Guest
Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This compilation reel of two early 1930s Vitaphone “Melody Master” musical featurettes and two 1941 “soundies” features an array of underrepresented black talent in short subjects that offer glimpses of performing talents Noble Sissle, Don Redman, Fats Waller and others (TRT: 27:34). 1) “Vitaphone Presents Noble Sissle & Band in That’s The Spirit, with Cora La Reed, the Washboard Serenaders, Miller & Moreland, Directed by Roy Mack, Photography by E.B. DuPar, 1932.” Comedic actors Flournoy Miller and Mantan Moreland appear as night watchmen for a pawnshop, with Miller in blackface, an offensive tradition of theatrical makeup used primarily (but not exclusively) by non-black performers to caricature black people (0:28). Miller was known for scripting the Broadway hit “Shuffle Along” which featured the music of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. Moreland got his start as M
