Hallelujah! McKinney, Nina Mae performer Fetchit, Stepin (Lincoln Perry) performer Film 1929-08-20 Fox Movietone This MGM musical drama directed by King Vidor was his first sound film. This tale of sex and religion, starred Daniel L. Hayes (Zeke Johnson) and the seventeen-year-old Nina Mae McKinney (a dancer who had been featured in the chorus line of Blackbirds of 1928) in the role of Chick. The story is set in a juke joint where sharecropper Zeke falls for a beautiful dancer who only sets him up for a rigged crap game; his transformation from a preacher to a murderer. An intense brooding portrait of Negro sensuality and religious ritual that was fueled by pulsating spiritual and secular music. Dancing includes: a couple performing a cake walk and strut during a wedding scene. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Watkins, Mel: Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry. New York: Pantheon (2005). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html Lincoln "Stepin Fetchit" Perry (biography) loc.music.tdabio.138 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1510