New Orleans has its origins in an abandoned component of an unfinished RKO Picturesfeature film by Orson Welles — "The Story of Jazz" segment of It's All True. A history of jazz alternatively titled "Jam Session", the section of the film was being written by Elliot Paul in 1941 under contract to Welles. The story of Louis Armstrong was to have been central to that segment of It's All True. An additional connection to Welles is that several members of the film's Original New Orleans Ragtime Band — Kid Ory, Mutt Carey, Bud Scott, Barney Bigard and Zutty Singleton — had first been brought together in 1944, for his CBS Radio series, The Orson Welles Almanac. New Orleans is the only feature film made by singer Billie Holiday, and the last film in which writer-producer Herbert J. Biberman was involved before he was blacklisted. Producer Jules Levey wanted to make a film about the history of jazz. Lubin signed to direct in July 1946. Levey's associate was Herbert Biberman who said "we're not archaeologists. We're trying to be accurate with dates and places, if not names - and still turn out an entertaining picture." In July 1946 Arthur Lubin was scouting for locations in New Orleans. He hoped to feature Lena Horne, Duke Eillington and other black musicians. Ten days of location filming started on 28 August and cost $110,000. The National Jazz Foundation collaborated with Lubin during filming. De Cordova was borrowed from Eagle Lion in August. Dorothy Patrick was borrowed from MGM. Levey was so pleased with the performances of Patrick and de Cordova he wanted to reteam them in a film called Monterey to celebrate California's 100th anniversary.
Reception
Diabolique magazine wrote "it’s one of those movies where critics generally go “the music’s great but everything else is terrible and isn’t Hollywood racist” which is basically true – but it was 1947, what did people expect? At least there is a lot of music, Louis Armstrong and Dorothy Patrick are charming, it’s fascinating to see Holliday in a movie and I love how in the story her character marries Armstrong’s. Also Lubin seems to have genuine affection for the characters and the music – it’s much better than his previous three features."
Although most of the music created for New Orleans was truncated in the film's release version, a soundtrack issued in 1983 made the full versions of the songs available, with additional music cut from the final release. Songs include "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?"
