Product Details

• Actors: Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kino Video
• VHS Release Date: March 10, 1998
• Run Time: 10 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304557078
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,162 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Musical shorts, produced to merely fill out the film program, have in many cases acquired more value than the features they once supported. They offer unparalleled opportunities to see and gear great artists in action - and sometimes present surprisingly gutsy subject matter via truly innovative film technique. Case in point: this volume of Kino on Video's Paramount Musical Shorts series presents priceless blues-oriented footage from the early years of sound. The legendary "Empress of the Blues", Bessie Smith, stars in her only film, the once-notorious musical drama St. Louis Blues. Teenaged Billie Holiday performs with Duke Ellington's Orchestra in Symphony in Black, perhaps the greatest of Ellington's shorts. Another Ellington piece, Bundle of Blues, spotlights his favorite band singer, Ivie Anderson, while George Dewey Washington's powerful baritone transcends some stereotypical situations in Ol' King Cotton. And, months before her Broadway debut, on unnervingly girlish Ethel Merman defends, her life before a judge in the surreal Her Future, shot at the Paramount Studio in Merman's hometown (Astoria, Queens). Also starring in Volume Three - definitely in a lighter vein - are bandleader Vince Lopez (who conducts a bouncy "St. Louis Blues" in Those Blues), Cab Calloway (Jitterbug Party) and Bing Crosby, performing his theme song, "Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Four Volume Set, January 6, 2001

By 

Ibochild (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Melodies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you're not ready to roll out the bucks for the complete fourvolume set of HOLLYWOOD RHYTHM, this is the one to buy first. The mainreason is for the first short in this volume -- "Symphony inBlack." This marvelous short features Duke Ellington at the pianocomposing a new work. Intercut between those scenes are vignettesrepresenting the different movenents of the piece. One of whichfeatures a young (and uncredited) Billie Holiday as the scorned woman.Another features the provocative dancing of (also uncredited) Earl"Snake Hips" Tucker. Contemporary music video directorscould learn a lot from this piece with its stylish use of black &white photography and wonderful art direction.

Another reason tobuy this video is to see Bessie Smith's only film appearance in theshort "St. Louis Blues." Her power as a vocalist is evidentin this piece, which is also about a woman abandoned by a lover.Jimmy Morcedai is cold-blooded in another rare film appearance. Hisdancing is not half-bad either.

The other shorts don't quite rise upto the level of these two shorts. Some also feature some verystereotypical images, which were typical of this period. However,don't let that stop you from buying this video. "Symphony inBlack" alone is worth the price. It is an absolute masterpiece

4.0 out of 5 stars The Jazziest Blues., July 12, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blue Melodies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I think this video is a must have for your blues and jazz collection. The short musical movies, are well put together. I especially like Duke Ellington's Bundle of blues, I didn't know the song stormy weather, was writen and sung before the 1940's. Ivie Anderson sung the song different or as good as Lena Horne. And the dance team right after, was very good. They did dances back then in the 1930's, the way ethnic nightclubs do now. The women were thin, but looked healthy. This video is a must see, some of the vidoes were a little boring, but the rest will make up for it.