1929 St. Louis blues with Bessie Smith - movie

St. Louis blues

St. Louis Blues is a 1929 American two-reel short film starring Bessie Smith. The early sound film features Smith in an African-American speakeasy of the prohibition era singing the W. C. Handy standard, "St. Louis Blues". Directed by Dudley Murphy, it is the only known film of Bessie Smith.

Bessie Smith had a hit on the song in 1925 and Handy himself asked Bessie Smith to appear in the movie. Handy co-authored the film and was the musical director. The film was a dramatization of the song, a woman left alone by her roving man.
Bessie Smith co-stars with the dancer and actor Jimmy Mordecai as the boyfriend and Isabel Washington Powell as the other woman.
It was filmed in June 1929 in Astoria, Queens.
Identified with certain confidence are: James P Johnson p, Joe Smith tp, Kaiser Marshall dm and the Hall Johnson Choir with some thrilling harmonies at the end.

It hs been suggest that Sidney de Paris is one of the trumpet players. This is however not confirmed.

The subject is discussed on Facebook:

Nils Gunnar Anderby: Richard Rains in his Thomas Morris article in Frog Annual No. 1 makes a case - convincing to me - that the two trumpet players seen on screen and heard on the soundtrack are Thomas Morris and Joe Smith. The article is recommended reading. I fear that I may be the source of "interviews with musicians " showing that Sidney de Paris is present. I was too cathegoric, and apologize for that!