Video of the Week #53

As my videos of the week go into their second year, I'm still finding interesting videos from before 1970. This week, the great Bessie Smith in a 16-minute short film, St. Louis Blues, from 1929.

You'll see why I have some reservations about this video. This must have been a humiliating role for Bessie Smith. She is battered by her unfaithful boyfriend, and she responds by drinking and welcoming him back for more abuse. But this is said to be the only filmed record of this great blues singer. Her boyfriend is played by dancer Jimmy Mordecai, and his girlfriend by Isabel Washington. The bar patrons who sing backup while Bessie sings "St. Louis Blues" are the Hall Johnson Choir and the pianist is James P. Johnson. The film was produced by W. C. Handy and written and directed by Dudley Murphy.

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