Irving Harold Mills

 Irving Harold Mills (January 16, 1894- April 21, 1985)

Mills was a music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz artist promoter. He sometimes used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose. He performed and recorded with his jazz group The Hotsy Totsy Gang. Collaborated with the legendary jazz great Duke Ellington on many popular original compositions, including "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," and "Sophisticated Lady." He also produced one picture, Stormy Weather, for 20th Century Fox in 1943, which starred Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Zutty Singleton, and Fats Waller and the dancers the Nicholas Brothers and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. He had a contract to do other movies but found it "too slow;" so he continued finding, recording, and plugging music. Mills was one of the first to record black and white musicians together, using twelve white musicians and the Duke Ellington Orchestra on a 12-inch 78 rpm record featuring "St. Louis Blues" on one side and a medley of songs called "Gems from Blackbirds of 1928" on the other side, Mills himself singing with the Ellington Orchestra. Victor Records – soon to become RCA Victor – initially hesitated to release the record, but when Mills threatened to take his artists off the roster, he won out. Mills died on April 21, 1985 at age 91, and is interred at Mount Sinai in Los Angeles, CA.