After almost 19 years writing Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, this is post #1400.
While, admittedly and embarrassingly, I deleted at least two or three posts due to laughably egregious errors, shall proclaim this Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog entry to officially be the 14 hundredth! Yay!
How does the blogmeister feel about writing post #1400? Feel like Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan diva, in this great song from PANAMA HATTIE, which should begin with her slapping overbearing Red Skelton across his overacting kisser (and, bear in mind, we like him as Red Skeleton in the Tex Avery MGM cartoon WHO KILLED WHO).
So this blog shall celebrate post #1400 without bubbly (thanks T2 diabetes, ya rat bastard). We'll start with some supercharged improvisational proto-metal British rock from Deep Purple, live in Belgium. Yes, indeedy, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice had chops.
How will we celebrate the silver screen stuff we love, while also kicking ourselves for missing the 80th anniversary of the execution of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci on April 28. With a respectful nod to the enduring classic movie genre that broke big time during World War II, film noir.
The Burt Lancaster starring vehicle Brute Force is an inspired cross between Jimmy Cagney style caper thriller and film noir.
Nearly eight decades after noir's heydey, celluloid heroes Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame still bring the heat.
Don't recall any other noirs featuring larger-than-life Charles Laughton (except the harrowing tale of evil he directed, Night Of The Hunter), but the following classic, THE BIG CLOCK, is a chiaroscuro dilly and post 1400 worthy.
Prominent in the "silver screen stuff we love" category is silent era comedy. Here are several all-time favorites from all-time favorite silent movie comedians, starting with Buster Keaton in ONE WEEK.
Next up: vintage musical short subjects from way back when Sammy Davis, Jr. thrilled vaudeville as a ridiculously talented child entertainer and Frank Sinatra was studying the phrasing of Bing Crosby and Russ Colombo. Especially love those pre-Code musical short subjects, especially Vitaphone's Melody Masters series.
Here, in the 1932 Vitaphone musical classic, The Yacht Party, the mindblowingly limber Melissa Mason does her best terpsichorean triple-jointed impersonation of the even more mindblowingly limber and quadruple-jointed comedienne Charlotte Greenwood. All we can say is "go, Melissa, go!"
The following Vitaphone 1-reelers present absolutely amazing and talent-filled mini musicals, the glaring preponderance of 1920's and early 1930's style racial stereotype bits notwithstanding. That's The Spirit stars the comedy team of Flournoy Miller & Mantan Moreland (yes, that guy, Sidney Toler's sidekick in Charlie Chan flicks), The Washboard Serenaders, powerhouse singer/tapdancer/actress Cora La Redd and Noble Sissle's red-hot swing band.
Alas, as there was still a color line, big time, in 1932, Cora La Redd, who would have mopped up the floor with all tapdancers not named Eleanor Powell and given the Sophie Tuckers of the world a run for their money, did not subsequently get to appear, even briefly, in RKO, Paramount and MGM musicals.
Backing actress of stage and screen, vocalist and dancer Nina Mae McKinney, star of King Vidor's Hallelujah, Eubie Blake's band headlined the following 1932 Vitaphone short. The super-talented kids whose exceptional dancing brings this Vitaphone Melody Master to a rousing finish:
The Nicholas Brothers.
Another of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite films is Smash Your Baggage (1932), starring Small's Paradise Entertainers. Jazz legend Roy Eldridge is in the band!
Lupe's co-star in this terrific comedy is the fast talking EPITOME of pre-Code. . . the one, the only Lee Tracy.
Also on hand: the familiar croaking voice of Eugene Palette.
Of course, the pre-Code flick we REALLY want to see is Convention City (1933).
The phrase pre-Code and the names of splendid actresses, Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak mean the gang here is watching this movie! And it features screen immortal Lyle Talbot, two decades before Plan 9 From Outer Space, as an oily rat bastard!
Of course, we also love pre-Code cartoons, even those Ub Iwerks Studio productions starring Willie Whopper!
Watching Iwerks Studio cartoons, must extend kudos, bravos and huzzahs to animators Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, Berny Wolf and music director Carl Stalling.
Also love the very pre-Code version of Tom & Jerry by New York's Van Beuren Studio.
Any Fleischer Talkartoon featuring Betty Boop, Koko and Bimbo is sure to be a winner.
Always liked this 1932 Screen Song featuring Betty Boop as a mermaid and using a certain Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby ditty from the Marx Brothers opus Horse Feathers.
What's the best way to finish post #1400? Warner Brothers cartoons!
Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog extends multiple hat tips to the directors of these cartoons, Bob Clampett and Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin. Love those guys!
It's the sincere hope of the gang here that we shall be lucky enough to still be alive, kicking (even slowly) and blogging for post #1500 down the road.
Today, we celebrate the natal anniversary of the great Dick Powell, born November 14, 1904.
In a career both in front of and behind the cameras, Dick Powell excelled in movies, TV and, with the Richard Diamond, Private Detective series, radio. First became aware of Powell via his starring roles in a slew of 1930's Warner Bros. musicals, starting with 42nd Street.
These vehicles for musical stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, the occasional WB leading man (Jimmy Cagney, Warren William) and a host of memorable character actors (Aline MacMahon, Ruth Donnelly, Ned Sparks, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert) would be shown frequently on TV back in the 1970's, causing viewers' jaws to drop precipitously upon watching the mind-blowing production numbers concocted by genius/madman Busby Berkeley.
Gold Diggers Of 1933, the followup to the wildly popular 42nd Street, exemplifies the phrase pre-Code and is featured on this Trailers From Hell video.
One of this writer's favorite Busby Berkeley spectaculars from DAMES is the I Only Have Eyes For You number.
The ultimate silver screen tribute to Dick Powell is that he got caricatured in animated cartoons.
Said caricature of Dick Powell gets a "Buzzard Berkelee" musical number in the 1938 Merrie Melodie cartoon, A Star Is Hatched, directed by Friz Freleng.
A host of Hollywood star caricatures populate A Star Is Hatched, especially starting at 3:20.
Arguably, Dick Powell's crowning achievement in his stretch as Warner Brothers cornerstone would be the infamous CONVENTION CITY, still (amazingly) a lost film, which we hope turns up and turns out to be even more scandalous and risque than imagined.
Even more than his performances in classic musicals, we love Dick Powell's contributions to film noir, starting as a very unconventional Phillip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet.
He co-stars with Evelyn Keyes in Johnny O' Clock, written and directed by Robert Rossen.
Pitfall is a prime example of that film noir sub-genre, "don't mess with Lizabeth Scott."
We thank the Film Noir Foundation big time for restoring Cry Danger.
Starring Kirk Douglas as an extrenely ruthless but highly effective film producer, The Bad And The Beautiful, directed with panache by Vincente Minnelli, is a fascinating look at the making of movies and an all-time favorite classic film of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. Dick Powell and Gloria Grahame are outstanding in juicy supporting roles.
Thanks to YouTube, one can watch his extensive work in television through the 1950's and early 1960's, including Zane Grey Theatre, Four Star Playhouse and his own series, The Dick Powell Theatre.
Finishing this tribute, we note that the king of 1930's Warner Brothers musicals and (after Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, John Garfield and Bogey) film noir even waxed an album, The Dick Powell Song Book, in 1958. Will listen to it now, raise a toast to Mr. Powell and wish everyone a Happy Sunday!
The customary Sunday blog post, asking who was born and what movies/animated cartoons were released theatrically on a given day, notes that today, October 17, is the natal anniversary of several mighty music and film immortals. Paramount (but not Universal) among them: movie star Rita Hayworth, Brooklyn-born in 1918.
While we regret not doing a post to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rita's birth, but, what the hey, better three years late than never. We'll start some examples of Rita's astonishingly good terpsichorean skills.
Too bad she was under contract to Columbia Pictures as opposed to MGM, which was far superior in making the movie musicals that were clearly the strong suit of Rita Hayworth. Still, it's fantastic that she co-starred with none other than Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier.
The Shorty George number is a tour-de-force for both Astaire and Hayworth.
While moviegoers in the 1940's and early 1950's, unfortunately, never got to see Rita Hayworth star in a spectacular Vincente Minnelli-directed musical produced by Arthur Freed and written by Betty Comden & Adolph Green, at least Rita starred in the 1944 musical Cover Girl for Columbia Pictures. While Cover Girl, co-starring Gene Kelly and comedian Phil Silvers, is the closest thing to an MGM spectacular to emerge from Columbia, again, it's a darn shame that Rita didn't then follow Gene to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the incomparable "Freed Unit."
Rita made her name as the femme fatale to end all femme fatales in the famous 1946 film Gilda.
The super-sultry "Put The Blame On Mame" number set Rita's destiny as Hollywood movie star and pin-up girl.
The stars of Gilda were re-united in The Loves Of Carmen two years later. By far, the most memorable part of this movie is Rita’s outstanding Sevillanas dancing. If only The Loves Of Carmen was dominated by her great dancing.
The Hayworth-Ford pairing from Gilda and The Loves Of Carmen would be repeated a few years later for Affair In Trinidad. Have mixed emotions about the trailer and the movie; seeing Glenn Ford slap Rita in the face onscreen, knowing the history of violent abuse Rita suffered off-screen, gives this Hayworth and classic film fan the creeps. We sincerely hope Glenn didn't treat her like this in their off-screen relationship.
As is also typical of the MGM musicals, Rita's singing is dubbed, in this case by Jo Ann Greer. Her singing in Gilda was dubbed by Anita Ellis.
Alas, it was not Rita Hayworth's destiny to star in a slew of movie musicals like Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Powell or Vera-Ellen, but to be a noir babe and give Lauren Bacall a serious run for her money in the sultry sexy department. Her ultimate role as a noir babe was her turn in the hallucinogenic Orson Welles thriller The Lady From Shanghai.
An all-time favorite film of the noiristas who populate Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, The Lady From Shanghai is inexplicable, highly imaginative and unapologetically bizarre in a way only an Orson Welles flick can be. It was produced in 1946 while the Welles-Hayworth marriage was disintegrating and its noir thriller meets funhouse mirror sensibility was not exactly accepted from moviegoing audiences when the film was finally released theatrically in 1948.
Still, The Lady From Shanghai has numerous fans in Noir Universe and has been . We much admire the combo of audacity and sheer WTF factor in Orson Welles movies and don't care how bizarre his films or imagery get. It goes with the territory. Peter Bogdanovich, a good friend of Orson's, elaborates on this film's tangled tale.
We would argue that Rita, although she literally married princes, hitmaking crooners, studio heads and creative geniuses, deserved better. She made a number of movies after the 1957 vehicle Pal Joey, but to some degree the Sinatra vehicle was Rita's last hurrah on the big screen. RIta's character in Pal Joey is the right age for Sinatra's character but, by 1957, Kim Novak was the glamour gal getting Columbia's star buildup.
Sadly, Ms. Hayworth passed in 1987 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's Disease. One of her last appearances was on The Carol Burnett Show, not surprisingly, as Ms. Burnett was always a champion of the golden age of Hollywood and old school showbiz. While Rita subsequently made a few appearances in films, the Carol Burnett Show guest appearance could be regarded as the curtain call for this great star of movies.
Shifting from glamorous Hollywood movie stars of yore to the world of music, on the topic of Gentlemen Of Swing, we turn to the incomparable power-packed percussionist Cozy Cole on his natal anniversary.
Cozy was a contemporary of innovative swing-era drummers Gene Krupa, Jo Jones, Chick Webb, Big Sid Catlett and Dave Tough.
These swinging percussionists who hit the music scene after the 1920's emergence of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's Sonny Greer and Baby Dodds from King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven.
One can hear the tempo-pushing bravado of subsequent drummer-bandleaders Buddy Rich and Art Blakey in Cozy's playing.
And staying on the topic of Gentlemen Of Swing, disregarding the misspelling on the album cover.)
We switch from a propulsive and ready to rock drummer to one of the all-time guitar greats who followed and extended the swing music innovations of Eddie Lang, Django Reinhardt and Charle Christian: the celebrated "Wrecking Crew" studio ace and jazz master Barney Kessel. After establishing himself professionally with the Charlie Barnet and Jerry Gray Orchestras, Mr. Kessel appeared in the Gjon Mili "midnight symphony" short subject Jammin' The Blues, featuring an all-star ensemble of swing era luminaries
Kessel would, before and after his stretch as an ace studio musician, make recordings as a leader and play numerous jazz concerts, including Gene Norman Presents "Just Jazz".
Prior to joining The Wrecking Crew, Mr. Kessel was, along with the equally talented Herb Ellis, one of two guitarists who rotated in the Verve Records "house band," which included pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown and either Alvin Stoller or Louis Bellson on drums. The house band played on a slew of recordings produced for the Verve, Clef and Norgran labels by Norman Granz.
They backed the best of the best: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Stuff Smith, Blossom Dearie, Billie Holiday and more.
On the series of Verve recordings of Fred Astaire singing numerous standards he debuted on Broadway and Hollywood, this house band was joined by trumpeter Charlie Shavers and saxophonist Flip Phillips.
Sometimes Barney and Herb, both of whom filled the esteemed guitar chair in the Oscar Peterson Trio, appeared together.
There were three ace guitarists in The Wrecking Crew, the virtuosos who played on a gazillion recordings waxed in the 1960's and 1970's: Barney Kessel, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedescho. Tommy's son Danny made the excellent The Wrecking Crew documentary, a must-see for music lovers.
No doubt the Kessel and Cozy Cole recordings can be found on Spotify as well, but old school music fans like this blogger recommend purchasing albums by these Gentlemen Of Swing on CD or vinyl, or paid streaming.
Just about finished with January 2021 - HALLELUJAH - and, as the robot on our kitchen table keeps incessantly mentioning "The Birthday Roundup," we shall spotlight luminaries born on January 31 today, starting by listening to Isham Jones & His Orchestra.
After raising a toast to birthday boy Franz Schubert, since the last blog post was devoted to Ziegfeld Follies star W.C. Fields, we will start with another Ziegfeld Follies headliner, Eddie Cantor, born on this day in 1892.
First and foremost in today's tribute, here's the ultimate classic comedy aficionado Joe Franklin (1926-2015), much-missed expert on all things old school showbiz - and Eddie's #1 fan - remembering his favorite comedian.
Cantor a.k.a. "Banjo Eyes," a first half of the 20th century entertainment powerhouse, starred in vaudeville, Broadway, radio, motion pictures and television. After appearing on stage with the juggling team of Bedini and Arthur in 1911, then as a featured player in the popular "kiddie kabaret" troupe led by songwriter and impresario Gus Edwards, and after that as Ziegfeld Follies headliner in 1917-1919, Eddie Cantor starred in silent feature films.
One, Special Delivery, was directed by none other than Roscoe Arbuckle and another, Kid Boots co-starred the one, the only Clara Bow, the "It" girl who the cameras adored.
Eddie Cantor first made sound films as early as 1923.
Cantor even received the ultimate Hollywood tribute: he was caricatured in animated cartoons.
When it comes to the 21st century view of Eddie Cantor's career, the elephant in the room remains the preponderance of blackface in his movies. It remains very difficult for baby boomers who saw Eddie Cantor flicks on television in the 1960's to comprehend why anyone thought blackface was funny, and utterly impossible to explain the ubiquitous stage makeup to anyone under the age of 40. Weren't African-Americans at least part of the paying vaudeville and moviegoing audiences back then (one would assume they were not)?
There are moments of blackface in the movies of his contemporaries, but it is not a staple of every film, as the burnt cork routine is in Whoopee, Palmy Days, The Kid From Spain and Roman Scandals. His first talkie, the Paramount short subject A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1929), is ALL blackface.
Even with historical perspective regarding the first three decades of the 20th century, this staple of entertainment, presented for what would be assumed to be segregated audiences, looks indefensible on all levels. Yet, everybody in show business blacked up - it was standard stage makeup at the turn of the 20th century. Even the legendary Bert Williams, the Nassau-born sensation of Broadway, recordings and the Ziegfeld Follies, used the burnt cork for his stage and silent film appearances.
Eddie's act at first featured a variety of different characters, but the theatre audiences of the WW1 era favored Eddie in blackface. They went bananas over burnt cork Eddie. Is this difficult for us to grasp in 2021? Yes.
Eddie starred in WHOOPEE both on Broadway and as his first sound feature.
In addition, Eddie performed favorite songs in a series of Paramount 1-reel short subjects, including Getting A Ticket and Insurance.
This pre-Code movie aficionado finds Mr. Cantor's movies, especially the Samuel Goldwyn musical comedies of 1931-1937, very enjoyable. The unabashed and unapologetic silliness that permeates Cantor's Goldwyn pictures (and the Busby Berkeley production numbers), has considerable charms. Love Eddie's singing and that quality of cheerful lechery also seen in the starring vehicles of RKO Radio Pictures comedy team Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey. The casts feature terrific co-stars (Charlotte Greenwood, Lyda Roberti, Ethel Merman) and plenty of Bert Kalmar - Harry Ruby songs, which, as usual, are a hoot.
Love the 1932 opus The Kid From Spain, directed by Leo McCarey, as much due to the hilarious Lyda Roberti, one of the great comediennes of 1930's stage and screen, as to the way-out Busby Berkeley musical numbers and the wacky pre-Code comedy of Cantor.
Kid Millions (1934) is a particularly zany and fun Eddie Cantor flick.
Among the supporting players in Kid Millions (1934): the extremely, wildly goofy comedienne Eva Sully from Block & Sully, in one of her few silver screen appearances. She is funny, unhinged and way over-the-top, making Cass Daley, Betty Hutton, Judy Canova, Martha Raye, Mabel Todd and fellow Eddie Cantor co-star Joan Davis look shy, retiring and demure by comparison.
Of the Cantor co-stars, Ethel Merman in particular has terrific chemistry with Eddie. They riff off each other quite well in Kid Millions and Strike Me Pink.
Cantor’s many decades in show business stretched from the Gus Edwards kiddie review shows in the teens to The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950's.
Shifting from classic movies to sports, the greatness of the recently passed Baseball Hall Of Famer Hank Aaron is still heavily on our minds - and it just happens that today, January 31 is also the birthday of several baseball greats. A particularly stalwart member of the Baseball Hall Of Fame was multi-position player Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015) A.K.A. Mr. Chicago Cub.
Ernie's motto was "let's play two!"
The former San Francisco Giant players and the team's announcers have spoken glowingly of Ernie, an ambassador for the sport and the most likable, upbeat, energetic, positive guy ever.
Nolan Ryan, who this blogger saw, in a Giants-Astros game, have one of his extremely rare off days and give up 8 runs at San Francisco's windy Candlestick Park, was termed the Ryan Express for throwing unhittable fastballs and knee-buckling curveballs, baffling hitters in both the National and American Leagues.
Lots of Nuke LaLoosh types hit 105 MPH on the radar gun, but very few of them can throw smoke and paint the corners, a.k.a. pitch, as Nolan Ryan did, let alone still be on the hill in the big leagues at the age of 46. Happy Birthday, Nolan - Mr. Von Ryan Express!
Fortunately, the excellent writer Kellee Pratt has gone a long way to answer the difficult question of how one even begins to write about the visionary (and quite possibly stark raving mad) director/choreographer in her post, Busby Berkeley Choreography: Geometric Gems.
First a celebrated dance director on Broadway, whose arrangements of dancers into jaw-dropping visual extravaganzas undoubtedly stunned many a first-nighter, Mr. Berkeley a.k.a. "Buzz," began expanding the scope, flamboyance and technical demands of said routines and adapting them to the promising medium of movies, starting with a series of musicals produced by Samuel Goldwyn and starring comedian Eddie Cantor.
Describing the cinematic universe of Busby Berkeley is tantamount to writing about another fellow of expansive imagination, Warner Brothers and MGM cartoon-meister Tex Avery (note: author Joe Adamson did this, brilliantly) and finding oneself mired in such Captain Obvious observations as "Tex liked insanely ridiculous sight gags, pushing even cartoon extremes, faster than both a 1918 Henry Lehrman comedy and the speed of light." Yes, explaining the cosmos and Cosmo Topper are easier tasks than describing Busby Berkeley production numbers and the psychedelic world of the imagination!
Are there words that adequately describe the world of dreams and swirling geometric patterns created by dramatic sets and color-coordinated chorines, all arranged as compositional elements in light and shadow, throughout the epic Busby Berkeley production numbers? No, although the effect on the moviegoer, in 1933 and 2018, especially seen in big screen glory, is quite visceral and stunning. What does it all mean? Don't ask - just enjoy the roller-coaster ride, as audiences hurting from the effects of The Great Depression and having both a temporary escape and a wonderful time at the movies did.
Directed by Berkeley and produced by William LeBaron (known for his work for RKO and Paramount, including W.C. Fields, Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges comedies), The Gang's All Here would turn out to be the choreographer's last big screen spectacular before a five year hiatus from motion pictures.
In addition to the earnest, hard-working showgirls holding up giant bananas in The Lady With The Tutti-frutti Hat, The Gang's All Here is chock-full of elaborate production numbers that are very imaginative, wild and ambitious, in some ways 1943-style throwbacks to the extravagant extravaganzas designed for 42nd Street, Gold Diggers Of 1933, Footlight Parade and Dames.
In glorious Technicolor as opposed to the black-and-white milieu of the Goldwyn and Warner Brothers musicals, again, nothing says dada and surrealism, Hollywood-style, quite like a spinning, undulating, pulsating kaleidoscope from Berkeley's wondrously way-out imagination. While those brilliant and mind-numbing Berkeley masterpieces from the depths of The Great Depression can be more reminiscent of Fritz Lang or G.W. Pabst netherworlds than the jaunty world of musicals, this 1943 offering is far sunnier: bright-bright-bright and color-saturated, in stark contrast to the gritty Busby Berkeley pre-Code universe.
This Alice Faye vehicle, loaded with international music stars and top character actors, is big and brassy, following other Fox hit musicals (Down Argentine Way) and much in-tune with the switch from 1930's B&W musical - whether gritty Warner Brothers "Gold Diggers" flick featuring Joan Blondell or glitzy MGM tap-fest starring Eleanor Powell - to the 1940's Technicolor extravaganza.
At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, when we say "read the suspect his Miranda rights", that could be a reference to Hamilton mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda, but is more likely to be about Carmen Miranda, mainstay of 1940's movie musicals and legendary entertainer.
At the center of The Lady With The Tutti-frutti Hat production number: Busby's signature choreography and the super megawatt "personality plus" of the one, the only Carmen Miranda (1909-1955), yet another great who left us too soon.
Proof that the high-spirited and fruit-filled production numbers, not just in The Gang's All Here but its box-office hit predecessors, Down Argentine Way, That Night In Rio, Week-end In Havana and Springtime In The Rockies were terrific for firebrand Carmen Miranda's career; the fact that the Brazilian entertainer and recording artist was subsequently caricatured, singing in Portuguese, in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Slick Hare. Yes, Friz Freleng and his crew of ace animators at Warner Bros. paid the ultimate tribute!
Here, without further adieu, not the last Busby Berkeley movie musical production number, but, with the other Technicolor visionary visual spectaculars in The Gang's All Here, arguably the last mindbogglingly larger-than-life, audacious and delirious ones until the 1952 Esther Williams vehicle Million Dollar Mermaid.
The numbers other than The Lady With The Tutti-frutti Hat in The Gang's All Here, including the opener, Brazil, express that distinctive Busby Berkeley style and unfettered imagination in full flight. . . while also positively seething with produce.
The rest of The Gang's All Here, a wondrous hodgepodge if there ever was one, notable for the sheer number of 20th century pop culture and classic film touchstones on hand, is a treat for those who love movies and music of the era. There's Benny Goodman (singing, no less)!
Carmen and her "Banda Da Lua" orchestra! The croaking frog gravel voice that could only emanate from Eugene Pallette! Perennial favorites of this blog Charlotte Greenwood and Edward Everett Horton!
And when it comes to the production numbers in The Gang's All Here, that certain mad genius was definitely not adjusted for patriotic wartime tastes, toned down and cleaned up as it had been in the equally elaborate, extremely entertaining and downright spunky (yet a tad sanitized in the patented MGM wholesomeness) Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland musicals, but given free rein. The finale in particular is a lulu, including the singing disembodied heads of the cast members!
The spectacular production numbers in The Gang's All Here, as radiantly colorful as a George Pal Puppetoon, create, like the best of animation, a certain delirious, glorious, memorable and downright hallucinogenic wonderment on the big screen.
Thanks again, Buzz, for creating your own universe on celluloid, Buzz - and I hope you left your brain to the Smithsonian Institute!
The above sign is a stroke of genius - and brings to this music-obsessed blogger's consciousness versions of the Irving Berlin standard it refers to.
So let's begin today's post with a few renditions of this great song. First up: the "swooner crooners", starting with the ultimate one, Frank Sinatra.
Among the top movie stars of the 1950's was the adept light comedienne, dancer and former big band singer Doris Day. The star of several sprightly Warner Brothers musicals (Calamity Jane) waxed a very nice version of Let's Face The Music & Dance.
For many decades after co-starring with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen in an MGM musical beloved by this blogger, White Christmas, as well as headlining her own TV show, movie actress and vocalist Rosemary Clooney continued performing music and recording. Here she is on her 1984 album, Rosemary Clooney Sings The Music Of Irving Berlin.
The tendency is to associate Shirley Bassey with her bravura performance of the theme song from Goldfinger, but also she recorded standards. On her 1962 Let's Face The Music album, arranger extraordinaire Nelson Riddle was loaned out from Capitol to lend some swingin' Rat Pack magic to the proceedings. Could Dame Shirley Bassey belt 'em out? Yes, definitely.
One vocalist who recorded standards and nailed them every time was Ella Fitzgerald. Her series of songbook albums for Verve still can't be topped.
Although a scant few vocalists, then and now, would even attempt to go toe-to-toe with Ella Fitzgerald in the jazz singing department and especially scat and vocalese, one who could at least give it the old college try was Anita O'Day. Here, Anita swings those standards with virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.
Two of the most amazing vocalists are also two of the most mindboggling pianists - Nat King Cole and Diana Krall (who also recorded with the aforementioned Rosemary Clooney).
When thinking of strictly instrumental takes on the standards, look no further than the arranger of many Capitol Records recordings by Frank, Dino, Judy Garland, Keely Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Rosemary Clooney, the incomparable Nelson Riddle.
It comes as no great surprise that a fine instrumental version of Let's Face The Music And Dance can be found on The Nelson Riddle Orchestra's 1966 album of the same name!
Riddle's brassy orchestra frequently slips a double dose of bebop into the pop and brings to mind the post-Charlie Parker jazz virtuosos who explored the harmonically rich compositions of Berlin, Gershwin, Porter and Arlen with a sublime vengeance.
Clifford Brown, Curly Russell, Lou Donaldson and (on right behind drum kit) Art Blakey - Birdland, February 24, 1954
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean
On the 1959 Swing Swang Swingin' album, just one of a slew of classic recordings Jackie McLean recorded for the Prestige, Blue Note and Steeplechase labels, a program of standards gets supercharged with the driving "hard bop" sound. As usual, Jackie shows a highly original and wonderfully angular approach - and swings like mad.
From modern jazz this itinerary takes a big turn back to where this the Great American Songbook stuff started and tips the top hat to Broadway - not Funky Broadway - with pianist, singer historian, scholar and prolific recording artist Michael Feinstein. And, please, don't monkey with Broadway!
This post would not be complete without a respectful nod to the guy who performed songs on Broadway, in many cases in their very first performances, before standing room only crowds, delivering the goods night after night - yes, under just a little bit of pressure - the one, the only Fred Astaire.
Not surprisingly, practically before the RKO studio cameras stopped rolling, The Vincent Lopez Orchestra recorded 78s of the Cole Porter and Irving Berlin songs from the Fred n' Ginger musicals. Popular dance bands covered hit tunes from Flying Down To Rio, Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Follow The Fleet, Swing Time, Shall We Dance, etc. And this song was no exception.
Back to the incredible Frederick Austerlitz, the penultimate show-stopping version of Let's Face The Music And Dance, of course, is from Follow The Fleet, directed by Mark Sandrich. There they are, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, defining the art of terpischore in the movies and dancing into eternity.
Thanks, you sublime entertainers, for all that love on the silver screen. And big time thanks to Irving Berlin and to each and every one of the musicians involved in this post.
"There may be teardrops to shed
So while there's moonlight and music and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance" Irving Berlin
