<I>Black and Tan</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1929
name: label: Directed by
content: Dudley Murphy, American, 1897 - 1968
label: Written by
content: Dudley Murphy, American, 1897 - 1968
label: Subject of
content: Duke Ellington, American, 1899 - 1974
label: Subject of
content: Fredi Washington, American, 1903 - 1994
label: Subject of
content: Duke Ellington Orchestra, American
label: Subject of
content: Cotton Club, American, 1923 - 1940
label: Subject of
content: Alec Lovejoy, American, 1893 - 1946
label: Subject of
content: Edgar Connor, American, 1893 - 1934
label: Owned by
content: D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
notes: label: Caption
content: "Black and Tan", an early sound film, marks the motion picture debuts of Duke Ellington and Fredi Washington,both of whom both star in the film. The film features modernist visual effects and the audio recording experimented with RCA's new Photophone System.
label: Caption
content: This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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. They are there to repossess the piano for nonpayment. Throughout the scene they speak using malapropisms to communicate with the larger man leaving the smaller man to singlehandedly move the heavy piano.
label: Description
content: As this happens, Duke’s girlfriend, Fredi, (played by Fredi Washington) enters the apartment announcing that she has a new job dancing at a club, and that Duke and his band will accompany her act on the piano. She tries to stop the men from taking the instrument by offering money, but they refuse. However, they relent to let it stay a few more days when she offers a bottle of gin. After the men leave, Duke tells Fredi they cannot take the job because of the strain the dancing would cause to her heart condition. She tells him not to worry about her and asks the musicians to play the new music they have been writing. There is a dissolve to Duke’s hands playing rapidly on piano keys along with jazzy music. The camera dollies out to show a line of five men in tails tap dancing reflected in the shiny floor of the club. The long shot reveals Duke Ellington on an art-deco style stage, sitting at the piano with his orchestra behind him. The dancers walk off to an applause and a curtain closes briefly. The dancers then return to the stage, moving in unison, so closely that they resemble one person. The shots cut back and forth between their reflection on the floor and the long shot.
label: Description
content: Leaning against a wall backstage, Fredi is seen wiping her brow. The MC comes out and welcomes back Fredi, who has been away from the club after and illness. Though weak, she enters the stage and performs. The camera shoots up through a glass floor from below; as she spins, the panels of her dress create a big circle. While twirling, she holds her heart, staggers, and collapses onstage. She is subsequently carried offstage while the MC tries to keep the show going but Duke, concerned, walks off stage.
label: Description
content: In the last scene, a chorus and instruments casting large shadows on the walls sing a spiritual as Fredi lies in a bed dying. She implores Duke to play the “Black and Tan Fantasy.” As Duke, the musicians and the chorus reach the end of the song, Fredi dies, her vision of Duke becoming blurry and dark.
place: label: Place used
content: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
label: Place filmed
content: Astoria, New York City, Queens County, New York, United States, North and Central America
label: Place depicted
content: Harlem, New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Composers (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Conductors (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Dance
label: Topic
content: Film
label: Topic
content: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Jazz (Music)
label: Topic
content: Musical films
label: Topic
content: Musicians
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: DC Public Library Film Collection
label: Classification
content: Time-based Media - Moving Images
label: Movement
content: Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Transferred from the DC Public Library
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2017.55.3.1ab
objectType: label: Type
content: sound films
label: Type
content: black-and-white films (visual works)
label: Type
content: short subjects
label: Type
content: 16mm (photographic film size)
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acetate film
label: Dimensions
content: Duration: 20 min.
label: Dimensions
content: Physical extent (film): 700 ft