Woody Herman & His Orchestra (1938)

Woody Herman's orchestra plays five tunes, and guest performers sing and dance.

Director:

Roy Mack

Stars:

Woody Herman, Lee Wiley, Hal Abbott

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Woody Herman	...	Himself
Lee Wiley	...	Herself
Hal Abbott	...	Himself
Honey Abbott	...	Herself
Marie Hartman	...	Herself
Reed Brown Jr.	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Woody Herman and His Orchestra	...	Themselves

Storyline

Woody Herman and his big band play on a stage in front of a theater audience. Herman leads the band, sings, and takes a few clarinet solos. Herman and the band do "Carolina in the Morning," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," and "Doctor Jazz." Between the songs are two dance numbers. In the first, "Two Little Girls in One," Lee Wiley and Marie Hartman, looking like twins, dance as if they are one dancer and her mirrored reflection. In the second, "Jail House Blues," Hal and Honey Abbott tap to a fast beat, doing a version of the Lindy that morphs into more comic turns. The audience applauds each number.

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Plot Keywords:

dance number | theater audience | big band | theater | clarinet | 

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Genres:

Short | Music

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 July 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Melody Masters: Woody Herman & His Orchestra

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vitaphone Corporation, The, Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

9 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Vitaphone production reel #B-209.

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Soundtracks

"Unidentified Number"
(uncredited)
Performed by Lee Wiley and Marie Hartman (dance number), with Woody Herman and His Orchestra

User Reviews

Enjoyable but not especially distinguished.

This is one of the later Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally were more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff.

This short features Woody Herman and his band. It begins with a zippy rendition of "Carolina In The Morning" sung by Herman himself. Then two girls who look like twins do a ballet-like dance that, frankly, was a bit weird...yet dull. I'd have rather just heard Herman sing another tune--which he did next with "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby". While he didn't have a strong voice, it was smooth like glass and very pleasant. Unfortunately, once again his singing was followed by a couple jitterbuggers wearing taps. They were pretty good but I just liked the singing more. And, as the pattern continued, Herman sang another song one the dancers were finished. Overall, a pretty typical sort of short--pleasant but not a lot different from the norm.