Film clip of Bessie Smith singing in St. Louis Blues

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A film clip with Bessie Smith singing in St. Louis Blues. It consists of a single reel of positive, black-and-white, 16mm acetate film with variable-area optical sound. The clip opens with Bessie Smith sitting on the floor with a bottle of alcohol beside her. She then begins to sing "My man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea…" The footage then cuts to Smith singing the same song in a bar, as she stands by the counter. She is joined in chorus by other patrons in the bar while a band place a tune. At the end of that performance, the band plays another tune with a faster tempo.

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