[78-L] Public Melody Number One

[David Weiner]

>
> Anyone know why this clip with Louis Armstrong and Martha Raye was
censored 
when it came out in 1937? I like it a lot. Vincente Minnelli apparently 
conceived it. The only thing I heard on first viewing that would be
considered 
objectionable then was a reference in the lyrics?to "all the tea in Harlem."
>
> Cary Ginell
------

Are you kidding? The huge objection - especially in the South - was that a
white woman was cavorting with blacks - Details are given in the book LOUIS
ARMSTRONG ON THE SCREEN.  Variety's reviewer said, "this intermingling of
the races isn't wise. It may hurt her personally." 

The reviewer in the "Georgian" newspaper said, "Martha Raye, thinly
burnt-corked, does a Harlem specialty with a fat Negro trumpeter and a
hundred other Negroes. It is coarse to the point of vulgarity. I don't like
mixing white folk - and especially a white girl - in (Negro) acts." 

In later years, this number lead to rumors that Raye was part black - she
was turned down for an apartment by a fancy New York building some years
later, for that reason. 

Pretty disgusting, huh? 

Dave W.