Black and Tan

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 musical film with the title Black and Tan. It consists of a single reel of black-and-white 16mm acetate film with an optical sound track. The film opens with an RKO title card that reads in part, “Black and Tan with Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra by arrangement with Irving Mills…Recorded by RCA Photophone System.” A trumpet and piano are heard playing the tune “Black and Tan” over the credits. The first scene introduces Duke Ellington sitting at a piano with his back to the camera and a man holding a trumpet sitting next to him in a chair. They are discussing the tune heard over the credit sequence and writing out the arrangements for the song. While they are playing, there is an exterior shot of two men approaching and entering a building on a city street. Inside, the men look for an apartment, attempting to read the numbers on the door.

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