musicalnovelty
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Posts posted by musicalnovelty
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> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote}
> Musicalnovelty, I'm grooving to that, and will be tuning in!
>
Hi Mark,
I'll be groovin' with Connie that day, too.
Looking forward especially to the pre-codes, but mostly to OUTCAST LADY (1934), one that I must have missed whenever it may have been on before. It looks like a remake of A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (1928).
Thanks, TCM for this and the rest of Connie day!
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TCM has a day of Constance Bennett movies scheduled or October 22, 2010:
Lady With A Past (1932)
A good girl raises her popularity when she pretends to be bad. Cast: Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, David Manners. Dir: Edward H. Griffith. BW-80 mins
Rockabye (1932)
A Broadway star tries to hold onto an adopted child and a younger man. Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Lukas. Dir: George Cukor. BW-68 mins
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
A drunken director whose career is fading helps a waitress become a Hollywood star. Cast: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton. Dir: George Cukor. BW-88 mins
Outcast Lady (1934)
A spoiled rich girl sacrifices her reputation to preserve her dead husband's memory. Cast: Constance Bennett, Herbert Marshall, Hugh Williams. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard. BW-77 mins
Topper (1937)
A fun-loving couple returns from the dead to help a henpecked husband. Cast: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. BW-97 mins
Topper Takes a Trip (1939)
A glamorous ghost helps a henpecked husband save his wife from gold-digging friends. Cast: Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. BW-80 mins
Merrily We Live (1938)
A society matron's habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants leads to romance for her daughter. Cast: Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Billie Burke. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. BW-95 mins
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Jack Parnell
Drummer, bandleader and musical director of popular TV shows
Jack (John Russell) Parnell,
born 6 August 1923; died 8 August 2010.
by Peter Vacher
London Guardian, August 9, 2010
Tall, lithe, impeccably turned out, the drummer Jack Parnell, who has died
aged 87, always carried the aura of the matinee idol he had once been.
Like the American drummer Gene Krupa, a star player with Benny Goodman's
band, the personable Parnell was often mobbed at the stage door after a
Ted Heath concert in the 1950s. An outstanding big band drummer himself,
Parnell liked to vocalise in the style of Phil Harris and later became a
busy bandleader before branching out as a conductor and musical director
for popular television shows. In his latter years, he returned to the jazz
circuit and showed his mettle with visiting US stars such as cornettist
Ruby Braff and as leader of his own quartet.
Parnell was a Londoner, born in Paddington and raised in Wembley, the only
son of vaudevillians and the grandson of a celebrated ventriloquist, Fred
Russell. His father, whose stage name was Russ Carr, was also a
ventriloquist (and later Parnell's manager) and his mother, a gifted
classical pianist, worked as her husband's accompanist. His uncles
included the prominent impresario Val Parnell, who ran the Moss Empires
theatre circuit, and Arch Parnell, a theatrical agent who managed comedian
Sid Field.
Jack remembered touring with his parents as a very young child and
standing in the wings enthralled by the big bands that were often top of
the bill in the late 1920s. He started piano lessons as a four-year-old
and could pick up tunes easily. "I knew I had music in me," he said. Sent
away to boarding school from the age of six, he began to take an interest
in drums, and this soon became a consuming passion.
Not much interested in academic study, he bought all the jazz records he
could, starting with Duke Ellington (he saw Duke at the London Palladium
in 1933) and moving on to the more informal Chicago school epitomised by
trumpeter Muggsy Spanier. Armed with a Premier drum kit purchased by his
mother from the window-cleaner for ?15 and following six lessons from Max
Abrams, young Parnell ventured north to Scarborough to start his
professional career playing for the summer season at the town's theatre.
He was 15. After a year with the Sammy Ash band at Cambridge's Rex
Ballroom, Parnell volunteered for the RAF, hoping to become a military
musician.
His audition was overseen by jazz saxophonist Buddy Featherstonehaugh, who
immediately grabbed Parnell for his own service band. Based at RAF
Uxbridge, north-west London, initially, the group was posted to Bomber
Command HQ at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, after Featherstonehaugh had
bribed the movements officer and played in swing style for mess dances and
social functions. Their proximity to London also allowed Parnell and
company ample opportunity to spend their nights in the capital, enabling
them to record and play for broadcasts as the Radio Rhythm Club Sextet.
These were heady days for Parnell -- a friendly flight sergeant turned a
blind eye to their outings but raked in 10% of their freelance earnings as
his price for co-operation. The later addition of guitarist Vic Lewis to
the Featherstonehaugh group led ultimately to the formation of the
Parnell-Lewis Jazzmen, initially as a service band and then a highly
successful postwar ensemble.
Invalided out in 1944 (he had a duodenal ulcer) Parnell played concerts
and sat in at the Feldman Swing Club at 100 Oxford Street in central
London with visiting US service musicians: "They had an authority we
didn't seem to have," he said. Hired by trombonist Ted Heath, then about
to start his own orchestra, he stayed with Heath from summer 1945 until
spring 1951, playing, singing and leading a small band within the band,
and becoming quite a star in his own right. Prompted by the agent Leslie
Grade to front a band for a show that eventually foundered, Parnell then
formed his Music Makers, one of the great British big bands, full of jazz
players, including saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Pete King, trumpeter
Jimmy Deuchar and the mercurial drummer Phil Seamen. With Parnell's own
kit on stage, the band's shows featured the two drummers battling each
other, captured on a recording of The Champ. Parnell's band toured Europe
with Lena Horne to considerable acclaim in 1952, and backed Billie Holiday
in a 1954 Royal Albert Hall concert.
When the "beat groups" took over popular music, Parnell came off the road
in 1956 to take on the role of musical director for Associated Television
(ATV). Now needing to conduct, he studied with the brilliant
harpsichordist and conductor George Malcolm, so that he was able to cope
with every genre of music. His television job lasted for a quarter of a
century and covered some 2,500 shows, ranging from Sunday Night at the
London Palladium to specials with Sammy Davis Jr, Barbra Streisand and
Horne. His crack studio orchestra -- which from 1976 provided the "real"
band for The Muppet Show -- included many colleagues from the Heath band.
In 1982, Central succeeded ATV, and Parnell returned to active jazz
performance, fronting his own small groups and playing clubs with Braff
and clarinettist Bob Wilber, touring with the Best of British Jazz
alongside trumpeter Kenny Baker, his lifelong friend and collaborator, and
appearing with the Ted Heath Tribute big band. He continued to conduct
when asked, notably with the Laurie Johnson Orchestra, and put together
occasional all-star big bands for special concerts.
Parnell relished the chance to play again, the dynamism of his drumming,
influenced by modernists such as the US star Max Roach, still apparent in
the many gigs he organised in the area near his new home in Southwold,
Suffolk, where he divided his time happily between music and golfing with
his third wife, Veronica. A generous and agreeable man, Parnell's last
years were marred by chronic emphysema brought on by heavy smoking. He is
survived by Veronica, two daughters and three sons, two of whom are
drummers.
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Although CONFESSION is not among them, five other Warner Bros. Kay Francis movies from the mid-1930's have just been announced as new Warner Archive releases.
Info here:
http://www.wbshop.com/New-Releases/ARCHIVENEW,default,sc.html?src=EDWAC&adid=0810bWACNREml
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> {quote:title=TikiSoo wrote:}{quote}
>
> > I love Frank McHugh & James Gleason too. Don't forget Robert Benchley, king of droll. I used to be city councillor in Bob's birthplace of Worcester Mass, and there's actually a BENCHLEY SQUARE in the center of town!
>
Oh, yes...Worcester is proud of Robert Benchley!
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I was looking again at WITHIN THE LAW and noticed something funny about the Kino DVD cover. This is the Norma Talmadge Collection, so one would think they'd feature pictures of her on the front. Okay, yes there's a photo of her with Ronald Colman from KIKI. But why then, is the photo from WITHIN THE LAW a shot of Eileen Percy, not Norma?
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Thanks zasupittsfan and ValentineXavier...
Finally someone else who agrees with me about Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball!
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
>
> I'd also bet that the devastating vault fire that happened on the lot a couple of years ago (video masters and film prints along with a great deal of music recordings were destroyed) has also slowed the process.
>
May I humbly submit just a slight correction:
It was reported at the time that it was actually a warehouse, not a vault where the fire occurred.
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> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
>
> Joan and Constance Bennett were from a theatrical family. Their father, Richard Bennett, was a big star on stage and in pictures.
>
Joan and Constance had another actress sister, Barbara.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0071601/bio
And thanks so much for all the beautiful photos of Connie (as my late old friend Randy used to call her).
And thanks too for putting so well why many of us do not find her a "disappointment".
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Re: "Yeah, who's Woody Strode?"
Hopefully after yesterday nobody will ever have to ask this again.
Although I'm not into the newer stuff so much, I like Woody Strode and am glad he got his own day on TCM.
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That's THE COCKEYED MIRACLE (1946) - MGM, starring Frank Morgan and Keenan Wynn.
Info here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038420/combined
And here:
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=1990&category=Full%20Synopsis
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
>
> :x Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! :x
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
> Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody! Woody!
>
> I love you Woo-oo-dy. Oh yes I do...
>
> Edited by: CineMaven on Aug 5, 2010 7:19 PM b'cuz I love Woody!
>
So, let me guess...
You're enjoying TCM just a little today?
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> {quote:title=MGMMayer wrote:}{quote}
>
> As for the original theatrical Columbia titles, I may be mistaken, but I seem to remember that only a selected few of the films had the original theatrical opening and closing titles restored....and those were earlier entries. (I especially enjoyed the original "Blondie In Society" opening, with the Bumsteads regally posing for the camera dressed in fox-hunt riding garb). The majority of the 28 "Blondie" films shown during the AMC marathon still had the 1960's King Features openings and closings.
>
I agree totally with you and Ray about the increasing lameness of the later Blondie films. But I guess I'm more tolerant of them, as I've always had a soft spot in my head, I mean heart, for any Columbia B's.
And regarding the restored original titles on the AMC prints:
Without going back and looking at all my old tapes, I seem to recall that the average was more like two thirds or more were real titles, with only a third or less being faked. And by the way, on some of the faked attempts, didn't they notice, or didn't they think we would notice, that the supporting cast in the first Blondie movie was not going to be the same in the others?
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> {quote:title=Ollie_T wrote:}{quote}
> This reminds me of a story that Michael Douglas told about getting kissed by Lana Turner at one of his childhood birthday parties. Of course, this was "just one more kiss" from Daddy's friends - but when he was in his twenties and getting turned down for dates, he kept reminding himself, "So what? Those aren't important - I got kissed by Lana Turner!"
>
Child actor (Our Gang, etc.) Jerry Tucker recalls a photo session at Paramount in the early 1930's in which he was sitting on Carole Lombard's lap (Jerry was in "No Man of Her Own" in 1932 with Carole) and the photographer telling him "You may not appreciate this now, kid, but every man in the country would give anything to be where you are right now!"
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> {quote:title=MGMMayer wrote:}{quote}
>
> I think that the most excruciating example of marathon programming was years ago when the "old" American Movie Classics showed the entire "Blondie" series....all 28 features.....over a period of two days. After watching the first couple of films I thought to myself, "OK, I get it....Dagwood's late for work, he runs out the front door and crashes into the mailman.....".
>
Come on, you know there was more to the Blondie movies than that!
And as the film fan I know you are, weren't you excited to finally see (unless you saw them new in the theaters) the REAL ORIGINAL Columbia titles for the first time? Finally gone were those obnoxious King Features 1960's titles with the annoying accompanying song. And sure, in a marathon you notice the repetition in series films, but as they say, you don't have to watch them all.
How well I remember that AMC Blondie marathon. It was the weekend of August 11, 1996. I had just returned from a wonderful week-end visiting my dear friend Annette on Long Island, to learn that Monday that another dear friend, Norman, an elderly film collector from whom I learned so much, had just passed away. A memorable week-end for me.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
>
> Musicalnovelty...how's it goin'? :-)
>
Howdy, Maven!
Always happy to see you here any time!
Doing swell, but still reelin' after a nasty blast recently on another forum. So it's nice to see good folks like you here.
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> {quote:title=SmilerGrogan wrote:}{quote}
> Glad you mention "Aloha" which has two of my favorite pre-code beauties, Thelma and Raquel Torres.
>
I've seen a few reels of ALOHA (Tiffany, 1931). Unfortunately that may be all that exists.
The stars are actually Ben Lyon and Raquel Torres, with Thelma in a supporting role.
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
> It may be that a different company holds the broadcast rights in Canada or it may be that the rights holder in Canada is unknown. And yes, TCM does go the extra mile to try and untangle rights issues but sometimes, they are unsuccessful. One of the *Topper* films can't be broadcast in Canada because of this.
>
Actually none of three Topper films can be shown on TCM Canada, nor can any other Hal Roach film. But since the third Topper movie (TOPPER RETURNS, 1941) is public domain, I wonder if that one can be shown in Canada.
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Three of my favorites were just mentioned:
Shane
Cinema Paradiso
Adventures of Robin Hood
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> {quote:title=ClassicViewer wrote:}{quote}
>
> Orson Welles really should get just as much airplay as Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock IMO...
>
I totally agree!
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}
> VERY frustrating........Does Fox enjoy having their old films sitting in the fault NOT making money???
>
Good typo..."fault" not vault. I think you've got something there!
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I couldn't watch it last night, but certainly have seen it before.
Anything with the beautiful Jane Bryan...I'm there!
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> Yaaawwwwwnnnnnnn.
>
You said it, Fred!
The TV's getting a long rest today.
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> {quote:title=BitPartBlogger wrote:}{quote}
> Who remembers *Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick*? The year was 1952 and the stars were Alan Young (of "Mister Ed" on TV) and Dinah Shore. I was only two when it was released and I have never actually seen it. BUT, my parents had the soundtrack on 78 rpm records in a box set, and I remember some of the songs.
>
I used to see it often on a local (pre-cable) channel that had a package of 1950's Paramount features in the late 1970's to mid-1980's. But it's been years. It would be nice to see it again.
What are the best films of 1940?
in General Discussions
Posted
A favorite of mine that's not been mentioned yet:
BEYOND TOMORROW.