Row Row Row

Just watched this Soundie on YouTube. It's depicts singer Joy Hodges at a nightclub singing the title song of this nearly 3-minute short and doing seductive turns during the "row, row, row" part in front of three men at a certain table who keep staring at her until the end when they get up with their oars, get behind her, and then they all sit behind her as they then move and shout those same words as the video ends! This was a pretty entertaining Soundie...

Joy Hodges performs the title song from the 1912 Ziegfeld Follies, backed by Rudolph Friml Jr.'s orchestra in this soundie.

Soundies were short movies, usually about three minutes in length. They were intended for playing on a device called the Mills Panaram, a sort of video jukebox which typically held ten short films. The devices were installed in bars, nightclubs, diners, and other locations you might find a regular jukebox. For a dime you got a song and a performance you could watch.

Mills and its competitors produced more than two thousand of these shorts from 1940 through 1946. In many cases, they offer the earliest film appearances of performers who would go on to greater renown. Doris Day, Nat 'King' Cole and Liberace all appeared in soundies before anyone knew who they were.