Hot Chocolate

Here's Duke Ellington's band with Ben Webster featured, and some high energy jitterbuggers to dance gymnastically to the song.

It's one of more than two thousand "soundies" produced between 1939 and 1947, meant to be played on a device called a Mills Panoram. For seven years they could be found in bars, night clubs, and other places where people would gather. Think of them as music videos, available for viewing at a dime a song.

Ellington was clearly already a name to conjure with; a medium close-up of him closes out this musical short. It's the same big sound he featured throughout his career.