''Juke Joint'' is a 1947

race film The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produce ...

directed by and starring

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New B ...

and produced and released by

Sack Amusement Enterprises Alfred N. Sack (1898 –1969) was an American businessperson, newspaper publisher and the proprietor of film distribution, production, and the theater-owning business Sack Amusements. Biography Sack was born in Greenville, Mississippi. He worked ...

. The film was considered lost until being rediscovered.

Plot

Bad News Johnson, a con artist from

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, arrives in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. Johnson is constantly exasperated at Jones’ deficient perspicacity, and at one point he comments Jones is so dense that he probably thinks " Veronica Lake is some kind of summer resort." The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing Johnson is an acting teacher named Whitney Vanderbilt; Jones takes the alias of Cornbread Green. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew. The lessons pay off and Honey Dew wins the beauty contest, but problems arise when Mrs. Holiday’s husband, Papa Sam, decides to hold a party for the new beauty queen at a disreputable juke joint.

Cast

as Whitney Vanderbilt *

July Jones July Jones was an actor who had leading roles in several American films with African American casts. Filmography *'' Beale Street Mama'' (1946) *''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' (1946) *''Juke Joint (film) ''Juke Joint'' is a 1947 race fil ...

as "Cornbred" Green *

Inez Newell Inez is a feminine given name. It is the English spelling of the Spanish and Portuguese name Inés/Inês/Inez, the forms of the given name " Agnes". The name is pronounced as , , or . Agnes is a woman's given name, which derives from the Greek w ...

as "Mama Lou" Holiday *

Leonard Duncan Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin '' ...

as "Papa Sam" Holiday * Dauphine Moore as "Honey Dew" Holiday * Melody Duncan as Melody Holuday * Katherine Moore as Florida Holiday * Alford Patterson as Jefferson Lee * Albert Smith as "High Life" Harris * Howard Galloway as Juke Joint Johnny * Clifford Beamon as Bartender * Frances McHugh as Waitress

Production

''Juke Joint'' was the last in a series of films directed by Spencer Williams, an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

actor and writer, for production by Sack Amusement Enterprises, a white-owned Dallas-based company that distributed all-black race films to segregated theaters across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Williams was among the few African Americans to direct films during the 1940s. The juke joint scenes were filmed on location at the Rose Room in Dallas and Don’s Keyhole in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, and included musical numbers featuring band leader Red Calhoun.“Within Our Gates” by Alan Gevinson, American Film Institute, Google Books
/ref> Following the release of ''Juke Joint'', Williams disappeared from the entertainment industry. He returned to prominence in 1951 when he was cast as Andrew H. “Andy” Brown in the television version of the radio comedy '' Amos 'n Andy'', which ran on CBS from 1951 to 1953. He made one final film appearance in a small role in the 1962 Italian horror production ''L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock''.“L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock,” AllMovie
''Juke Joint'' was considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

for many years, until a print was located in 1983 in a warehouse in

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Juke Joint (1947 Film) 1947 films American black-and-white films Films directed by Spencer Williams Race films American comedy-drama films 1947 comedy-drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films English-language comedy-drama films

Plot

Cast

Production

See also

References

External links