The Horror

This is a story of Harlem - birthplace of Boogie Woogie, jive music and jitterbugs. From Harlem's famous places of amusement have come the greatest tales of stage, screen, and radio. This is the story of one entertainers rise to fame.

Professional gambler The Duke (Dots Johnson) attempts to cheat Handsome Harry Hansom (Monte Hawley), who owns a successful Harlem nightclub, out of his club and his contract with his lead singer and girlfriend Tall, Tan, and Terrific (Francine Everett). This leads to a murder that is solved by club comic Mantan Moreland and club photographer Butterbeans (Barbara Bradford). But the plot takes little screen time, most of which is devoted to stage acts at the nightclub.

A famous bandleader, suffering from overwork and exhaustion, goes to a sanitarium for a rest. While there he dreams of being out west at a dude ranch, where he finds himself involved in the beautiful owner's struggle to keep her ranch from falling into the hands of the villain, who wants either her or her ranch (or, preferably, both).

A confident and unscrupulous minister begins a 'back to Africa' movement, proclaiming himself Emperor of the United States of Africa.

Ware College is a small Black college in Ware, Ohio. Once prominent, it is now low in attendance, low in enrollment and low on money; and at a meeting with instructors Drury and Annabelle Brown, Dean Hargreaves reveals that CEO Benjamin Ware III, grandson of the college's founder, claims the estate of his late grandfather is now also destitute, which they believe is untrue and a result of Annabelle's having spurned his affections. They decide to appeal to their famous alumni for financial help thru a reunion, and invitations are sent. Many could help; but surely not Lucius Jordan, a timid lad who loved Annabelle too but dropped out under pressure from Ware. What they don't know is, he's now Louis Jordan, king of swing and leader of the Tympani Band.

A young girl named Alice falls down a rabbit-hole and wanders into the strange world of Wonderland. The first "talking" movie version of "Alice in Wonderland," produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1931, two years before Paramount's all-star production. Ruth Gilbert stars as Lewis Carroll's heroine in this black and white featurette (running under an hour) directed by Bud Pollard.

A wealthy young society man is dating a beautiful young woman who he believes is also in his "class" because of her beautiful, classically trained singing voice. In actuality, she is the daughter of a poor hotel maid, and in order to keep the boyfriend from finding out just how poor the family is, the mother manages to get a fancy room in the hotel to try to convince him that her daughter is "good enough" for him.

Exploitation film-maker Bud Pollard appears on screen to tell us of Bing Crosby's rise to fame, using scenes from four early Crosby shorts to illustrate his fictional biography.

US-Navy pilot Lt. Richard Tabor crash-lands on a south Pacific isle called Love Island in English. Richard befriends the Balinese beauty Sarna. The bad and jealous Jaraka doesn't like their friendship, so he has Sarna's father Aryuna arrested on a vague charge. Jaraka tells Aryuna that he only will be released when his daughter marries him.