A "Mills Soundies Panoram" viewer

The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America photographs span the years 1940–1946 and encompass 3 linear feet. The collection contains a total of 1,119 photographic prints from some 1,100 films. The photographs were intended for publicity purposes and document the performers appearing in the films, including musicians, singers, and dancers, as well as an occasional songwriter. Persons depicted include Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Hoagy Carmichael, Cyd Charisse, Dorothy Dandridge, Doris Day, Fifi D’Orsay, Morton Downey, Katherine Dunham, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Ted Fio Rito, Stan Kenton, Liberace, Ozzie Nelson, Snub Pollard, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Noble Sissle, Gale Storm, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, and Fats Waller. Three editions of the Soundies catalog, each with an index of performers, are available at the reference desk in the library’s Core Collection pamphlet files. The principal performers listed in these catalogs are not necessarily depicted in the photographs. Included in the photographs are a large number of popular entertainers and bands not otherwise associated with film, along with a number of African-American performers. Two photographs are of particular interest: one for Tuxedo Junction (1942) is unique in its depiction of the director and production crew, and one for The Bobby-Sox Tune (1944) shows the Mills Panoram Soundie machine (above).