Johnny Long and His Orchestra are responsible for eighteen Soundies throughout their career. Today's clip features three of them in a row. The songs performed are: "It's A Sin to Tell a Lie" (1946), "It Must Be Jelly 'cause Jam Don't Shake Like That" (1946) and "In Old Shanty Town" (1943). They are all shown in their original reverse image and the sound quality is excellent.
A few notes on Johnny Long:
Johnny Long led a pretty good orchestra starting in the mid-1930's and really hit their high point in the early and mid-1940's. Long was a an established violinist and that's not shown in these Soundies. He started playing at the age of six, but injured two fingers on his left hand when he was bitten by a pig. He then learned to use his right hand to play the violin, and continued to do so until his death.
In my opinion, he had one of the worst slogan/nicknames in the Big Band Era. Johnny Long was known as "The Man Who's Long on Music." Pretty tacky for a band that performed some great music.
If you were wondering, the woman dancing in "It Must Be Jelly..." is Doris York. Enjoy!
Watch: Three Soundies by Johnny Long and His Orchestra.
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