History Lesson: Hazel Scott, Nina Mae McKinney & Dorothy Dandridge

We go waaaaay back today to bring three classy female performers from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The above clip is of the late Hazel Scott from 1955, performing for a March of Dimes film short. Charlie Mingus is on bass! And Rudy Nichols is on the skins.

The below video from 1932 is fun as all get-out. The clip begins with singer/actress Nina Mae McKinney singing to the Nicholas Brothers in the kitchen. Then later, Eubie Blake turns up in a chef's outfit on piano, and the Nicholas Brothers get down. Later, Nina then sings promises that everything she's got--and baby, she's got a lot--belongs to you. And then a bunch of skeletons appear at the very end:



And cute Dorothy Dandridge in this 1942 clip...although the guy Paul White, while spitting some mean rhymes, kinda reminds me of Miss J on "America's Next Top Model":