This should warm the cockles of your heart – a 102-year-old woman watching herself on film for the first time as she shimmers and shakes as a chorus girl during the 1930s and 1940s.

The amazing story of Alice Barker who danced with legends such as Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, has been revealed thanks to David Shuff and Mark Cantor from jazz-on-film.com who unearthed the old footage, known as 'soundies', and showed them to her at her nursing home in the US.

Barker, known affectionately as 'little chicken' while touring, used to work at Apollo, Cotton and Zanzibar clubs, and also worked in films and TV. But she had not seen herself on film before. She never had any memorabilia to remind her of years on stage.

"It makes me wish I could get out of this bed and do it all over again," she said.

"It's fabulous to see these. And I remember all these things that were happening. I often used to say to myself I am being paid to do something that I enjoy doing and I would do it for free because it just felt so good doing it."