See Bessie Smith, “the Empress of the Blues,” in the Short Sound Movie, St. Louis Blues (1929), for Free, and Without Commercial Interruptions, at WEJB/NSU!

Re-posted by N.S.

(N.S.: The following description was an unattributed copy-and-paste from the pretend encyclopedia, by the anonymous, original poster. Imagine, plagiarizing a fake encyclopedia! I corrected the usage, factual statements (changing the length from 16 minutes to 15), and punctuation, which is why I did not use quotation marks.

The music, featuring the W. C. Handy (?) song, “St. Louis Blues,” plus some of George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” with splendid vocals by Smith and the Hall Johnson Choir, and instrumental accompaniment, is marvelous.

In addition to the deterioration of its video and audio quality over time, and the primitive early talkie technology, this short, as shot, had only one flaw: director Dudley Murphy blew the shooting of Jimmy Mordecai’s dance in the bar. At the beginning, Murphy shows only Mordecai’s upper body. Then he moves the camera down, to show Mordecai’s legs and feet, only to raise up the camera again, to the dancer’s mid-section.

Although this song is credited to W.C. Handy, his authorship is dubious. He reportedly wrote of hearing other people sing it when he was about 18.)

St. Louis Blues is a 1929 American short film starring Bessie Smith. The early sound film features Smith in a negro speakeasy of the prohibition era singing the W. C. Handy standard, “St. Louis Blues.”

Directed by Dudley Murphy, it is the only known film of Bessie Smith, and the soundtrack is her only recording not controlled by Columbia Records. Smith had a hit on the song in 1925 and Handy himself asked Smith to appear in the movie. Handy co-authored the film, and was the musical director.

The film was a dramatization of the song, a woman left alone by her roving man. It features a band that included James P. Johnson on piano, Thomas Morris and Joe Smith on cornet, as well as the Hall Johnson Choir, with some thrilling harmonies at the end.

The film has an all negro cast. Bessie Smith stars, with the dancer and actor Jimmy Mordecai as the boyfriend and Isabel Washington Powell as the other woman. It was filmed in June, 1929 in Astoria, Queens.

The film is 15 minutes long. In 2006, this version was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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Bessie Smith - herself

Jimmy Mordecai – Jimmy the pimp

Isabel Washington – the other woman

Hall Johnson Choir - themselves

James P. Johnson - pianist

Alec Lovejoy - gambler

Thomas Morris - cornetist


St. Louis Blues

I hate to see that evening sun go down,
I hate to see that evening sun go down,
‘Cause my lovin’ baby done left this town.

If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
I’m gonna pack my trunk and make my getaway.

Oh, that St. Louis woman, with her diamond rings,
She pulls my man around by her apron strings.

And if it wasn’t for powder and her store-bought hair,
Oh, that man of mine wouldn’t go nowhere.
I got those St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be.

Oh, my man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn’t have gone so far from me.