On December 18, 1941, Gene Krupa and his Orchestra entered the recording studios at R.C.A. in Manhattan to record Soundies soundtracks for Minoco Productions. During 1941-42, the standard practice for Minoco was to record four soundtracks during a three-hour session. On December 18, however, while four soundtracks were called for in the contract, only two hours were allotted for the recording session. This probably explains why only three tunes were recorded. Two were Krupa favorites that featured the band’s “stars,” Roy Eldridge and Anita O’Day. These two films were released in early in 1942, and they are among the best-known Soundies: Let Me Off Uptown and Thanks for the Boogie Ride.
In addition, the band recorded the well-known standard “After You’ve Gone” in an up-tempo arrangement that featured Roy Eldridge. Eldridge was an African-American working in a white band, and as reedman Jimmy Migliori told me, there had already been issues about Roy appearing on screen. The number was never filmed, and the soundtrack was put on the shelf.
Fast forward to late September 1942. The recording ban was in effect, and new recordings by professional outfits were prohibited by the musicians’ union. In New York City, producer Fred Waller pulled the soundtrack from the shelf and used it to back a performance by the dance troupe from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, Whiteys Lindy Hoppers Lindy. The Soundie was titled Sugarhill Masquerade. This “theme” allowed the production manager to visit the costume room at the studio and deck out the participants as partygoers, dressed in a wide variety of outrageous costumes.
The Gene Krupa band does not appear on screen, and for years there was an almost silly discussion about the band’s identity. To those who listened closely to jazz performances and recordings from the period, it was clearly Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Gene Krupa on drums, playing the arrangement fashioned specifically for Roy, possibly by Elton Hill.
The Soundie opens with a small Black quartet on-screen headed by Walter Fuller, former trumpet player with Earl Hines and now a combo leader in his own right. The drummer is Joe Marshall. The sideline actor, top row, left, is dancer Leon James, and it is probable that Harold Daniels, another sideliner, sits to the far right. None is heard on the soundtrack. The scene quickly shifts from the bandstand to the block party, with Eldridge playing a blistering solo on trumpet while we watch Leon James, Paul Chadwell, Teresa Mason, and others go through their routine.
This is swing music and swing dancing at its best, and is certainly a Soundie worth greater recognition.