Musical Groups in the Movies, 1929-1970
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Musical Groups in the Movies, 1929–1970 ALSO BY ROY LIEBMAN AND FROM MCFARLAND Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (2003) The Wampas Baby Stars: A Biographical Dictionary, 1922–1934 (2000; paperback 2008) From Silents to Sound: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Performers Who Made the Transition to Talking Pictures (1998; paperback 2008) Silent Film Performers: An Annotated Bibliography of Published, Unpublished and Archival Sources for More Than 350 Actors and Actresses (1996) Musical Groups in the Movies, 1929–1970 ROY LIEBMAN McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Liebman, Roy. Musical groups in the movies, 1929–1970 / Roy Liebman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-3484-8 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Motion picture music—Bio-bibliography—Dictionaries. 2. Musical groups—Dictionaries. 3. Motion pictures and music. I. Title. ML102.M68L54 2009 780.92'2—dc22 2008037715 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Roy Liebman. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover photograph: The Mills Brothers, circa ¡940s–¡950s (Photofest) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Janine, Marissa and Hannah—and the friends who have made The Big Decision worthwhile This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface 1 MUSICAL GROUPS IN THE MOVIES 7 Appendix One: Other United Kingdom Bands 201 Appendix Two: Dance Teams, Skaters and Other Specialty Acts 202 Bibliography 205 Index 207 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface During the reign of silent movies, music the 1926 feature Don Juan, was the 107-mem- was always present to underscore the onscreen ber strong New York Philharmonic Orchestra action. Of course, it did not come from the playing the overture to Richard Wagner’s screen itself unless it was one of the early, un- Tannhauser. Other pioneering shorts included successful experiments in sound, of which the Dixie Jubilee Singers and the Metropoli- there were many. In the often shabby nick- tan Opera Chorus accompanying opera star elodeon “theaters” (usually storefronts) the Anna Case, the singing/instrumental group music may have been produced by a tinny the Four Aristocrats, Vincent Lopez and his piano. As the great art of silent films matured, orchestra, and many others. the music could be played by full orchestras It was Al Jolson’s epochal The Jazz Singer, re- in magnificent movie palaces. leased in October 1927, which energized the Films usually reflect the era in which they emergence of full-length sound features. It had are made and the 1920s was, after all, the Jazz very little talking (and that largely accidental) Age. So even though they were silent, such but several songs. During the next year sev- motion pictures as Jazz Cinderella, The Jazz eral part-talking films and a few all-talkies Girl, The Jazz Hounds, Jazz Mad, Jazzland and were released, some with songs, but apparently Jazzmania were seen in theaters. There may none included musical groups. In 1928 Jol- have been jazz bands pictured in them but son’s part-talkie The Singing Fool was a massive their music was soundless and was interpreted hit, further encouraging the production of off-screen. sound films. Several years before all movies officially The year 1929 saw musical films in full “talked” (which was a fait accompli almost flower and the emergence of musical groups everywhere by 1930) music did actually em- as part of that blossoming. Hordes of singers anate from the screen—or, more technically, and musical ensembles were enticed from from a synchronized turntable. Beginning in radio, records, opera, Broadway and vaude- the summer of 1926, this was primarily due to ville. Every kind of singing act seemingly had the success of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc its turn. If a group could get anywhere near technology introduced by Warner Brothers the right notes it was put into pictures. studio. More sophisticated technology soon Established Hollywood silent movie old- produced sound-on-film. timers like Bebe Daniels, Walter Pidgeon, Almost from the first, musical groups were John Boles, Bessie Love, Janet Gaynor and part of the sound revolution that initially en- Marion Davies suddenly found themselves compassed films running one or two reels. Ap- warbling onscreen. Greta Garbo only talked pearing in one of the short subjects in the very but they sang. For a couple of years it was to first Vitaphone program, which accompanied be “All-singing! All-dancing! All-talking!” all 1 2 Preface the time, until a weary public said it was all too used in feature films largely reflected the pop- much. ular taste of the day. For that reason, it is in- Among the very first musical ensembles to structive to see and hear them in the context be heard in features were the three Brox Sisters, of their films, however silly some of the movies Patricia, Lorayne and Dagmar, who co-intro- were and however badly some of the groups duced “Singin’ in the Rain” in MGM’s The were utilized. Hollywood Revue of 1929. They were precursors In features, for the most part, groups were to such female close-harmony acts of the 1930s inserted into a film for momentary diversion, as the Boswell, Pickens and Andrews Sisters. not as integral parts of the plot; often multi- Not too long thereafter the enormously ple ensembles appeared in the same film. Even popular (and enormously-girthed) Paul White- in that limited role they could still increase a man had the 1930 film King of Jazz built picture’s profitability. This was certainly true around his ample frame. It was one of the last in the case of the dominant music of the 1930s films to celebrate the Jazz Age and use that and ’40s, the Big Band Era. And it was also word in its title. It seems probable, though, true of the other dominant music of those two that Fred Waring was the first bandleader to be decades, western swing, heard on the radio featured in a film, 1929’s Syncopation. and in that staple of neighborhood movie Innumerable music groups also appeared in houses, the “B” western. the thousands of short subjects that were made A few of the big bands had long-term con- well into the 1950s by nearly all the major stu- tracts with studios, among them those of dios. Many of these groups were never seen in Tommy Dorsey and Xavier Cugat at MGM full-length features and thus are rarely en- and Harry James at 20th Century–Fox. Fans countered today, even on recordings, having flocked to their films even though their fa- for all intents and purposes disappeared into vorites usually had only brief screen time. This (perhaps) undeserved obscurity. may have been the start of Hollywood’s great There was even a way to see many of them appeal to teenagers because they formed the in short films outside of theaters. To meet the backbone of the Big Bands’ fan base. public demand for entertainment just before, Occasionally film plots would revolve during, and a little while after World War II, around a bandleader such as Glenn Miller (as the Panoram, a kind of coin-operated juke the thinly-disguised “Gene Morrison”) in Or- box/video machine, could be found in ven- chestra Wives and Kay Kyser in several films. ues like bars and nightclubs and even some Usually orchestra leaders and most other music restaurants. For ten cents the machines played personalities played “themselves”; i.e., their short (usually three minutes) black-and-white public personas, if indeed they were called musical films known as “soundies” that fea- upon to act at all. This was partly due to the tured many of the top bands and singers of fact that few of them could really act beyond the time. delivering a few woodenly-spoken lines. Some of these shorts were a bit more “far Some, like Harry James, took acting lessons— out” than Hollywood product and they were or so the publicity said. shot at minimal cost as well. It is estimated Because diversion for the home front was there were some 1,800 produced and lately so important during World War II these few there has been a concerted effort to preserve years probably marked the epitome of on- these almost-neglected slices of Americana screen music groups. Musicals were at the which were the precursors of music videos. height of their popularity and nearly every stu- Since Hollywood has always been better at dio, from MGM and 20th Century–Fox at the following, exploiting and capitalizing on more prestigious end (they usually made theirs trends than setting them, the musical groups in blazing Technicolor) to the less exalted Uni- Preface 3 versal produced a string of them. The latter early 1940s and is often attributed to musician studio generally starred lesser-known young Spade Cooley. and bouncy performers in their minor “A” Although it never gained much popularity black-and-white programmers, usually with east of the Appalachians, western swing did short running times. spread to the West Coast and ultimately to the The end of World War II brought about the notice of Hollywood. Los Angeles became the beginning of the end of the Big Bands for sev- home base to many western and even hillbilly eral reasons. Among them were changing mu- bands (e.g., the original Beverly Hill Billies).