A Little Jive Is Good for You

I just discovered Big Band singer Martha Tilton on YouTube courtesy of many of her film appearances, like a couple of Soundies there like this one and another called Loch Lomond, both of which were produced by Sam Coslow and directed by Josef Berne. In this one, Ms. Tilton is a nurse who counsels three "injured" patients, played by the Slate Brothers, with this title song. During the instrumental break, the Slate men suddenly shed their "bandages" and cut the rug, so to speak! Very enjoyable and Martha sure looks good in her nurse uniform. In Loch Lomond with accompaniment by Ben Pollock's Orchestra, Martha is dressed in her best Scottish uniform singing about "You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before you..." while two men admire her figure (as I and I'm sure many of you were doing watching this). Then during the instrumental break many other women in short Scotch skirts with white blouses dance up a storm as inserts of angles showing their legs come frequently. What a sight! Another enjoyable musical short with possible temperature rising! So on that note, here are my ratings: A Little Jive Is Good for You-*********, Loch Lomond-********** (I'm sure you can figure out why!)

This most short subject features Martha Tilton and the Slate brothers. Tilton is a nurse and the guys are patients in a doctor's office. She's got a cure and its a musical cure.

As the title says A Little Jive Is Good For You and Martha sings it convincingly. Soon the brothers Slate cast off their crutches and bandages and start doing a little swing dancing.

Nice subject showing the vocal talents of Liltin' Martha Tilton.

Nurse Martha Tilton enters the doctor's office, where men with broken bones and wheelchair bound are sitting. She sings the title song, and they stand up and begin some energetic dancing in this silly soundie.

Soundies were short films, usually about three minutes in length, meant to be played on a sort of video jukebox called the Mills Panaram. The devices were found in bars, diners, nightclubs, the sort of places one might find a regular jukebox. For a dime you got a song with a a visual component like this. From 1940 to 1946, Mills and other companies produced more than two thousand of these shorts.

A lot of well known people got their start in the soundies, like Doris Day and Dorothy Dandridge. Miss Tilton also had a bit of a career, appearing in more than twenty movies, sometimes as a musical specialty, but also as an actress.