Quick: what was the most popular film of 1955? Well, it probably doesn't take much imagination to guess
Cinerama Holiday, the subject of this post and the correct answer.
Now then, who were the stars of this spectacle? Ha! Got you there. They were non-professionals, John and Betty Marsh and Beatrice and Fred Troller. The movie got away with having zero star power among the actors because the film projection system itself was the principal attraction.
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| The premiere of This Is Cinerama |
Cinerama was a three-projector system that played on a huge curved screen in specially equipped theaters. The first such film,
This Is Cinerama, dates from 1952.
Cinerama Holiday was the second. The process underwent some changes as time went on, and production fizzled out in the 1960s. A few Cinerama theaters are still hanging around for revivals, and the films have appeared on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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| Promotional postcard for Cinerama Holiday |
As the name suggests,
Cinerama Holiday was a travelogue of sorts, following two couples on their journeys. The Trollers, from Switzerland, came to the Americas. The Marshes, from Kansas City, traveled to Europe.
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| Morton Gould |
The score for
Cinerama Holiday is credited to Morton Gould, but the LP cover says that additional music was contributed by Van Cleave (aka Nathan Van Cleave). Jack Shaindlin is credited as conductor and musical director. Mysteriously, a few of the album selections are attributed to Shaindlin on the labels, and none to Van Cleave. The Argentine composer Terig Tucci contributed "Holiday in Rio."
When you examine the musical credits in the film's souvenir booklet, you find that the movie itself had a much more varied soundtrack than the LP. It presented such attractions as a "traditional Chinese orchestra," the Dartmouth Glee Club, the congregation of the Second Free Mission Baptist Church, yodelers, an excerpt from Rameau's
Les Indes Galantes, and Papa Celestin's Original Tuxedo Dixieland Jazz Band - among others.
None of these appear on the album, which is almost entirely orchestral, with the notable exception of a awful piece called "Hail to Our Land," which ends the LP.
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| Scene from Cinerama Holiday on the curved screen |
This is not to say that the record is unpleasant; quite the contrary. As always with Gould, the melodies and orchestrations are apt and enjoyable.
Oddly, Gould decided to compete against himself in the market by recording an EP of the
Cinerama Holiday music for RCA Victor, which I unfortunately do not have. I did locate two numbers by Papa Celestin, which Columbia issued on a single purportedly as being from the soundtrack. The musical credits mentioned above, however, claim that Celestin and band only performed one of the two during the film - "Tiger Rag." I've included both sides as a bonus.
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| Papa Celestin picture sleeve |
The sound is quite good for both LP and single. The film soundtrack was recorded in stereo, but Mercury's 1955 issue was mono-only.
This is another one of the LPs I transferred many years ago that has never appeared on the blog.
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| Souvenir booklet |
18 comments:
Link (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/file/fRkGwYJA#iV7cviiC_TG0u-UqdNehzNxylHoY90RyKahu68mKyEw
Buster, thanks so much. I have this album and this one sounds so much better then my example, A pleasure to listen to. :)
Thanks for this one, Buster. I think I grabbed a "Holiday" title from it many years ago during Christmas in July, but I certainly didn't know the backstory to the film.
Thanks, Ron and Ernie - hope you enjoy it!
Thanks! The Cinerama films were a very interesting era in movie watching. There are many fascinating clips on Youtube showing excerpts from recently restored Cinerama features, along with featurettes on the detailed, painstaking restoration work that was done. Fortunately, the original stereo movie masters, along with the Morton Gould studio soundtrack recording, were combined in a 42 track release in 2014 by Sepia Records, detailed here: http://www.sepiarecords.com/sepia1247.html. The "This is Cinerama" and others such as "Windjammer" have new soundtrack releases. Cheers, and thanks for sharing your great work.
Ear Relevant - Thanks for writing and for the clue about YouTube! I do know about that Sepia release but I haven't heard it. I am sure I have the Windjammer LP, and the Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. I have a transfer of the latter somewhere that I made many years ago.
Thanks Buster for this musical trip ! I knew about the restoration of the film but never heart the music. For Gould (you probably remember I am a big fan of this multi-faceted musician)but also for the other tracks. Quite interesting !
centuri - I am a great admirer of Gould as well.
Although I was around in the right era, I saw only 2 Cinerama movies: the family went to The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, though I didn't even remember it as using the process. However, I definitely remember Cinerama being a big deal earlier, when we went to see The Seven Wonders of the World at a big Chicago movie palace. (I remember that in my childlike demand for exactitude, I was annoyed at the end that they never declared a modern 7 Wonders, which I had assumed was promised by the title -- I was very proud of knowing all the ancient Wonders.)
Anyway, as I look up that third Cinerama title now, I discover a convoluted music situation: Emil Newman conducted and likely supervised (and with his brother Lionel is credited with theme music). In addition IMDb credits both Jerome Moross and David Raksin. Did these two formidable composers split the soundtrack duties between them? (As it was another travelogue, music was probably more or less continuous, even if there were stretches of source music, so there may have been time pressure.) Does anybody know more about this?
JAC,
Well you are two up on me - I've never seen a Cinerama production, even though I was alive through the whole era.
I can't clear up the 7 Wonders of the World mystery for you. I found Cinerama Holiday mysterious enough. The run-down in the souvenir booklet documents many musical interludes that don't appear on the LP. Presumably the Gould-Shaindlin-Van Cleave material was used to link the scenes. But not sure.
I don't think there was a 7 Wonders soundtrack LP, but apparently Sepia issued a CD several years ago (which I don't have).
When I saw a Moross presentation at a conference about a decade ago, Seven Wonders of the World was referred to as unavailable for viewing, and in need of restoration. The restoration seems to have happened, as it's available on homevideo, and the extras include a digital reproduction of the souvenir booklet. I'm not sure my curiosity is sufficient for me to buy a copy, though.
I have several Moross LPs, both soundtracks and classical pieces. Some are excellent; some are not.
He has one great soundtrack to his credit, The Big Country. That and Bernstein's Magnificent Seven create our idea of what a Western should sound like. I imagine both composers smiling and thinking "Nailed it!" as they finished their title music.
The other great Moross score I know is his through-composed musical The Golden Apple. I love it to distraction.
Yes, those are both very fine works!
Buster this was a really nice album to go shopping by. I have only seen one film made this way, How the West Was Won, both in a somewhat regular version, and the as close as possible DVD transfer. Of course, you know why I love this film.
Anyway, I remember seeing the Cinerama Dome numerous times on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood California. I was never in it, it always looked closed, but it is still there but now it is closed. How I wanted to go inside of it.
If you have never been to Sunset Boulevard, it is a sight to behold, or it was? A live movie, with real people, playing out on the street. Different to say the least.
Anyway, a very enjoyable music album from a very enjoyable music artist.
Happy to see you're finding much to like here, Bryan. There is a lot of Gould hereabouts.
I have been to Sunset Blvd several times, although not recently.
It has been maybe 25 years since I have been there, but I am sure it has not changed much? It could not get any stranger, could it? Anything is possible.
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