RCM Productions

Jazz Soundie with Stan Kenton and his players.

Musical short starring Spade Cooley.

Louis Armstrong performs with Nicodemus on this Soundie from 1942.

Merle Travis dreaming of a Texas Home.

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

R.C.M. Soundie

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

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.

"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.

Dona Drake sings "Sticks and Stones".

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.

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

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

A comic short featuring Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

The Bronco Busters perform "Silver Spurs."

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

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

Princess Aloha & Andy Iona's Orchestra in Hilo Hattie.

Louis Armstrong and his Sleepy Time Down South.

Kay Starr singing "Stop That Dancing Up There".