The Virtual Victrola

A three minute tour around 1929 Berlin

Accompanied by Marlene Dietrich's English vocal of "Blonde Women" (actually merely a vocal refrain to a wonderful hot dance performance) and another unknown period piece. 

Fun stuff, and a nostalgic (perhaps bittersweet) look back at one of Europe's most beautiful cities before it was spiritually ravaged by National Socialism and physically ravaged by World War Two.

(Found it here.)

In My Merry Oldsmobile

Probably the most enduring popular song written about the automobile is Gus Edwards' and Vincent Bryan's "In My Merry Oldsmobile," which was written in 1905 and is still recognized by a great many people today:

Young Johnny Steele has an Oldsmobile

He loves his dear little girl

She is the queen of his gas machine

She has his heart in a whirl

Now when they go for a spin, you know,

She tries to learn the auto, so

He lets her steer, while he gets her ear

And whispers soft and low...

Come away with me, Lucille

In my merry Oldsmobile

Down the road of life we'll fly

"Automobubbling," you and I

To the church we'll swiftly steal

Then our wedding bells will peal

You can go as far as you like with me

In my merry Oldsmobile.

Naturally this song has been recorded by many artists over the years.  Our first record is an "original version" recorded by the prolific singer Billy Murray for Columbia Records in 1906:

Download Billy Murray - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)

In 1927, the Jean Goldkette Orchestra was invited by General Motors to make an updated record of the song.  One side of the record was a waltz arrangement of the song in the traditional style, while the other side, the one I have included here, is a lively fox-trot arranged by Bill Challis.  It notably features cornetist Bix Beiderbecke improvising over the last chorus.  These performances were recorded by Victor Records in May of 1927, and the special record was given by GM as a souvenir to those who attended the 1927 Detroit Auto Show.  (If you click on the label image, you'll notice that one of the composers is incorrectly listed as "Vincent Edwards.")

Download Jean Goldkette - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)

Our final version of "In My Merry Oldsmobile" dates from 1946 and features Les Brown and his Orchestra, with vocals by Pat Flaherty and Butch Stone.  This swinging 1946 arrangement captures the excitement of American car buyers who anxiously awaited the arrival of the new post-war American automobiles.  (If you recall, US domestic auto production was halted from 1942 through 1945, as Detroit's factories were re-tooled to produce military vehicles and airplanes.)  The new 1947 Oldsmobile featured Hydra-Matic Drive, the first practical automatic transmission, and attractive "fast back" styling.  (The legendary "Rocket V8" Oldsmobile engine wasn't introduced until 1949.)

Download Les Brown - In My Merry Oldsmobile (mp3)

Billy Murray, who successfully transitioned from records to broadcasting and had become a radio star in the late 1920's due in part to his partnership with another singer, Walter Scanlon, was invited by the Max Fleischer studios to to lead a sing-along cartoon of "In My Merry Oldsmobile" that was released by the studio in 1932:

Lots of vintage Oldsmobile advertisements are available here.  I always enjoy looking at old car ads from the 1950's, if for no other reason than to appreciate the effots of artists to draw the cars so they look as big is possible.

"Futuristic Rhythm" audio program #5 - Going Hollywood

Episode #5 of Futuristic Rhythm takes a look back at the halcyon days of pre-code Hollyood, especially the flood of pioneering movie musicals from 1929 and 1930.  All of the songs contained in the program were premiered in films.  This extended edition of the program runs 72 minutes instead of the usual hour.

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Download Going Hollywood pt. 1.mp3

Download Going Hollywood pt. 2.mp3

Download Going Hollywood pt. 3.mp3

Download Going Hollywood pt. 4.mp3

Download Going Hollywood pt. 5.mp3

(Update - I've fixed the URL's in the above links)

The  playlist for the show is in the extended section below:

Irene Taylor

One of my favorite girl singers of the late 1920's and early 1930's is the beautiful and talented Irene Taylor.  Biographical information about Ms. Taylor is scarce, but she had a successful career on Broadway and on the radio.  She was also the first female singer hired by orchestra leader and "King of Jazz" Paul Whiteman.  Taylor's 1928 recording of "Mississippi Mud" with the Whiteman Orchestra, featuring a hot cornet solo by Bix Beiderbecke, is considered a jazz classic. 

Taylor also scored a 1933 hit as a vocalist with Whiteman with the song "Willow Weep For Me," now an American standard.  Taylor was married to pianist/singer/bandleader Seger Ellis, and during the late 1930's she recorded several sides with Ellis' orchestra, that were released both as commercial recordings and radio transcriptions.

As far as I know, Irene Taylor's only film appearance is this July 1934 Vitaphone short entitled Listening In.  It was part of a series of film shorts that featured performances by popular radio stars of the era -- the only way for audiences to actually see their favorite stars sing!  Ms. Taylor sings the Dave Franklin song, "I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreamin'".

Here is Irene Taylor with Bix Beiderbecke and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra performing "Mississippi Mud," recorded Feb. 18, 1928:

Download Paul Whiteman - Mississippi Mud.mp3

Here is Irene Taylor singing with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra on Nov. 17, 1932:

Download Paul Whiteman - Willow Weep For Me.mp3

Download Paul Whiteman - So At Last It's Come To This.mp3

"Dancing The Devil Away"

In my previous post I briefly mentioned the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey and the actress Dorothy Lee, who starred with Wheeler and Woolsey in a number of comedy shorts and feature films during the 1930's.

One of the first of these films was The Cuckoos, adapted by RKO Pictures for Wheeler and Woolsey from a Broadway musical entitled The Ramblers.  In the film, Wheeler and Woolsey play a pair of con artists scamming the wealthy patrons of a posh resort by pretending to be fortune tellers.  Dorothy Lee plays the alluring gypsy maiden Anita, a former lover of Bert Wheeler's character, Sparrow.

In addition to fine performances by Wheeler and Woolsey, "The Cuckoos" boasted an outstanding score by popular Broadway tunesmiths Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.  Arguably the most dazzling production number from the film, enhanced by the use of two-tone Technicolor, was centered around the Kalmar-Ruby song "Dancing The Devil Away."  The gypsy queen, played by Margarita Padua, sternly warns Anita (Dorothy Lee) of the temptations awating her ... but all she has to do to rid herself of temptation is dance!  And dance she does, amid a stage full of outrageously-costumed chorines --

 

The famous twin piano duo of Phil Ohman and Victor Arden recorded "Dancing The Devil Away" along with their Victor studio orchestra and vocalist  Frank Luther in March 1930.

 

Download Arden-Ohman Orch - Dancing the Devil Away.mp3

"Sweetheart We Need Each Other"

One of the most spectacular early talkie musicals was RKO's 1929 production of "Rio Rita." 

Rio Rita began as a 1927 operetta produced by Florenz Ziegfield, featuring clever dialog, an engaging story, several hit songs by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy, and Ziegfield's elaborately-staged musical numbers.  The 1927 stage production of Rio Rita also united Robert Woolsey and Bert Wheeler, veteran vaudeville performers who were both well-known, but who had never before worked together.  As a comedy team, Wheeler and Woolsey were an incredible smash hit, stealing the show and becoming one of the most in-demand comedy teams for the rest of the decade.

In 1929, RKO Pictures began work on a musical film version of the hit stage play.  The film kept Ziegfield's  stage numbers, replete with elaborate sets and dancing girls in showy, if not occasionally revealing, costumes.  RKO decided to cast two of its hottest talkie stars, John Boles and Bebe Daniels, as the movie's lead players.  Wheeler and Woolsey were the only original cast members from the stage show used in the film.  The movie also incorporated the show's original musical score, with the addition of new songs by McCarthy and Tierney.  The second half of the film, including its most elaborate musical numbers and dramatic finale, was shot in two-tone Technicolor.

Since Wheeler and Woolsey's roles were expanded for the film version of "Rio Rita," Bert Wheeler was given the freedom to choose his leading lady.  He picked Dorothy Lee, an 18 year old doe-eyed brunette beauty who had been singing with the Fred Waring Orchestra in their show Hello Yourself.  Wheeler and Lee seemed to be made for each other on the screen, and she went on to star with Wheeler and Woolsey in several other comedy films during the 1930's.

One of the new songs written for the movie "Rio Rita" was "Sweetheart We Need Each Other," introduced by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee in a touching Technicolor sequence that segues into a short, snappy dance number.  Dorothy Lee is visibly nervous in this scene, continually glancing off-stage for cues or perhaps having difficulty following the conductor (the singing was recorded live, along with the dancing, and the orchestra was playing live off-stage).  Still, Lee's native charm (and that gorgeous dress) makes the scene work.  Enjoy it --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6_Fe3z0iE 
(Embedding has been disabled for this video.)

"Rio Rita" was a smash hit, even though it ran over 140 minutes.   Many venues held the film over for three and even four weeks.  Wheeler, Woolsey, and Dorothy Lee became international stars, and the songs from the film went on to become some of the biggest hits of 1929.  Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orchestra recorded "Sweetheart We Need Each Other" on Aug. 22, 1929.  The vocalist is Harold "Scrappy" Lambert (even though label credit is "Burt Lorin") and the trombone soloist is Jack Teagarden.

Download Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orch - Sweetheart We Need Each Other.mp3

In 1932, RKO re-released a "modernized" version of "Rio Rita" for both domestic and foreign distribution.  RKO cut over 40 minutes from the film, mostly songs and musical numbers.  Most of the surviving prints of the film are the 1932 version, although prints of the full 1929 film do exist.  While the 1932 film is enjoyable, the cuts are obvious.  Blogger Jeff Cohen writes, "Musical cues slowly rise only to be cut away from, characters are spoken of yet never seen in the context of the moment, dancers are seen exiting scenes that they were never seen to enter, and unintentional jumps in continuity all serve to make what was once a finely tooled, tried and true success seem the work of amateur filmmakers, performers and technicians."

Perhaps someday the full version of the film will be restored to its opulent Ziegfieldian splendor.

(Many of the images in this post are from Jeff Cohen's essay on the original 1929 "Rio Rita.")

"Check and Double Check"

Check and Double Check was RKO Pictures' failed attempt at bringing the popular radio program Amos 'N' Andy to the big screen.   The film made good money at the box office due to the popularity of the Amos 'N' Andy show, but it was a resounding critical flop and audiences were generally disappointed with the film.  Fortunately, it includes a short segment featuring Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, the creators of Amos and Andy, were popular vaudeville and radio stars during the 1920's.  Their act centered around "blackface," whereby a white performer impersonates a black character.  Blackface was mainly used by white performers in order to give their characters a degree of freedom that would not be acceptable otherwise.  This was based on the notion that blacks were less morally strict than whites; consequently, playing a black character allowed a white performer to give more of an "anything goes" or "jazzy" aspect to their show.  And if the performer was a comedian, blackface gave the show an entire range of language, dress, and other social dimensions to make fun of. 

Blackface (and variations where white performers played oriental, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern characters) was also used because of restrictions that prevented whites from performing together on stage with actors of other races.  This was especially true in the South, where "mixed" entertainment was strictly forbidden.  Despite its questionable nature, blackface was an extremely popular form of entertainment for nearly a century, from the end of the Civil War through the end of World War II.  If you would like to read a good discussion of the stereotypes and other racial issues that plagued Amos 'N' Andy and other entertainment from the first half of the twentieth century, then you will enjoy this essay.

And here is an early recording of Correll and Gosden performing a routine featuring their first two blackface characters, Sam and Henry:

Download Correll and Gosden - Let's Talk About My Sweetie.mp3

One of Check and Double Check's biggest defects stemmed from the awkwardness of integrating real African Americans with Correll and Gosden's blackface characters.  One of the solutions to this problem was to feature a popular African American orchestra in the film.  This also solved another problem, which was how to establish a plausible relationship between Amos and Andy and the film's white characters.  In blackface as Amos and Andy, Correll and Gosden operated the Fresh Air Taxi Cab Company, which serviced Harlem.  The duo was hired to cram the Ellington orchestra into their rickety cab and drive them to a country estate, where they performed for a white high-society audience.  At the estate, Ellington's orchestra is seen performing "Three Little Words" and "Old Man Blues."

Curiously, film producers were concerned that valve trombonist Juan Tizol (who was Cuban) and reedman Barney Bigard (a Creole from New Orleans) did not look black enough.  RKO planned to heavily promote this film in the South, so in order to avoid a scandal that would surely arise from any scene where blacks and whites appeared to be mixed, RKO chiefs ordered Bigard and Tizol to wear blackface makeup during the filming of the scene.

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra recorded all the music that appeared in the film.  He recorded "Three Little Words" and "Old Man Blues" twice, once for Victor under his own name and again for Okeh as The Harlem Footwarmers.   He also recorded "Double Check Stomp" three times, for Victor under his own name, for Okeh as Mills' Ten Blackberries, and for Brunswick as The Jungle Band.

Here are the Victor recordings of "Three Little Words" and "Old Man Blues."  These are the best-known versions of these two tunes.  These records were made in Hollywood, while the Ellington band was filming its segment for the movie.  The vocal group on "Three Little Words" is Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys (Al Rinker, Harry Barris, and Bing Crosby).  The Rhythm Boys also sing the refrain heard in the film, although the Ellington trumpet section lip-syncs the vocal using megaphones.

Download duke_ellington_three_little_words.mp3

Download duke_ellington_old_man_blues.mp3

And here are all three versions of "Double Check Stomp."  Although this tune was not used in the film, it was written in celebration of Duke's invitatin to appear in the film.  Ellington often recorded the same compositions multiple times contemporaneously during his career, and with this tune we get a great opportunity to study how Ellington accomplished this difficult feat.

"Double Check Stomp" was originally recorded for Victor on April 11, 1930.  Not quite two weeks later, Ellington was in the Brunswick studios, where he recorded the tune again; its release was credited to The Jungle Band.  The Jungle Band version includes an expanded opening ensemble, re-voiced and with the brass added.  Accordion virtuoso Cornell Smelser was also on hand for this record; the flip side was a Smelser feature, "Accordion Joe".  Finally, Ellington recorded "Double Check Stomp" again for Okeh in June 1930.  This recording is much more relaxed than the two earlier versions, and illustrates the stylistic transition that was occurring at the time, as bands moved away from playing "hot" and gravitated toward swing.

Download duke_ellington_double_check_stomp_victor_version.mp3

Download duke_ellington_double_check_stomp_brunswick_version.mp3

Download duke_ellington_double_check_stomp_okeh_version.mp3

"Happy Feet!"

In 1928 Paul Whiteman signed a contract with Universal Pictures to star in a musical extravaganza built around his orchestra.  Filming was scheduled to commence in the summer of 1929, and the Whiteman Orchestra boarded a train for Hollywood in May of that year.

Universal planned to capitalize on the two biggest developments in motion picture technology -- synchronized sound-on-film technology and the newly improved Technicolor Process 2 -- to create the greatest musical motion picture of the era.  When the Whiteman Orchestra arrived in Hollywood, Universal built an extravagant lodge for the band members on its back lot and allowed the boys in the band full access to the studio, a priviledge soon ended after one too many pranks from the band's two prominent jokers, Bing Crosby and Joe Venuti.

Unfortunately, Universal's creative department could not come up with a script that Whiteman liked.  A series of ideas (including a romantic comedy starring the 300 lb. Whiteman) was sent to the stage and props departments, and lavish sets and costumes were manufactured for each of them.  Universal finally had to curtail the creative development of the film, since hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent without any film being shot.  An unhappy Whiteman boarded the train with his musicians again in August and headed back to New York with the understanding that his band would not make the trip again until a final script had been approved.

The final approval came in October 1929.  The film would be titled "The King of Jazz" and would be a musical revue showcasing the band along with comedy routines, dancing, and romantic vignettes featuring some of Universal's biggest stars.  Filming ran from Nov. 1929 through Feb. 1930.  At Whiteman's insistence, the music for the film was recorded in a soundproof studio, and the recordings were synced to live-action footage of the band and live sound from the various performers.   This pioneering effort became the standard practice for films, since it allowed the subtleties of music to be recorded without interfering noise from lights, cameras, or other equipment.  (It also explains why period films of jazz musicians are often slightly out of sync with the music; it is nearly impossible for an improvising musician to exactly pantomime a previously recorded solo!)

The film premiered in New York in April 1930 to generally good reviews, but even with the star power of Jeannie Lang and John Boles, it underperformed during its entire initial run, bringing in only $900,000 nationwide.  Unfortunately for Universal, the lavish sets and first-class accommodations given to the band the previous year had pushed the cost of the film to nearly $2 million.  Rival studios nicknamed the film "Rhapsody in Red."

"The King of Jazz" opened in here Oklahoma City at the end of August 1930 and played a two week engagement at the Liberty theater.   Searching through the online archives of the Daily Oklahoman, I could find no large newspaper ads for the film, only a brief write-up in the entertainment section of the August 31, 1930 paper.  Perhaps there was little money for advertising the film, considering its already inflated budget and the toll that the Great Depression was already taking on the Hollywood boxoffice.

One of the better numbers from the film is the Milt Ager-Jack Yellen song "Happy Feet," which is the subject of an extravagant 6 minute long segment featuring The Rhythm Boys (Harry Barris, Al Rinker, and Bing Crosby), The Sisters G (Eleanor and Karla Gutchrlein),  rubber-legged dancer Al Norman and the Russell Markert Girls, all accompanied by the Whiteman Orchestra.  There is even a surprise dance number at the end by Paul himself; actually Paul Whiteman's dance double was Paul Small (his real name!), an acrobatic dancer and long-time Whiteman imitator, not to be confused with the singer of the same name.  This YouTube excerpt also includes a short comedy skit with Slim Summerville and Otis Harlan.

 

The Paul Whiteman Orchestra also recorded all the major songs from the film.  "Happy Feet" was recorded on Feb. 10, 1930 and was released by Columbia on the classic Paul Whiteman "Potato Head" personalized label.  The Rhythm Boys sing the vocal chorus and soloists include Chet Hazlett on alto saxophone, Andy Secrest on cornet and Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang in a violin-guitar duo.
Download Paul Whiteman and his Orch - Happy Feet.mp3

 

"Happy Feet" was also recorded by The Revelers, a popular vocal quartet that had appeared together on records since 1925.  The members of The Revelers on this October 1930 recording are Lewis James, James Melton, Elliott Shaw, and Wilfred Glenn.  The pianist is Frank Black.  Upon hearing this record, a friend of mine remarked, "That sounds like the old cartoons I used to watch as a kid."  And indeed, the style is similar to the musical numbers that linger on the sountracks of work by the Fleischer Brothers and other pioneer cartoon producers.
Download The Revelers - Happy Feet.mp3

"Nobody's Sweetheart"

Hillary Clinton's almost tragic loss of  her position as the anointed front-runner in the US presidential race has inspired me to search for a theme song for her campaign.  I think I've found one.

 

Nobody's Sweetheart is quite an old song, published in 1924 with music by Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, and lyrics by Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman.  Jazz musicians took an immediate liking to the tune, and ever since its inception it has been a favorite of jazz players and listeners everywhere.  Here are the lyrics:

You're nobody's sweetheart now,
they don't baby you somehow.
Fancy hose, silken gown,
you'd be out of place in your own hometown.
When you walk down the avenue,
They just can't believe that it's you.
Painted lips, painted eyes,
wearing a bird of paradise.
It all seems wrong somehow that
you're nobody's sweetheart now.

Our introductory recording is a rare version taken from a battered old Romeo 78 that I found in a junk shop many years ago.  The band is listed anonymously on the label as "Hollywood Dance Orchestra," but we are actually listening to a house orchestra under the direction of Adrian Schubert, featuring a vocal by Scrappy Lambert (billed on the label as "Ralph Haines"),  some great hot trumpet by the largely forgotten Bob Effros, a fantastic trombone solo by Miff Mole, and accordion work by Charlie Magnante.

Download Hollywood Dance Orch - Nobody's Sweetheart.mp3

Red Nichols and his Five Pennies recorded this relaxed version of "Nobody's Sweetheart" on Feb. 25, 1928.  Included in this recording are Nichols on cornet, Miff Mole on trombone, Dud Fosdick on the mellophone, Fud Livingston and Pee Wee Russell on reeds (I believe Pee Wee is the clarinet soloist), Lennie Hayton on piano, Carl Kress on guitar, and Vic Berton on drums.

Download Red Nichols - Nobody's Sweetheart.mp3

Perhaps the best-known recording of "Nobody's Sweetheart" is this energetic version recorded by Cab Calloway in December 1930.

Download Cab Calloway - Nobody's Sweetheart.mp3

Paul Whiteman recorded "Nobody's Sweetheart" first in 1929, then again in 1935.  This recording was conceived as a feature for singer/trombonist Jack Teagarden. 

Download Paul Whiteman-Jack Teagarden - Nobody's Sweetheart.mp3

Finally, here is a great Betty Boop short from 1932 entitled "Betty Boop, M. D." which finds Betty and KoKo and Bimbo staging an old-fashioned medicine show in order to peddle a snake-oil cure called "Jippo."  Bimbo, voiced by a Cliff Edwards sound-alike, sings "Nobody's Sweetheart" during the last two minutes of the cartoon.

"Got A Feelin' For You"

Here's a rare treat - a rare film clip from 1929 of Joan Crawford singing, and a great performance of the same song by the Victor studio band The High Hatters.

Joan was one of the stars of MGM's musical spectacular "The Hollywood Revue of 1929."  She is introduced as "the the personification of youth and beauty and joy and happiness."  She sings "Got A Feelin' for You," written by Jo Trent and Louis Alter.  Not only does she sing convincingly, she also does an energetic flapper dance accompanied by a chorus of male singers.

Although her career in films is badly tarnished today through the controversial accusations of her daughter Christina, Joan Crawford was one of the screens brightest stars during the late 1920's and early 1930's.  She made the transition from silent films to talkies flawlessly.  Her classic beauty was eclipsed by only a select few.  And her screen persona was mesmerizing.  Perhaps fellow actress and Crawford's long-time nemesis Bette Davis summed it up best:  "Christ, that broad had a face."

In July 1929, the Victor studio band The High Hatters, under the direction of Leonard Joy, recorded "Got A Feelin' For You."  Frank Luther is the vocalist on this record, and the muted jazz trumpet solo is by Mike Mosiello.

Download The High Hatters - Got A Feelin' For You.mp3

I think I'll also throw in the other side of the record, "Low Down Rhythm," written by Raymond Klages and Jesse Greer.  This song was also featured in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 as part of a song and dance routine by June Purcell and female chorus.  Frank Luther is the vocalist on this side also, and Mike Mosiello again is the trumpet soloist.

Download The High Hatters - Lowdown Rhythm.mp3

And here is Joan Crawford:

PS - a bit of poking around on YouTube revealed that all of The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is available (including June Purcell's rendition of "Low Down Rhythm" and all the film's the rare 2-color Technicolor sequences) from twentiesDOLL12213.