Birth of the Blues

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Birth of the Blues ★★½ 1941

Songman Crosby starts a band in New Orleans in the midst of the jazz boom. Help from partner Martin and reallife trombonist Teagarden, with comic relief from Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, make for a funfilled story. Plot is riddled with some unbelievable gangster scenes, but the music and laughs will keep you amused. In B&W with color segments. ♫St. Louis Blues; St. James Infirmary; Melancholy Baby; Birth of the Blues. 76m/B VHS, DVD . Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Brian Donlevy, Eddie Anderson, J. Carrol Naish, Cecil Kellaway, Warren Hymer, Horace McMahon, Carolyn Lee, Jack Teagarden; D: Victor Schertzinger; W: Harry Tugend, Walter DeLeon; C: William Mellor; M: Robert Emmett Dolan.

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