Sleepy Time Down South.

Dorothy Dandridge and band perform "Cow-Cow Boogie".

Ozzie Nelson takes us along for a typical day for a bandleader.

An early "soundie" in which Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White sing "A Zoot Suit with a Reet Pleat" while getting dressed up for a big date.

A comic short featuring Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers at their best along with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra performing for this "Hot Chocolate" musical short.

Soundie featuring The Chanticleers singing "Babbling Bess." Also starring Francine Everett (as Babbling Bess) and Mable Lee (Dancer).

Johnny Taylor sings "Good Nite All" at a house party.