All Black Cast

Between !910 and 1960 hundreds of films were produced featuring all black casts. These were generally made for segregated audience and were often made by black film companies. With the coming of sound more and more black musicians were filmed in a variety of settings.

Feature films

BEWARE (ABC)
USA 1946 • 60 mins • Directed by Bud Pollard
Louis Jordan's first starring role. He made various musical films during the forties at the height of the jump-jive craze

 

CABIN IN THE SKY (ABC)
USA1942 • 99 mins • Directed by Vincente Minnelli
With Armstrong and Ellington

CARMEN JONES
USA1954 • 103 mins • Directed by Otto Preminger
Small parts for Max Roach, Ritchie Powell (Bud's brother) and Curtis Counce

CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK (ABC)
USA1930 • 75 mins • Directed by Melville Brown
Comic duo Amos and Andy film featuring the Duke Ellington Band with Carney, Hodges, Bigard etc. (Note that the 'black' cast in this film had whites that were' blacked' up and even' lighter skin' members of the Ellington band such as Juan Tizol and Bigard wore dark make up) This film featured Bing Crosby in his third film appearance.

HI- DI-HO
USA 1947 • 47 mins • Directed by Josh Binney
with Cab Calloway

JIVIN’ IN BEBOP (ABC)
USA 1947 • 60 mins • Directed by Leonard Anderson
Separate cinema musical made for black audiences with Gillespie, Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Ray Brown, James Moody, Benny Carter

KILLER DILLER (ABC)
USA 1948 • 80 mins • Directed by Josh Binney
Black cast film featuring Nat 'King' Cole and the Andy Kirk Band

LOOK OUT SISTER (ABC)
USA 1948 • 67 mins • Directed by Bud Pollard
Musical featuring Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five

O'VOUTI E O'ROONEY (ABC)
USA 1947
All black musical with Slim Gaillard

POLICY MAN (ABC)
USA 1938
Early, all black cast, gangster film. The first screen appearance of Count Basie and his Orchestra, the one that featured Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Dickey Wells, Freddie Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones

REET, PETITE AND GONE (ABC)
USA 1947 • 75 mins • Directed by William Crouch
With Louis Jordan and his Tympany five

SEPIA CINDERELLA • USA • 1947 • 75mins • Directed by Arthur H. Leonard
John Kirby, Charlie Shavers and Billie Kyle

STORMY WEATHER (ABC)
USA 1943 • 78 mins • Directed by Andrew Stone
All black musical with Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and Lena Horne

 

Soundies

ALBERT AMMONS Boogie Woogie Dream BILLY ECKSTINE Lonesome Lover COUNT BASIE Air Mail Special Take Me Back Baby CAB CALLOWAY Blow top Blues Blues in the night Foo a Little Ballyhoo I Was Here When You Left Me Minnie the Moocher Skunk Song Virginia, Georgia and Caroline Walkin’ with my Honey We the Cats DUKE ELLINGTON BliBlip C Jam Blues Flamingo Hot Chocolate/ Cottontail Jam Session Satin Doll FATS WALLER Ain’t Misbehaving Honeysuckle Rose Hot Frogs This Joint is Jumpin’ Waller Medley Your Feet’s Too Big HERB JEFFRIES After hours (see Docus page for a film about Herb) THE INTERNATIONAL SWEETHEARTS OF RHYTHM Jump Children She’s Crazy With the Heat That Man of Mine IVY ANDERSON I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good LIONEL HAMPTON Air Mail Special Cobb’s Idea (Snader transcription?) LOUIS ARMSTRONG I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You Shine Sleepy Time Down South Swingin’ on Nothin’

LOUIS JORDAN Buzz me Down, Down, Down Five Guys Named Moe Fuzzy Wuzzy Honey Chile If you Can’t Smile and Say Yes Jordan Melody Jordan Jive Jumpin’ at the Jubilee Old Man Mose Ration Blues Tillie’ LUCKY MILLINDER Because I love you Harlem Serenade Want a Big Fat Mamma Hello Bill Shout Sister Shout Four or five Times MEADE LUX LEWIS Boogie Woogie Low Down Dog Roll ‘em Spirit of Boogie Woogie MAXINE SULLIVAN A Case of the Blues Some of these Days The Mills Brothers Caravan NAT KING COLE Come to Baby Do Errand Boy for Rhythm Frim Fram Sauce Got a Penny Benny I’m a Shy Guy RED ALLEN with J. C. Higginbotham Count me out Crawl Red Crawl Drink Hearty House on 52nd Street Mop SLIM GAILLARD Dunkin’ Bagel Dynamite O’Roony Chilli Beans and Avouti Hoboken Bounce Laguna TINY GRIMES One is Never Too Old to Swing Romance Without Finance T.G Boogie Woogie

Snaders

CAB CALLOWAY Calloway Boogie I Can’t Give You Anything But Love Minnie the Moocher One For My Baby St Jame's Infirmary COUNT BASIE Basie Boogie Basie’s Conversation If I Could Be With You I Cried For You One O’ Clock Jump DUKE ELLINGTON Caravan The Hawk Talks The Mooch Mood Indigo Solitude Sophisticated Lady That’s My Girl V.I.P Boogie LIONEL HAMPTON Beulah’s Boogie Bongo Interlude Cobb’s idea Midnight Sun Ding Dong Baby Love You Like Mad Love You Like Crazy Slide Hampton Slide T.V Special Vibe Boogie Who Cares

HERB JEFFRIES Angel Eyes Baby Won’t you Please Come Home Flamingo NAT KING COLE Always You Because of Rain Calypso Blues For Sentimental Reasons I’m a Shy Guy Little Girl Nature Boy Route 66 Sweet Lorraine Too Young The Trouble with Me is You This is My Night to Dream Home That's My Girl Mona Lisa You Call it Madness HELEN HUMES I Cried For You I Could Be With You SARAH VAUGHAN Perdido The Nearness of You These Things I Offer You You’re Mine, You You’re Not the Kind

From the forties until the mid- fifties Universal International made a series of short musical features

BILLIE HOLIDAY-COUNT BASIE-SUGAR CHILE ROBINSON
USA 1950 • 15 mins • Directed by Will Cowan

SARAH VAUGHAN AND HERB JEFFRIES
USA 1950 • 15 mins • Directed by Will Cowan
with the Kid Ory Creole Jazz band

JIVIN' JAM SESSION
USA1942 • 15 mins • Directed by Reginald Le Borg
with Sonny Dunham and his Orchestra

LIONEL HAMPTON WITH HERB JEFFRIES
USA 1955 • 15 mins • Directed by Will Cowan

SALUTE TO DUKE ELLINGTON
USA 1950 • 15 mins • Directed by Will Cowan
with Ellington's classic fifties band with Hodges, Harry Carney, Ray Nance and Lawrence Brown etc.

SYMPHONY IN SWING
USA 1949 • 15 mins • Directed by Will Cowan
with Duke Ellington

Shorts

ALL COLORED VAUDEVILLE SHOW
USA 1935 • 9 mins • Directed by Roy Mack
with Adelaide Hall and the Nicholas Brothers

SISSLE AND BLAKE
USA 1923 • 6 mins Directed by Lee De Forrest
Perhaps one of the first films featuring black jazz musicians. The singer Noble Sissle with accompanist Eubie Blake.
Lee Deforrest in 1920 invented a system of putting sound on to film and his New york studios made hundreds of short sound films between 1921 and 1926.

BOOGIE WOOGIE DREAM
USA 1947 • 13 mins • Directed by Hans Burger
Black cast film with Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson,Teddy Wilson, Lena Horne (vocal)
This film has been split into soundies ( see above)

BLACK AND BLUE (ABC)
USA 1932 •
With Louis Armstrong

BLACK AND TAN (ABC)
USA 1929 • Directed by Dudley Murphy
Duke Ellington's very first screen appearance

BUNDLE OF BLUES (ABC)
USA 1933 • 8 mins
with Duke Ellington and Ivy Anderson singing 'Stormy Weather'

CAB CALLOWAY JITTERBUG PARTY (ABC)
USA 1934 • 8 mins • Directed by Fred Waller

 

CHOO CHOO SWING
USA • 1943 • 13 mins • Directed by Josef Berne
with Count Basie Count Basie, Jo Jones, Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Buddy Tate, Don Byas, Dickie Wells, Freddie Green and Jimmy Rushing

COOTIE WILLIAMS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
USA 1944 • 10 mins •
with Bud Powell

DEVILED HAMS (ABC)
USA 1937 • 10 mins •
with Erskine Hawkins and his Band

DON REDMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (ABC)
USA 1934 • 10 mins •

SYMPHONY IN BLACK (ABC)
USA 1934 • 9 mins • Directed by Fred Waller
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra with Billie Holiday ( This was Billie's first screen appearance)

DIXIELAND JAMBOREE
USA 1935 • 9 mins
with Cab Calloway, Adelaide Hall

DOWN BEAT REVIEW
USA 1955 • 30 mins •
with Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Dina Washington

DUKE ELLINGTON
USA 1943 • 9 mins • Directed by Jay Bonafield
with Carney, Webster, Hodges, Ray Nance etc.

EBONY PARADE (ABC)
USA 1947 •
Compilation of soundies with Basie, Calloway etc.

EUBIE BLAKE PLAYS (ABC)
USA 1922 ? • 4 mins •
an early Lee de Forrest production

FLAMINGO (ABC)
USA 1947 • ? mins~
Black cast film with Herb Jeffries and Lena Horne

FLICKER UP (ABC)
USA 1946 • ? mins •
Black Cast short with Billie Eckstine

FRENZY (ABC)
USA 1946 •
Black cast short with Herb Jeffries and Dorothy Dandridge

FUZZY WUZZY (ABC)
USA 1945 • ? mins •
Black cast short with Louis Jordan and Meade Lux Lewis


HARLEM FOLLIES OF 1949 (ABC)
USA 1950 •
Black cast short with John Kirby and his band plus Sid Catlett and his Band

HARLEM IS HEAVEN (ABC)
USA 1932 • 10 mins
Black cast short with Eubie Blake

HEP CAT SERENADE (ABC)
USA 1945•
Black cast short with Louis Jordan and his Band

MURDER IN SWINGTIME
USA 1937 • 10 mins • Directed by Arthur Dreifuss
feature the Les Hite Band

NIGHT IN HARLEM
USA 1947 • 10 mins •
features Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra

OOP BOOP SH'BAM
USA 1947 • 10 mins •
with Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra

PIE PIE BLACKBIRD
USA 1932 • 9 mins • Directed by Roy Mack
features the Eubie Blake Band

 

RHYTHM IN A RIFF
USA • 1946 • 45 mins• Directed by Leonard Anderson
with Billy Eckstine and his Band with Gene Ammons and Frank Wess

SMASH YOUR BAGGAGE (ABC)
USA 1933 • 10 mins • Directed by Roy Mack
Song and dance with baggage handlers at Grand Central Station with Roy Eldridge, Dickie Wells and Otto Hardwicke

TOOT THAT TRUMPET (ABC)
USA 1946 •
with Louis Jordan and his band

THAT'S THE SPIRIT.
USA 1933 • 12 mins • Directed by Roy Mack
A short featuring the Noble Sissle Band with Buster Bailey, Wilbur De Paris, Cora La Redd and the Washboard Serenaders