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Sunday, May 09, 2010

Real Entertainment

I just came across this link from a friend on facebook and decided I should share it. Its a clip from a great film called Stormy Weather. I was first introduced to this movie almost 2 years ago at the ASIFA Archive by Steve Worth. The film is like a time capsule of some great entertainment in the black community from the 1930s and 40s. Although every scene of the film stands on its own as a great piece of entertainment, there is one specific piece which holds my full attention every time I see it. Whenever I show this film to other people and they don't have enough time to see the whole thing, I always skip to this part.

It opens with Cab Calloway (if you haven't heard of him before, this is a special day for you...). He is singing with his orchestra a song called "Jumpin Jive." After he gets through the beginning portion, a pair of brothers jump onstage and begin (as far as I know to date) the most interesting and well performed tap duet I have ever seen.

Be sure to watch the entire clip though. It follows an arc that progressively gets more entertaining and daring as it goes on.




Its great to see something like this when we live in a world today where celebrities are famous for having a specific personality but no trace of talent. They are famous because they are recognizable but they are not recognized because they are talented. Anyway, I digress. There is much to learn about entertainment from this clip (and the others from the same film). If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out the rest of it!

2 comments:

Chris Silva said...

agreed... but it looks so painful

Unknown said...

It's always so weird to see him so young. Whenever someone talks about him I always think of him as the Blues Brothers mentor.