RCM Productions

Spike Jones and His City Slickers perform "Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy".

Louis Armstrong performs with Nicodemus on this Soundie from 1942.

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.

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

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

1942 Soundies musical short

Jazz Soundie with Stan Kenton and his players.

Kay Starr singing "Stop That Dancing Up There".

R.C.M. Soundie

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.

Tex Williams and Spade Cooley's Western Dance Gang sing "Take Me Back to Tulsa".

The Bronco Busters perform "Old Chisholm Trail."

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

Yvonne De Carlo sings herself to sleep, in her dreams she dances with a Latin dancer. She awakes to sing again.

Original Schnickelfritz Band perform "Turkey in the Straw."

The Bronco Busters perform "Silver Spurs."

Dona Drake sings "Sticks and Stones".

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

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

"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.