Soundies: Variety Girls (Burlesque) (1948)

★★★★ · Is that a piece of celery in your hair or are you just happy to see me? · Spuzz · 2014-03-15

We start off with a not bad collection of stag reels.. Only one of the girls takes off her top, the rest dance 'seductively' to 'music of other lands'. Most of these are very suspect to being native of these lands, like for example Alyce Bryce who wears a jungle costume with a piece of unknown vegetation on her head while making hilarious facial expressions. Actually that, and the title card for Marie Voe, who is described as 'The Bombing Bombshell' are the the only highlights here. After that, we have a soundie, "A Jazz Etude" Although at first, it LOOKS like some creative staging, and it…

★★★★ · All-Girl Orchestra · Robert Witte · 2024-09-26

Female musicians in the 1930s and 1940s were usually not allowed to join male bands (most bands to this day are still all-male, too), so had to form their own "All-Girl Orchestras" (as they were called then), The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Ada Leonard's AGO, Ina Ray Hutton's Melodears and Rita Rio's Mistresses of Rhythm were some of the most well-known of such bands. Shown here (at 12:22) is Thelma White and Her All-Girl Orchestra. This footage was a Soundie (juke box film) from 1946 titled "Hollywood Boogie" (RCM studio). Thelma White was a B-grade actress who had starred in the…