Film Forum

In celebration of Pride Month, Susan Delson, author of Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen: One Dime at a Time (Indiana University Press), presents a compilation of “Soundies” — 3-minute music films shown on “movie jukeboxes” in 1940s bars and bus stations — that play with and push back on stereotypes of women and the exclusionary, emphatically heterosexual culture of the World War II era. Along with early-career glimpses of Dorothy Dandridge, dancer Cyd Charisse, and Ricardo Montalban, the program spotlights performers in Soundies reflecting a looser, more expansive vision of 1940s America. A sequel to Ms. Delson’s popular Film Forum presentation on Black-cast and New York-produced Soundies earlier this year. Digital restorations courtesy Kino Lorber and Library of Congress. Photo credit: Arthur Hom

FASHION & GLAMOUR
Down, Down, Down - Louis Jordan
After Awhile - Surreal
A Zoot Suit - Paul White, Dorothy Dandridge
Rhumba Serenade - Cyd Charisse
He’s a Latin from Staten Island - Ricardo Montalban
Glamour Girl - Gale Storm
Pumpa Pumpa - De Castro Sisters

PLAYING WITH EXPECTATIONS: LOOSENING & UNDERMINING 1940s STEREOTYPES OF WOMEN
Does You Do or Does You Don’t - Vanita Smythe
He Plays Gin Rummy - Gale Storm, Iris Dawn
I’ve Got to Get Hot - Grace Barrie
Ruff and Tuff - Mary Parker
Time Takes Care of Everything - June Richmond
Stone Cold Dead in the Market - Grace Barrie
Minnie from Trinidad - Luba Malina

GENDER PLAY
Operatin’ Rhythm - The Three Heat Waves
Faust - Day, Dawn, and Dusk
Shy Anne from Old Cheyenne - Denver Darling
Too Many Sailors - Burch Mann Dancers
The Better Half - Leila Moore
You Never Know! - Arica Wild
Shoeshiners and Headliners - Florence Pepper; Black and white performers

BONUS
Hello, Bill - Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra
She’s Crazy with the Heat - International Sweethearts of Rhythm