bhryun Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Alrighty, today I was completely delighted by this short with a small role by Irene Dunne. It was about a little boy who was a king of a country called Alvania. He loves cowboys and is overcome with excitement when some friendly buckaroos throw a rodeo in his courtyard. Watching this movie made me feel like a kid again. It was shown today (8/18) at 8:30, between Theodora and A Guy Named Joe. For some reason, it is not on any of the schedules and googling some lyrics of the musicals isn't turning up results. I would love it if anyone remembered the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 The 15 minute Warner Brothers short is "The Royal Rodeo" (1939) with John Payne as the singing cowboy and Scotty Beckett as the Little King. Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markfp2 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 You bring up an interesting point. Why wasn't it on the schedule? I remember reading, way back, when I first discovered this forum, that usually the shorts that are used to fill between movies are not selected until just a day or two before they air, so it's too late to include them in a schedule. I can understand that and assume that they must wait until they know the exact running times of the films and figure in what promos and such they must run before they know how long they have left to fill. However, I think when they are doing a "theme" day and the short is directly related to it, there should be an effort to include it in the schedule. I know they list shorts when they do a day of shorts like Laurel & Hardy, or Charley Chase, but it would be great if it could be done all the time. Perhaps there's a way to include shorts in the on-line schedule on the day they air. I'm sure not complaining about our beloved TCM, but no matter how great something is, there are always ways to make it better, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted August 30, 2005 Author Share Posted August 30, 2005 Oh, I so agree - I'd love it if there were a bit more info in some way regarding the shorts. With the questions here and there about them it's obvious they catch quite a bit of attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted September 1, 2005 Author Share Posted September 1, 2005 I'd like to add my vote for shorts to get more attention in the schedule. I've seen some real gems in the past, but it was mostly by stumbling onto them. Sone have been very well done and deserve to be more than just toss away filler. There have been several that were historical dramatizations that seem to have been part of a series as the narrator's voice was very distinctive. Unfortunately, I've never caught one from beginning to end, so I don't know what the name of the series was. BTW, did John Payne actually sing in the western short that prompted this thread or was his voice dubbed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 Yes, John Payne did his own singing in the short film. In fact Mr. Payne sang in musicals at 20th Century-Fox while co-starring with Alice Faye, Betty Grable and June Haver. Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted September 3, 2005 Author Share Posted September 3, 2005 Here's some information on John Payne's musical background in case you are interested. John's mother, a former opera singer who had performed at the Metropolitan, made him take singing lessons as a child to help him overcome his shyness. (Another relative, his great-uncle and namesake John Howard Payne, wrote the words to the song "Home, Sweet Home.") Payne's first job in show business was as a singer in burlesque, one of many odd jobs he took while studying at Columbia University. After graduation he was featured as a solo vocalist on several radio programs. I always thought it was a shame that Fox didn't give Payne more opportunities to sing in the movies because he had a pleasant, light tenor voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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