Jail House Blues

JAIL HOUSE BLUES was released by Columbia pictures in 1929. A musical short featuring Mamie Smith and a former male vaudeville partner (prior to her recording success for OKEH records). In those days it was common practice to promote and give work to friends and partners, often the "tail ends" of vaudeville acts shared some of the fortune of their more commercially successful partners. Two songs were prerecorded by Victor, "JAILHOUSE BLUES" and "YOU CAN'T DO IT!" as custom recordings, evidently used for synch purposes. The film does not seem to have survived in whole, but short segments turn up in various documentaries on black entertainment culture, one entire sequence of Mamie Smith singing JAIL HOUSE BLUES is intact. There are short vaudeville, broad humor dialogue and gag scenes, lots of "bug-eyed" mugging and fist-clinching by Mamie Smith. Synopsis: Mamie is missing her man, and finds him in jail. She pleads through her singing for his release.