Here's my mom in the mid 1980s.
And I love this picture of her from the 70s!
Two small-time con men, Bad News Johnson and Cornbread Jones, are down to their last quarter when they breeze into town. Sweet-talking Johnson finds them a room at the home of Mama Lou Holiday by posing as a Hollywood big shot and promising to give acting lessons to Mama's beautiful daughter, Honey Dew. The fiery matriarch is determined to keep her young girl from following in the trampy footsteps of her older sister, Florida, and hopes that the acting lessons will help her "good" daughter win the local beauty contest.
Amazingly, Johnson's guidance pays off with a victory for Honey Dew. To celebrate, the girl's shiftless father, Sam, takes her to the seedy Juke Joint, the same dive where floozy Florida hangs out, drinking, dancing, and planning her get-away to the big city with shady bar owner Johnny. When Jones and Johnson tell Mama Lou what's going on, she decides to go down and take care of business herself, packing a mean umbrella.
Multi-talented Spencer Williams wrote, directed and appeared in dozens of films, most of them all-black productions, from 1928 until 1947. Retiring shortly after making Juke Joint, Williams was lured out of retirement in 1951 to play Andrew H. Brown in the beloved Amos 'N' Andy TV series. Starring Spencer Williams, July Jones, Leonard Duncan, Red Calhoun. Directed by Spencer Williams.
It seems that in nearly every picture of the eponymous Gertie, she's giving major FACE! So much attitude. I wish I could watch the movie and give a full report. 
Dancer Gertie La Rue is the toast of Harlem, but she's been two- timing her beau, Al, the man who put her in the spotlight. Fearing Al's retribution, Gertie drags her entire show troupe out to the remote island of Rinidad, where she hopes to lay low for a while. She's also managed to make her self imposed exile a lucrative one, setting up a residency at Diamond Joe's nightclub. While Gertie drinks, cusses, and flirts her way across Rinidad, dark clouds are gathering overhead; local revivalist Jonathan Christian is on a moral crusade to have her deported.
A native of Harlem, Francine Everett was a multi-talented performer, acting, singing, and dancing her way across stage and screen. A stand- out in race films , Francine appeared in several of the genre's best pictures, including Paradise in Harlem, Big Timers, and Ebony Parade.
This post came together completely by accident. I checked out a few books from the library about vintage Black cinema this weekend, a few titles and images caught my eye, and I decided to research them more. Among the captivating titles was Reet, Petite, and Gone - a 1947 movie directed by William Forest Crouch, in the tradition of the race movies of the decade.
The embroidered and I believe feather and floral detail on the bodice of that dress is beautiful. The cap sleeve makes for a wonderfully dainty silhouette.
This polka dotted look on the chorus girls, or SHAKE DANCERS, as they were often called, would make a great swimsuit with the right adjustments. NOT FOR ME... but for someone... 
I love this secretary's hair. As a curly girlie myself, I can appreciate the style. In a previous post, I mentioned that women of the early 20th century, especially those of us of color, didn't have much to work with in the way of suitable hair products before Madam CJ Walker. 
On his death bed, wealthy musical star Schyler Jarvis wills the estate to his bandleader son, Louis, on one condition-that the young musician settle down and marry the daughter of one of Schyler's old flames. Unfortunately, the old man's shady lawyer, Henry Talbot, has altered the will to make it almost impossible for Louis to find the girl. Knowing that Talbot will gain control of the estate if he fails, and desperate for cash to finance his Broadway revue, Louis and his agent, Sam, set up auditions to find the intended bride, but unbeknownst to all, the girl is right under their noses.
This all-black musical is overflowing with great musical numbers by Louis Jordan and his swing band, The Tympani Five. In 1987, Jordan was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the "Early Influences" category, and 11 years later was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the 59th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time, and the raw musical talent and confident smoothness that earned him that status is well documented in this rare treat from black cinema history. Starring Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five, Milton Woods, Lorenzo Tucker, Bea Griffith. Directed by William Forest Crouch.
There's a whole lot of talk around townKinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female is still six years away at this point.... though, not much has changed, even with the access to more information over 55 years since produced.
About the way you're carrying yourself
Whole lot of talk around town, woman
About the way you're carrying yourself
You're jiving everybody in town
But old b., that's me
I know what you've been putting down
