Digression No. 18

There's a post of unusual interest over at a blog of unusual interest called Rand's Esoteric OTR. This post contains a transcription of a 1948 concert that originated in the Hollywood Bowl sponsored by M-G-M. The Hollywood Bowl Symphony was conducted by Miklós Rózsa, with vocal soloists Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza.

Pertinent to today, the major work on the program was a Halloween Suite, composed by Lionel Barrymore - a delightful work with Barrymore in characteristic form as narrator. I can't recommend this too highly. I had read that Barrymore liked to compose, but had never encountered his work before. This composition is certainly enjoyable. The only downside is a low bit-rate transfer, but the sound is listenable.

I've prepared a declicked and rebalanced version of this for my own use. If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I'll make it available. But please visit Rand's blog; he has many fascinating transcriptions there.

Night Music with Victor Young

Composer and arranger Victor Young made a long series of single records for Decca that were periodically compiled into LPs. This one, titled Night Music, is from 1954.

Many of those singles consisted of film music, and here we have, among others, Young's hit version of the theme from The High and the Mighty (Dimitri Tiomkin), Smile (Charlie Chaplin), the Rear Window theme (Franz Waxman), and Magnificent Obsession (Frank Skinner).

The High and the Mighty has an unearthly quality that, while suited to its theme of a imperiled transoceanic flight, also was quite common in post World War II music. Here it is conveyed by Muzzy Marcellino's eerily perfect whistling; more often it was embodied in celestial choirs or sopranos like Loulie Jean Norman. A similar influence could be seen in the commercial art of the time, and the back cover of this LP (below) is a good example. As for the film, the theme of coming through an ordeal safely - perhaps through the intercession of some higher power (or at least John Wayne) - was strong in a world that had endured the Great Depression followed by a world war and was very much imperiled by the threat of nuclear destruction.

REMASTERED VERSION

Kathryn Grayson in So This Is Love

When the Warner Bros. were casting the 1953 film So This Is Love, they needed a good looking woman who could handle both popular and operatic material. Who better than Kathryn Grayson, the wide-eyed, bow-mouthed wonder, to grace the screen as Grace Moore, a famous personality of an earlier generation.

Moore is forgotten today, but when this movie was made, she was well-remembered as a star of the opera and musical stage, films and records who died in a 1947 plane crash.

Grayson was similarly versatile, and she had to be to handle what is presented here, everything from Mozart and Puccini to "Everybody Ought to Know How to Do the Tickle Toe," a dreadful 1918 novelty number. She is better used in Berlin's waltz, "Remember," where her wistful quality is most affecting.

I don't believe this soundtrack LP has been reissued, so it makes a nice addition to our earlier posts devoted to this enduringly popular artist.

Flame and the Flesh

Here's a real obscurity - a soundtrack EP from the 1954 film Flame and the Flesh. The songs here are by Nicholas Brodszky (his name is spelled various ways in various sources) with Jack Lawrence's lyrics.

Brodszky's main claim to fame was working on several popular Mario Lanza vehicles, including The Toast of New Orleans with its big hit Be My Love. The RCA LP from that film will probably be making an appearance here later on.

Brodszky did not have Lanza to work with here. Instead the star/singer was Carlos Thompson, an Argentinian actor of Swiss-German extraction who here was playing an Italian. Thompson could not provide Lanza's volume, but his singing was convincing enough for his role as a saloon singer. (I haven't seen the film so can't attest to his acting. Thompson did play the lead in several Hollywood films in this period.)

The plot was one that had been used for two earlier films - Thompson dumps good-girl Pier Angeli for bad-girl Lana Turner. Eventually the bad girl does the noble thing and clears out so the good girl can have her man back. It's not real deep.

Apparently the curvaceous figure on the right is supposed to be Turner, who undyed her blond hair for this film; presumably for the publicity. (Do I seem cynical?) And just so that there is no doubt from her posture that she is a bad girl, she is leaning on a streetlight. The demure figure on the left is Angeli.

The songs are tuneful enough, so if you like The Toast of New Orleans, The Student Price, Love Me or Leave Me, Rich, Young and Pretty or Serenade - all Brodszky's work - you should try this. Rich, Young and Pretty also will be featured here soon.

Cole Porter's Aladdin Demo

Back in television's early days in the US, the networks scheduled prestige programming on an occasional basis, including new musicals from the leading lights of the theatre. The CBS network presented Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957 and Cole Porter's Aladdin in 1958.

While neither were considered the best that the composers had to offer, Cinderella was better received than Aladdin, which was Porter's final score.

While the music for Aladdin is not well remembered, in truth it is not as bad as its reputation would suggest. This may be because the songs were presented on the program by character actors (Cyril Ritchard, Dennis King) and weak singers (Sal Mineo, Anna Maria Alberghetti). The music itself is far better served by this single-sided promotional LP that CBS issued some time before the telecast, using unidentified but quite good vocalists and elaborate choral and orchestral arrangements, presumably the work of Robert Russell Bennett.

It's not at all clear how this LP was to be used for promotion. The show was scheduled for the DuPont Show of the Month, but the LP doesn't mention the sponsor at all, so it wasn't DuPont's doing. Because the show was part of an ongoing series, the LP probably wasn't used to drum up a sponsor. It could well have been instigated by Porter himself, in the twilight of his career, and the LP is introduced by the great man himself.

If you have the CD reissue of the Aladdin LP issued by Columbia after the television show, you will have heard these four promotional recordings, but not Porter's brief introduction. So what's new here is Porter's voice and the record covers. Perhaps a meagre offering, but a fascinating one - and one of the personal favorites from my collection.

For our non-US friends, the giant orb below is the CBS logo, as seen on the LP's back cover.

REMASTERED VERSION - JANUARY 2015

Beecham and the Nutcracker Suite

It's always a pleasure to have contributions from our friends, and here's one from anonymousremains. It is a joyful performance of a suite from The Nutcracker by the Royal Philharmonic and its founder, Sir Thomas Beecham.

The recording, a very good one, was made in December 1953 in Walthamstow Town Hall. The transfer, which I have cleaned up a bit, is excellent.

Beecham had a way with this music, and there are few more exhilarating recordings than this version of the Waltz of the Flowers. Even if you have heard this music many dozens of times, you should hear this.

I've been trying to find identifications for the dancers on the cover, without luck. I think the woman may be Alicia Markova.

Thanks again to anonymousremains for his thoughtfulness.

A Visit to the Record Shop, 1939

If you were a Cleveland record collector in 1939, you might well have put Moore's Magazine & Music Shoppe on your itinerary. For one thing, it had an inventory of relatively cheap used records - and this was one of them, two worthy items from Kay Kyser's band, which came in the record sleeve above touting all the many features of Mr. Moore's emporium.

Step Up and Shake My Hand (vocal by Harry Babbitt) and Tears from My Inkwell (with Ginny Simms) were not among Kyser's many hits, so that's probably why this record was available inexpensively. The sleeve says Moore's received a fresh stock of records twice a week, likely from a distributor or juke box outfit offloading old stock.

That would be enough to keep me coming back, and indeed Moore's sounds like my kind of place in many ways - besides used records, it had magazines, newspapers, and books, and it was open until midnight. You also could rent a camera, order scratch pads, buy a greeting card, and get a Lock-a-Phone to make people pay to use your telephone.

If you had been the one to purchase this Kay Kyser disk back in 1939, you would be in possession of two enjoyable if unexceptional tunes, with arrangements would have seemed dated even 70 years ago. Both songs are well played, nonetheless, and Ginny Simms does wonders for Tears from My Inkwell. Listen via the link below.

LINK