Minnie the Moocher
(director unknown, US 1942, 3 min., 16mm)
Minnie the Moocher
(Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky, US 1932, 8 min., 16mm)
Snow White
(Dave Fleischer, Roland Crandall, US 1933, 7 min., 16mm)
Blues in the Night
(director unknown, US 1942, 3 min., 16mm)
Virginia, Georgia, and Caroline
(director unknown, US 1942, 3 min., 16mm)
Calloway Boogie
(director unknown, US ca. 1945, 3 min., 16mm)
Bad Time Blues
(director unknown, US ca. 1945, 3 min., 16mm)
Stormy Weather
(Andrew L. Stone, US 1943, 78 min., DCP)
This salute to Rochester-born bandleader Cab Calloway begins with seven short films — two animated shorts and five “soundies” — that demonstrates Calloway’s talent at his prime. The two animated films take place in the Fleischer universe of Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Bimbo, and spooky creations. Soundies were a 16mm film version of a jukebox that allowed the user to choose the song and film they wanted to see, very few of which survive today. Calloway plays a significant role in the feature as well, Stormy Weather, in which the luminous Lena Horne plays nightclub singer Selina Rogers to Bill Robinson’s Bill Williamson, just returning home from World War I. Packed with music and dancing from the likes of Nat King Cole, the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, this interwar backstage romance follows the trials of a performing couple and expectations for domesticity. Featuring the title song as well as “There’s No Two Ways About Love” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” the film also includes Fats Waller’s performance of “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”