Barber Shop Blues

The Nicholas Brothers were likely the best dancing team in history. Even Fred Astaire praised them for their insanely athletic and incredible dancing in "Stormy Weather", saying "this dance number was the greatest movie musical sequence I had ever seen". Because of their tremendous talent, I try to see them whenever I can...and that's more than enough reason to see "Barber Shop Blues"...even if they aren't in the film very long.

The plot is simple. It begins in a humble barber shop and when the owner wins the lottery, he turns the place into a giant barbershop night club instead of on hookers and liquor (misplaced priorities if you ask me). What follows are the Nicholas Brother dancing and the Claude Hopkins Orchestra playing a VERY lively jazz song. All in all, a lot of fun!

You've got to hand it to Warner Brothers. Try to think of another studio that would routinely produce all-black shorts during the Depression. This kind of product was routinely banned from many southern theaters which couldn't help the studio's lousy bottom line (1934 was the 4th year WB was bleeding red ink with a loss of over $2.5 million for the year and a staggering $30.0+ million loss since 1931). Still, the studio kept it's Astoria, NY Vitaphone studios busy cranking out musical shorts--- mostly directed by reliable Joe Henaberry. Barber Shop Blues is notable for the incredibly elaborate set design and Claude Hopkins' Orchestra. Songs include an abbreviated version of "I Want a Shave (and a Haircut Too)" and a rendition of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees," which to my tin ear sounds a lot like the Ink Spots. Then there's the near obligatory tap sequence with the Four Step Brothers. Oddly the short is all-male. The real star is the large barber shop set, which belies the minuscule budget and probable 2-day shooting schedule. If you want to see a fantastic example of Henaberry's directorial work, see Public Jitterbug No. 1 (1939) featuring an incredibly frenetic Betty Hutton.

A barber wins a sweepstake and uses the money to remodel his spacious shop, hire a band and dancers to entertain his customers in this fine Vitaphone short.

It's an all-Black cast of skilled entertainers, and the bizarre set-up was a common one in the era: not the barbershop and sweepstakes, but any old reason to put on a show. The audience is treated to a good, hot orchestra led by Claude Hopkins, some fine dancing by the Four Step Brothers, and well executed, popular songs, including "Trees" and "Nagasaki."

I am somewhat familiar with the music of the era, and I didn't recognize a single performer. It just shows the enormous amount of talent and ability that was available to the movies in the 1930s.

I've been collecting black film shorts for years, and this is one of my favorites. This film shorts stars Claude Hopkins and his Orchestra with Orlando Roberson, and the Four Step Brothers. Great Entertainment, If you can find it, you'll love it. Film Shorts were the only way Black Entertainment could be shown with class, showing fashions, the slang, the dances, the songs, showing the top groups. You'll treasure these when you find it.

As in so many of these musical shorts, there really is no story, but only an outline of a silly premise. And I am truly grateful there were such exercises in demonstrating some truly great black performers who didn't have much chance otherwise to show how truly great they were.

Perhaps there is some irony in that the director of so many of these wonderful and in my opinion under-appreciated and too-little-known musical shorts of black performers was Joseph Henabery, who had portrayed Abraham Lincoln in the iconic "The Birth of a Nation."

His Lincoln was not so static as some earlier and later portrayals. He gave his character the nobility and humanity modern history tries to tell us was Lincoln.

Henabery directed 205 movies, according to his listing here at IMDb, mostly this type of musical short, and many of them with black performers.

Here in "Barber Shop Blues," most of the incredibly talented people are pretty well unknown today, except for the astonishing Nicholas Brothers, but that is shame on us, not on them.

Claude Hopkins is the orchestra leader of some remarkable musicians, all of whom deserve fame.

Orlando Roberson, the singer, has one of the sweetest voices I've ever heard. He was clear and lucid, with articulation and clarity so sadly lacking in so many singers and alleged singers of today. According to his IMDb listing, he made only two film appearances. What a loss to us.

What is perhaps even sadder, today these delightful music shorts are used generally just as filler, as padding, to stretch out a schedule.

Turner Classic Movies, though, gave us several hours of them on 5 December 2016, and even if Thanksgiving Day is past, we can certainly be thankful for this presentation.

Do, please, try to catch "Barber Shop Blues" and do, please, try to watch more of these Henabery-directed musical shorts.