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An Excursion into the Lower Depths: Hollywood, Urban Primitivism, and St. Louis Blues, 1929-1937
- Cinema Journal
- University of Texas Press
- 41, Number 2, Winter 2002
- pp. 84-108
- 10.1353/cj.2002.0005
- Article
- Additional Information
This essay considers how Hollywood presented the song St. Louis Blues in a number of movies during the early to mid-1930s. It argues that the tune's history and accumulated use in films enabled Hollywood to employ it in an increasingly complex manner to evoke essential questions about female sexuality, class, and race.