This guest post was written by Amy Jo Stanfill, Processing Technician in the Moving Image Section and coordinator of the Silent Film Project.
RKO’s St. Louis Blues, directed by Dudley Murphy and starring Bessie Smith, was named to the National Film Registry in 2006. This two-reel early sound short premiered in New York before the feature Bulldog Drummond in 1929. The film was produced at the Gramercy Studio in Queens, and starred an entirely black cast