A Zoot Suit with a Reet Pleat

Paul White and Dorothy Dandridge sing the lively song, while the Ted Fiorito Orchestra plays in this wartime soundie.

Soundies were a type of short subject that can be considered ancestral to the sort of music videos that play on MTV. They were meant to be played on a device called a Mills Panoram, which was a sort of video jukebox that might be found in bars in the early 1940s. You put in a dime, and got one of ten songs with performers syncing along to the recording. Mills produced an estimated ten a week for more than seven years, and there were several competitors. Major musical talent got their start performing for the system. Miss Dandridge was one of them; a dozen years later, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in CARMEN JONES.