Louis Armstrong Goes to the Congo

This newsreel from 1960 accounts of the genius Louis Armstrong's fateful trip to Africa.

Amazon - Re-experience Louis Armstrong for the first time ...
Add one of the authentic originators of Jazz to your musical collection
100 years of Jazz for inspiration for the next 100.

RCA -- Victor Magic of Music

"Take any home. Your home! Set it aglow with the magic of music. Then watch as it opens a new world of fun and enjoyment for you and your family. It's RCA Victor's brilliant new best of '57 albums including the artistry of Frankie Carle ... Lena Horne ... Harry Belafonte ... free and easy Perry Como ... At your RCA -- Victor dealers now."
Amazon - Perry Como   Lena Horne   Frankie Carle   Harry Belafonte
 *For all of your pop vocal / bachelor pad / easy listening needs

Propaganda Techniques

Educational film to teach viewers about the dynamics of propaganda, made in the in the late 1940's or early 1950's.

A teacher dissects the processes in which propaganda works to an eager student.

In it are moments of classic hokum, but curiously many of the techniques ring true today.

Beware of Propaganda.

Amazon - Concise examinations of Propaganda. Protect yourself!
BUY!   WATCH!   READ!   THINK!   BUY!

Newport Cigarettes

If you miss the bus, don't fret. A happy Newport cigarette billboard is bound to entertain you.

And don't forget, menthol lovers, 'Newport tastes fresher, tastes better, too.'

Is it illegal to run a cigarette ad here?

Amazon - For all of your tobacco needs!

Hawaiian Hula Song with Slack Key Guitar

Hawaiian Hula Song, a classic.

A seductive beauty does the hula while a duo play on guitar
and slide.

During the last third of the song, the rhythm picks up, becoming swingy.

Where Hawaiian traditional and American Jazz meet, practically western swing.

Amazon - Experience a Luau of the Ears with masters of Slack Key Guitar
Add some Playboys, Cowboys, & Doughboys to your music collection

Burlesque - Georgia Sothern

Film Theatarettes presents Georgia Sothern in her dance from the musical hit Star and Garter.

Amazon - Burlesque: Histories, Accessories & Instructions
Support Weirdo Video with your kind purchases
Hunting for old stags? Look no further ...

The Smut Peddler

This mid-1960's era blue movie trailer is another example, like Smut Peddler, of what you would likely see at one of the many lurid Times Square theaters that existed in the days before Giuliani.

Amazon - Sexploitation films for the purely prurient
The weird wide world of smut peddlers
Hunting for old stags? A few went this a-way ...

New Orleans

Newsreel documentary from the 1920's with photography and animations illustrating old New Orleans, the Crescent City, at work and at play.

Duelling oaks. Influences of colonial France and Spain. Iron grille work. The old townhouses surrounding open courts.

New Orleans, the industrial city, where ports and depot junctions distribute throughout, and out from, the heart of America.

Culture shipped to & from the world.

And, of course, Mardi Gras, Jazz age style.

Soundie - The Hut Sut Song

WARNING: This absurd, cartoonish, and throroughly ridiculous soundie will brand itself in your memory.

After one viewing, the melody from this song will pop into you head unexpectedly at the most inopportune times and will remain there for up to several hours.

This singing quartet in fact is the King's Men, led by Ken Darby, a Hollywood songwriter who is said to have won at least 3 Academy Awards.

Amazon - Who says humor doesn't belong in music?
DVD's - Music you can laugh at, Comedy you can sing with
For serious humorists only, amateurs need not click

The Enemy Agent & You

Cold War counter-spy instructional film created to convince government officials traveling with top secret info to watch their backs.

Watch hapless G-men get seduced and setup for blackmail by treacherous Soviet she-spies.

Includes clandestine spy gadgets a la James Bond and jarring, film noir-esque music.

Amazon - All about espionage.
DVD's to get your Spy Fix on
Music to be an International Man of Mystery to

I aint got nobody - Mills Bros.

An authentic, rare classic version of the standard "I Ain't Got Nobody," sung by the Mills Brothers, shot in the early 1930's.

Amazon - Experience the legendary Mills Brothers
Sundry Mills Brothers paraphernalia & curiosities
Classic jazz - Expand your Mind - what's old is new

Marihuana AKA Marijuana

A trailer for a nudie film that masquerades as an anti-'marihuana' morality tale.

Watch wild & reckless youths lose their souls to the devil's weed.

Amazon - The Gateway to DVD's about Ganja & Classics to catch fire to
Histories about & Studies of the Devil's Weed
Sexploitation films for the purely prurient

Tiger Lady - Burlesque

An authentic 1940's Burlesque Girlie Film.

A lady dressed in a tiger outfit freeform dances to a lone piano.

Amazon - Burlesque: Histories, Accessories & Instructions
Support Weirdo Video with your kind purchases
Hunting for old stags? Look no further ...

Your Job in Germany

Directed by It's A Wonderful Life's Frank Capra and written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, produced by the United States Information & Education Division of the Army Services Forces in 1946, this authentic film proposes, "War with Germany ends in victory, victory leads to peace ... Sometimes ... Sometimes not."

Amazon - Experience WWII in the comfort of your own home
Survey the entire Dr. Seuss canon
The Wonderful world of Frank Capra

In My Merry Oldsmobile

For an Oldsmobile commercial, the Fleischer Bros. created this extemely bawdy cartoon.

Amazon - Delve into the anthology of the pioneering Fleischer Brothers
A cornicopia of the animation masters

Afro Mood - Amalia Aguilar

Exotic burlesque dancer short from the forties. Perhaps something you would have seen in Havana in the 40's, with a faux-Arabian theme. Staring Amalia Aguilar. Saucy.
Amazon - Burlesque: Histories, Accessories & Instructions
Support Weirdo Video with your kind purchases

Day of the Fight

Day of the Fight
Uploaded by WeirdoVideo

Stanley Kurbrick's lost film unearthed. Day of the Fight, a piece built on a photo feature he created for Look magazine, was produced in 1951.

Drive-In Movie Advertisement

Smoke. Talk. Relax!

And in your own car, no less.

As they say, there always is a Good Show at your local drive-in movie theatre.

Amazon - The lost American drive-in ... Found!
And now for some drive-in classic B-Movies.
How about Russ Meyer's world of Ultra Vixens?

Malibu Mermaid

The Malibu Mermaid is an amateur girlie film made during the 1940's.

The filmmaker and the actress are unknown.

Amazon - Burlesque: Histories, Accessories & Instructions
Support Weirdo Video with your kind purchases
Hunting for old stags? Look no further ...

Bob Wills - Oklahoma

In this clip, from the B Western "Take Me Back to Oklahoma," Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys croon in perfect harmony 'Oklahoma we love you,' with Wills' signature backup calls.

Riding with Tex Ritter, they sing together 'Calamity Jane.'

But, clearly, the King of Western Swing makes Ritter pale in comparison, in our opinion.

Amazon - Add some Playboys, Cowboys, & Doughboys to your music collection
Experience a luau of the ears with masters of Slack Key Guitar

Coney Island 1940's

Coney Island, "the place where merriment is king!"

Take a trip back in time 50 years before the Mermaid Parade.

See masses of old school New Yorkers beat the heat by hitting the beach.

See Side Shows! Carnies! Freaks! Thrill rides! Includes the original Coney Island Hot Dog, the Bathing Girl Review, and people getting sick on rides.

Not to mention the Tiger Rag, if 1940's Coney Island existed today an insurance agent would have a field day.

Still, 1940's Coney Island kicks Disneyland's ass any day.

Amazon - Take a trip back to Coney Island here
Get your Freak on & Run away with the circus ...

Bob Wills - Lone Star Rag

In this clip, from the B Western "Take Me Back to Oklahoma," Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, on stage to entertain the locals, are introduced by Tex Ritter. The King of Western Swing then launches into a rendition of his classic 'Lone Star Rag.'

"They're good, aren't they?"
Tex Ritter responds, "Best in the West."

Too right, too right.

Amazon - Add some Playboys, Cowboys, & Doughboys to your music collection

Who's Your Hootie? (Who's Yehoodi?)

An amusing soundie from 1942, Who's Your Hootie?, also called Who's Yehoodi?, was orignally composed in 1940 by Bill Seckler and Matt Dennis.

Bandleader Kay Kyser is joined by vocalist Lane Truesdale.

Based on a running gag by radio comedian Jerry Colona.

Pretty risque for its day. Who's your hootie?

Amazon - Get swingy listening to them hittin' on all six
The musical career of Kay Kyser  &  Re-discover comedian Jerry Colona
Yiddish songwriters, musicians, and maestroes