“Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans,” sings Billie Holiday while looking lovingly at Louis Armstrong in a Storyville casino. It’s a scene from the 1947 film “New Orleans.”
Originally an Orsen Welles film with Holiday and Armstrong starring as jazz artists who leave the south to seek their musical fortunes elsewhere, “New Orleans” instead focused on white lead actors.
Arturo de Cordova played a casino owner who falls in love with an opera singer, played by Dorothy Patrick. Holiday, in her first and only movie role, played maid Endie. Armstrong played himself.
“Typical of Hollywood’s treatment of many Black entertainers during this era, this ‘new, improved’ version of ‘New Orleans’ was obviously based solely on box-office considerations,” a 2003 Turner Classic Movies (TCM) review states, “the studio was afraid southern theater owners wouldn’t book the film with Black actors in the leads.”
TCM said Holiday shined in her scenes and that Armstrong had a “prominent showcase.” With more than 20 songs featured, the music was the actual star.
“The music is a joy,” reviewer Ed McNulty wrote in 2020. “Billy sings well ‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans’ and ‘The Blues are Brewin’,” but her rendition of the blues song ‘Farewell to Storyville’ is especially touching….Louis and his band liven up the screen with their rendition of ‘Endie’ and ‘Where the Blues Were Born.’ ”
Other jazz greats, such as trombonist Kid Ory, drummer Zutty Singleton and clarinetist Barney Bigard are featured.
According to McNulty, the film is worth watching for the music and because it is a case study in white racism.
“Anyone studying systemic racism and how it permeates our culture would do well to include this film,” he wrote. “It’s both instructive, and, thanks to the music, also fun – and it expands the meaning of ‘whitewashing.’”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.