Movies: Fats Waller

Though legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died far too young, his impact on Broadway, movies, and the culture at large were incalculable. Told entirely through rare archival footage and interviews with Ashman’s family, friends, associates, and longtime...

A star-studded tribute (from the creators of That's Entertainment) to the contributions of Afro-Americans in film over the last century. Vanessa Williams traces the struggles and triumphs of the superstars of music and film. Among the many artists fe...

The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s....

Warner Baxter plays the ambitious producer of a burlesque show who rises to the big time on Broadway. Alice Faye is the loyal burleycue singer who helps make Baxter a success. His head turned by sudden fame, Baxter falls under the spell of a society ...

A wealthy young man falls hard for a beautiful showgirl, and her wily father quickly realizes the naïve boy would make the perfect investor for his daughter's new show. Comedy with music....

A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor....

Ain't Misbehavin' is the televised version of the 1978 Tony Award-winning Broadway sensation celebrating the music, life and times of Thomas "Fats" Waller — featuring 29 songs written or inspired by him. The telecast won Emmy Awards for Nell Carter ...

Compilation of extracts from 'blue' movies from 1900 to the 1940s intercut with clips of popular music and dancing, and excerpts from newsreels and shorts, mostly 'topical' features involving women. Includes glimpses of Fats Waller, George Formby, Na...

Fats Waller is at the piano with a bunch of pretty female dancers, one of whom that sits next to him at the keys is Vivian Brown. He tells her he needs no sugar since she's that and more to him as he implies by the title song....

Chronicling the Harlem Renaissance era, this retrospective documentary tracks the origins of the soulful music of the period, along with the challenges many of the genre's artists faced when trying to gain recognition within conventional society. Inc...

Fats Waller performs his best song and mugs for the camera with many a sly, risqué comment in this 1941 Soundie. A rare and impeccable record of one of the greatest showmen of jazz....

Fats and the gang are cutting it up on this 1941 music video of his 1939 hit “Your Feet’s Too Big”. Fats was one of the giants of jazz piano and one of the more popular performers in his day who played in a Harlem stride style....

A cartoon elephant undone by his large feet...

This Joint Is Jumpin' celebrates the life and work of the great Fats Waller. Fats started playing church organ at age 10 and his all-action musical career ended, full speed ahead, at the age of 39. This documentary features his son, Maurice, and Eddi...

The one and only Fats Waller with Myra Johnson performing his classic song The Joint Is Jumpin' from 1941....