JackBurley
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Posts posted by JackBurley
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They're "munchkins", and the boys belong to "The Lollipop Guild". Bonus: the girls belong to "The Lullaby League".
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From the excellent documentary Astaire and Rogers Partners in Rhythm:
[Narrator] Chuck Klausmeyer: Fred began taking an interest in the technical aspects of filmmaking. He would spend hours in the cutting room, making sure the sound synchronized perfectly with his routines.
[Dancer/choreographer] Miriam Nelson: He wanted to make sure the sound was crisp and clear 'cause, you know, sometimes it can be fuzzy if you don't have it dialed up right. And of course, it was always perfect.
John Mueller [author of Astaire Dancing]: Astaire insisted on dubbing all of his own taps. Hermes Pan tended to dub Ginger Rogers' taps, so when you hear Ginger Rogers tap -- you're really actually hearing Hermes Pan. But you're seeing her dance.
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From the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow lived parallel lives over his seven decades, each with enviable success. In one, he helped animate the green clay character Gumby and designed special effects for Star Wars. He received an Emmy in 1983 for his work on the Winds of War. In the other, he played guitar with John Lennon, Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel, and opened for the Rolling Stones at Altamont as the guitarist for the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Through much of the 1960's, he worked with Art Clokey Productions, helping with animation, design and puppets for the Gumby and Davy and Goliath cartoons. He worked separately on the television series Outer Limits and on stop-motion commercials that included the animated Pillsbury Doughboy and pancake syrup Mrs. Butterworth.
In the early 1970's he put his special effects work on hold while performing with the Flying Burrito Brothers, and with Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, the Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, among others. He returned to special effects in 1974, when he worked on the Land of the Lost television series. In 1980, he worked with Industrial Light and Magic in San Rafael on Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and later with Fantasy II Film Effects on Gremlins, Terminator and Dune.
Mr. Kleinow, who brought country music's steel guitar into the rock 'n' roll arena while creating Hollywood's special effects, died January 6 in Petaluma, of complications related to Alzeimer's. He was 72.
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I just discovered another thread devoted to this theme; for the interested, please click here.
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I guess I considered Kay Armen to be a mezzo. Your contralto theory has me curious to rewatch Hit the Deck. I'm also guessing with training she could have been a dramatic soprano. I wish I knew more about her. I understand she was a radio star (Stop the Music and Bob Crosby Show among others), born in Chicago in 1920. Anyone else know more about her?
[i won't tell Ewa Podleś that she's extinct.
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I just read the following review of the annual Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Gala in Opera News. The musical charity organization give scholarships to upcoming vocalists each year. The review confirms (and counters my unfortunate theory) that M?rtha Eggerth and brings up another soprano which has gone unnoticed in this thread so far: Kay Armen. Armen was the zaftig mother with the big voice in 1955's Hit the Deck. "Ciribiribin" anyone?
"...Roberta Peters, not a regular performer in the Albanese gala, raised a few eyebrows when she came out and announced that she would sing 'Vilja' (a number long associated with the gala's perennial showstopper M?rtha Eggerth). Her high-B was still impressive. Kay Armen, nearly ninety-one [iMDB lists her birth year as 1920, so this math seems a little odd], blew the audience out of the water with her moving, stylish, mangificently sung medley of "In the Wee Small Hours of the the Morning" and "Time After Time". When [Patrice] Munsel prematurely appeared on stage, Armen resmonstrated "I'm not finished," in a tone that sent the emcee scurrying back to the wings, then lit into a superb "The Man I Love". Closing the first half, finally, was Eggerth -- ninety-six -- whose czardas "Hejre Kati" was a staggering feat of rhythmic elasticity and breath control that brought the audience to its feet."
I wish that TCM would grab these two movie sopranos for a little interview!
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Is this our cue to request the Osmond's movies?
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Mrs. L, there's an entire forum devoted to this great movie. Come join us down there. You'll find that I've been drooling over the flick in that Forum for quite some time. It's one my "essentials". One of the first movies that I rushed to buy on DVD once I finally got the contraption.
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It's not known 'cause it's not shown. So this begs the question, why isn't it shown more? A scene from it is featured in (I think) in That's Entertainment! Part III, but I've never had the opportunity to see the entire flick. And it's on my must-see list. TCM? Won't you please indulge us?
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But Nixie's right; the "moderator" or webmaster can delete them for us. In the past, I've pointed out the double-posting error in the General Information Forum and they've deleted the extras for me...
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"Perhaps you can explain to me how you add copy to a previous post as you did with the words (from the French website...)? I would appreciate it.
Mr. Mongo, I'm so sorry it took me so long to respond. I somehow missed your query to me. Regarding typing in text in the same post as a photo: First of all, keep in mind that when I put a parenthesis, it will stand for the greater than < and lesser than > signs. Here goes: I just type in the text as usual (as I am right now) and follow the text with (br)(br). (br) is code for a return; so (br)(br) is the same as a double space, Then I type in the photo link -- surely in the same manner that you already do. Hope this helps; I'm afraid I'm not very articulate in these computer matters...
CCerini said, "I have just recently found your 'In the Spotlight' thread which I find fascinating. Up until the end of December, the photos you posted show on my screen as a window with a link that reads 'Photobucket - video and image hosting'."
Isn't it a great thread?! I love it too. Mr. Mongo loads photos onto his Photobucket page, so that they can be posted onto the thread. I assume the photobucket only allows so many shots, and he replaces the old shots for the newer posts. When the older shot is replaced, you'll get the message that we now see.
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Film #2: It's Tales of Manhattan (another thread on this movie is floating around a few inches lower on this page), but that was no sportscoat; rather it's a set of tails. All the other details you had were spot on though.
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This is Roberto Benigni's La Vita ? bella. He won the Best Actor Oscar for this and famously did gymnastics over the celebrities all the way to the dais.
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Aida was an Ethiopian princess who'd been captured and enslaved to work as the maid to the Egyptian king's daughter [Amneris]. But alas, this ain't Aida -- not Verdi's anyway. Maybe it forshadows Elton John...
Raymond Scott was born Harry Warnow. His older brother, Mark, was conductor of the CBS Radio Orchestra, and brought Harry in as piano player. Mark began promoting his brother's compositions, but didn't want it to look like nepotism, so they chose the name -- Raymond Scott -- out of the Manhattan telephone directory. He started the Raymond Scott Quintette in 1936. By the way, there were six people in the "Quintette"! He said that "quintette" had a "crisp" sound to it and "'sextette' might get your mind off music"... Some of the recordings that I have are dated as early as 1934 and 1935. Warners licensed Scott's tunes in 1941.
By the way, check out the prologue (yes again)... doesn't "Whistler's Mother" look like a very young Dorothy Lamour? Is that possible?
Oh, and Mr. McCrary has something in the similarity between the theme song (which is actually a snippet of "Shanghai Lil") and the intro to "San Francisco". Though the melody is an inversion of the other, it has the same melodic rhythm. They're quite similar.
And has anyone mentioned that there's a later scene in Footlight Parade where Prologue Mata Hari and Evil Seductress, Claire Dodd lures Cagney away from Joan Blondell with the inspiration for a piece about African slave girls. Hepped up Cagney rushes to the piano and starts playing the Snake Charmer's song...
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"The Florida house sounds great, but I can't imagine anyone leaving California to go east during the summer, unless you take your vacations at other times of the year."
Ah, but you see, I'm a freak. I hate being cold, and San Francisco in the summer is often cold; that dreary fog gets me down. So like a heat-seeking missle, I jet off to hot locales. "Florida? In the summer?!" I know... everyone says it. But a pal owns a house on an island there that he'd rent to me; and being on the water, it really isn't that bad. Sea breezes and a swimming pool make it quite livable. From the terrace we would watch porpoises play. Dreamy. But best of all? The house had TCM. One summer TCM had an Esther Williams fest, which seemed very Florida. I was in heaven.
"Anyway, I blab so much that I'll probably surpass you by my anniversary."
Let's have a race, shall we?!
"However, that leads me to ask how do you do it?"
I'm not sure myself how this happened. I actually had the thought that perhaps everytime I make a correction, it counts as another post. But I just tested it and no... So I guess I really am nearing 3,000. It's especially astounding because I'm out almost every night. But my computer is always on (broadband) and TCM is always at the ready; so I check in every night when I get home. And I have it on while at work and check in every once in awhile. I also check in -- bleery eyed and yawning -- in the morning before starting my day. [i never felt quite awake until I'd read Mr. Mongo's birthday post.] Perhaps it's just that I type fast and I talk too much. And I'm passionate about movies...
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"How many folks call your home just to hear the new outgoing message each day?
My answering machine has developed somewhat of a following... before the days of caller ID, I often wondered who was calling and hanging up all the time. I felt like Barbara Stanwyck, except that my bed jackets wasn't as elaborate. Once I got caller ID I realized they weren't wrong numbers, but friends just checking the machine. One summer I had a "serial": each day there'd be a new 30 second installment of the brilliant Ruth Draper monologue The Italian Lesson. It took about three months to get through the entire monologue.
I love Classic Arts Showcase! If weren't watching TCM I'd be watching CAS. Wouldn't it be a dreamy position to curate for that PBS feature? And of course you're right; I would have been thrilled to see the Anton Karas piece. I have the soundtrack on cd (doesn't everyone?). Listening to it evokes images from the movie with great clarity.
And yes, I'm suffering -- in advance -- from the morning after your celebration concept!
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"This time I really am shocked, shocked to learn you have only been here since April of last year, I never bothered to look at your initial date. I simply assumed you had been here forever. Do you mean you started receiving TCM (the channel) only in April, 2006?"
Yes, it's true Mrs. L. This points out how embarrassingly verbose I've been on this board. I fear a gag order. I hope I won't pass 3,000 posts before the anniversary. Luckily (or not so), in the past few days, I've lost many posts. I wrote them, and lost them when I hit "Post Message". Foolishly, I didn't copy them first; and I was too heartbroken to rewrite them.
Before April, 2006, I only had TCM while vacationing. Most summers I escape the San Francisco fog and rent a place elsewhere. Having TCM was a stipulation of my vacation apartment in Manhattan, and the Florida house. So each year I'd have TCM for one month. This is why I especially relish the posts of FilmLover, Mongo and the many other members of the Board who've watched TCM for so many years.
Mr. K, your celebration would have me under the table! And it's difficult to watch TCM with linens before my eyes. Maybe I'll just sip a Shirley Temple or a Roy Rogers...
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Thursday, July 20 Red Buttons Memorial Day on TCM:
6:00 AM Imitation General (1958)
8:00 AM A Ticklish Affair (1963)
9:30 AM Your Cheatin' Heart (1964)
11:30 AM Hatari! (1962)
2:30 PM The Longest Day (1962)
5:30 PM Sayonara (1957)
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"And what prompted you to own a set of Raymond Scott recordings? I am so impressed."
To really understand this, you must first realize that I'm a "freak". My collection of recordings is rather large and very electic. Though I often seem to forget that I'm a freak, I'm often reminded as people often ask, "how [or worse -- "why"] do you have that recording?!" upon realizing that I'm listening to "Mary Schneider Yodels the Classics" or "Marcel Marceau Speaks!". My first thought is always, "Doesn't everyone have this?" And then I realize that no, most people might not have a section of their cd collection devoted to the theremin... More's the pity.
My home answering machine greets callers with recordings, and it changes every day depending on what's going on in my life. "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish" was on last Thursday, in honor of TCM's screening of Garden of the Moon; if you called today, you'd hear Martin Luther King telling us about his dream. It's been pointed out to me that just having it change everyday is unusual enough, but callers often seem to be surprised by what they hear. Certainly tomorrow no one will be surprised to hear Jane Powell singing, "Goin' Courtin'" when they realize that it's my first day of jury duty?
So Raymond Scott? Doesn't everyone have a Raymond Scott section? His famous work, "Powerhouse" never grows tiresome; and "The Toy Trumpet" brings fond memories of Shirley Temple dancing with Jack Haley and Alice Faye. I was pleased to see that Mr. K also has the Carl Stalling disks. Aren't they delightful?
Oh Ms. Cutter, "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish" was written for the movie Garden of the Moon. Oh! And thanks for bringing up the John Wayne movie. I wondered if anyone would know what this clip was from... Thanks to Mr. K for sharing the answer.
I know that a recording of "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish" does exist, because I own it (I assumed everyone had it! "Sheesh, what a freak."). It came out in a three-lp set of Warner Brothers Studio soundtracks. And actually there were two three-lp sets: Fifty Years in Film and Fifty Years in Film Music; one featuring music from non-musicals, the other obviously from musicals.
And I repeat, one can write any melody using the Hungarian Minor Scale (or a similar mode) and create a piece similar to the theme we've been searching for. It was also known as the "Gypsy Minor Scale" [but I can't imagine musicologists still use this term). It's a form of the harmonic minor scale that contains two intervals of a step-and-a-half rather than the usual one. Tchaikovsky's March Slav used this device, if you want another example...
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So there will be no Essentials in February? Ah, maybe it's preempted by the Oscar festival? I'm catching on... My one-year anniversary with TCM approaches. How shall I celebrate?
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I felt so helpless, reading this thread at work and being unable to access my copy of Footlight Parade and my Raymond Scott discs (though I have some Scott numbers on my IPod at work).
Now, home at last, I've listened to the Footlight Parade snippet; only a short phrase that's repeated, before being relegated to underscoring behind Jimmy Cagney... Since I hadn't listened to Mr. K's links [until now], I expected it to be the "Hootchy-Kootchy" number which you've already ascertained it is not.
Often these passages are references to earlier "classical" numbers that trigger an association for the audience. Something from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherazade, for instance, would have been appropriate here. But no... I checked "Yasmini" and "Rajah"; both were themes that were used in The Little Rascals series (along with the aforementioned "Hootchy-Kootchy" or "Snake Charmer's Song") in similar situations. Alak...
I'm really wondering if it was just a theme quickly jotted down for this scene using the Hungarian Minor scale, to lend an air of exoticism. I also wonder if the original poster was thinking of the very-similar-yet-quite-different "Hootchy-Kootchy" number when he entered his query.
Ah, sweet torture!
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Gee, I thought she's been a swell host. She's intelligent and insightful. I don't always agree with her; but even when I don't, I still find her ideas interesting and thought provoking. We might not agree with her, but to imply that she doesn't know her stuff is specious. She personally knew/knows all of the directors of the Nouvelle Vague, and has been working intimately with film for forty years now. I wish I knew as much as she...
So is The Essentials season March - March? Will Carrie Fisher be host for the entire 12 months as well? Will she co-host with Robert Osborn? Am I asking stupid questions? How does everyone know that Ms. Fisher will be on? Were there announcements on this site, or between movies on TCM?
the last to know,
JB
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The purists (like me) won't watch them. The masses who, for some mystifying reason, can't abide black and white movies will give them a chance....
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Julia Child
Greta Garbo
Michaelangelo
Diderot
Irving Thalberg
Robert Rosenblum
Inge Borkh
Jean Cocteau
Sidney Guilaroff
Billy Haines
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Help Needed With Music In FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933)
in Information, Please!
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"Mr. Moog persuaded Ms. Rockmore to put her artistry on record. A recording session in 1975 led to her first album, 'The Art of the Theremin', released on LP in 1977 and containing 12 numbers. Three decades later 13 previously unheard cuts from that session are available in a new release on the Bridge label, 'Clara Rockmore?s Lost Theremin Album'."
You know how to get me excited, Mr. K! What wonderful news. I own the cd of The Art of the Theremin (doesn't everyone?), and this will make terrific addition to it. It's great timing too; I'll have to pass this article on to a friend. She was just given a [modern] theremin last week for her birthday, and we were gabbing about it only yesterday. Another friend of mine plays the theremin in a band. So I'll be sending this clipping all around. Thanks!
By the way, I highly recommend the mentioned documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. It has it all: charm, wit, suspense, drama, pathos. One forgets it's a documentary, as it sometimes plays as a narrative. I believe the DVD is out of print, but I urge everyone to make an effort to find a copy. I have one, if anyone's in the neighborhood.
"I caught a clip late Friday Night that I want to try and record this evening - Alice Ghostly singing "The Boston Beguine" from a revue called "New Faces". The lyrics are quite witty and she is a real treat. I have the song on a vinyl LP by a different performer and would like to have this rendition also."
Oh my! New Faces of 1952 was a very famous Broadway revue which made stars of with Ertha Kitt, Paul Lynde, Carol Lawrence. It was shot in CinemaScope and released in 1954. Is that the version they showed? Oh shoot, the doorbell... gotta run!