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Saint Louis Blues (1929), a two-reel short written by William C. Handy and Kenneth W. Adams, was one of the first talking films with an all-black cast. It featured several influential actors and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance and contains the only existing footage of the singer Bessie Smith. The plot of the film, which Handy described as “a serious picture of Negro life,” was loosely based on his popular hit song “Saint Louis Blues” (1914). Although the film was chiefly intended to showcase Smith’s dazzling performance of the classic title song, Saint Louis Blues nevertheless represents a significant event in the history of African American cinema.