16mm film - "MURDER IN SWINGTIME" US 1937 Musical short

A bit like a 'soundie' musical short, but this is a ten minute 'one reeler' made for the cinema, dating from 1937. It features a quite decent band billed as 'Les Hite & his Orchestra' who? They don't appear to have made any records, so maybe just in the right place (Hollywood) at the right time. The singer is June Richmond who sings 'What's Music Got' - there's also 'a version of 'Dinah'.
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The slim story seem to revolve around the 'murdering' (in musical terms) of the number 'Dinah' - cue for court case where the accused - Piccolo Pete is sentenced to 'swing' - musically that is of course! The director is Arthur Dreifuss. Certainly worth viewing!
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[@hanseekhoff1093]

Hite's was a famous band on the West Coast but yes, he made few records.

[@georgeantunes7811]

"Hite's big band, known as Sebastian's Cotton Club Orchestra, primarily played in Los Angeles, though they occasionally went on tour. Musicians who played in the band include Lionel Hampton, Marshal Royal, George Orendorff, Lawrence Brown, Britt Woodman, Joe Wilder, T-Bone Walker, Marvin Johnson, and Dizzy Gillespie. Les Hites Syncopators were featured for the opening day ceremony of a "colored country club" called the Appomattox owned by Leon Hefflin Sr. on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 1930. Hite rarely recorded, and for this reason much of the details of his life and work are poorly documented. The only sessions he did were 14 numbers recorded between 1940 and 1942."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Hite