Saint-Archives.com Forum

I am delighted to see that there have been over 2,000 visits to Lea's main topic in the last 10 days!  - making over 52,000 viewings to date.

I think that Lea would be happy!

Thanks to all looking in from time to time. 

Best wishes, Vic.  21 July 2011.

Thanks very much Bernd for the help with the syntax, etc.  On my screen, the "chain" button is the 11th button from the left in the second row of available buttons.  The "chain" is an insert/edit link but it is not available for actual use for some reason.  Next to it, the 12th button is a "broken chain" for unlink - however, this is also greyed out and so unavailable.

I am very pleased that we have had over 7,000 new viewings of Lea's wallpapers in under 4 weeks, making over 57,000 to date on this one topic alone.

Regards from London where, at last, we've had some Sun after the clouds all day.

7 Aug 2011.

"You're Beautiful Tonight, My Dear" (Lombardo/Young) with Bing Crosby crooning with the backing of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

This ballad was recorded by Bing in New York on 12th January 1933 for Brunswick Records. Note that in those days, often the singer would not come in till about a third way through the performance waiting for the band's lead-in.

Hear Bing sing at:

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"THE TOUCH OF YOUR LIPS" - The wallpaper below is based on the the beautiful "Kiss" photo taken by Chris in Prague in September 2003.

The song, "The Touch of Your Lips" was composed  by British bandleader Ray Noble.

The singing that can be heard here is one of two recordings of the song made by Bing Crosby in March 1936 in Los Angeles, USA for Decca Records with musical accompaniment is by Victor Young and his Orchestra.

Hear Bing at: 

Ray Noble also composed amongst others:

"Goodnight Sweetheart"
"I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You"
"Love Is The Sweetest Thing"
"The Very Thought of You"

Below: from the Web: http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C235

The songs of the late English bandleader and composer, Ray Noble, are very much of the type for which many take a historical look backwards in saying, "They don't write songs like that - anymore." And without denigrating the wonderful output of songwriters of the nineties, songs like those in Noble's amazing catalogue are simply not being written today.

The coterie of classic songs, included the enduring, "The Very Thought Of You," "The Touch Of Your Lips," Love Is The Sweetest Thing" and "I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You," the latter highly popularized by the famed Tommy Dorsey Band in the late '30s. Many of those remarkable songs were given prominent voice when Ray Noble led in the words of the New York Times' John Wilson, "an extraordinary American jazz band," in the RCA Building's glittering centerpiece, The Rainbow Room.

Born in Brighton, England, in 1907, Noble from an early moment in his life showed distinctive musical tendencies. He studied piano and. arranging as a youth, and at 19, won an arranging competition staged by the English journal of popular music and jazz, The Melody Maker. At 21, he became a staff arranger for the BBC and a year later was named a musical advisor for His Master's Voice (HMV) Records.

For HMV, he became conductor of its house band, known as the New Mayfair Orchestra. The original New Mayfair Orchestra, composed usually of top flight sidemen from other bands in London, was inherited from The Savoy Hotel bandleader, Carroll Gibbons, about whom Noble once wrote, "It consisted very largely of his own lads, who in those affluent days, used to arrive at the studio in riding britches, fresh from a session on horseback in Hyde Park."

Noble wrote his first major hit, the immortal "Goodnight Sweetheart," in 1931, and soon followed it with "By The Fireside," "I Found You" and "What More Can I Ask."

Ray Noble's band recordings were the first by a British ensemble to achieve popularity in the United States, so much so, particularly among college students, that in 1934 he journeyed to America, along with drummer/manager, Bill Harty, and the distinctive South African Vocalist, Al Bowlly. The American bandleader/trombonist, Glenn Miller, helped Noble organize an American orchestra, which at various times in its evolution, included such future bandleaders as Claude Thornhill, Charlie Spivak, Pee Wee Irwin, Will Bradley and soloists Bud Freeman and George Van Epps.

While the band achieved marked success, especially during its engagements in The Rainbow Room, it never reached the level of his British bands and was disbanded in 1937, when Noble went west to Hollywood to begin a brand new and very different career as a radio conductor and comedian. He appeared, as one writer/critic put it, "as a silly ass Englishman in the Fred Astaire movie, A Damsel In Distress." He worked extensively with Astaire and later was a back-up singer on Buddy Clarke's number one American hits "Linda" and "I'll Dance At Your Wedding."

Noble continued producing hit recordings in the late '30s, and records of his compositions, "Cherokee," by the Charlie Barnet Band and "I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You," by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra were widely recognized as swing era classics. Noble also played musical and comedy roles on the George Bums and Gracie Allen radio shows and with ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen as a stooge for Bergen's famous partner, Charlie McCarthy.

For some years thereafter, Noble lived in retirement in Santa Barbara. He died in London in April 1978 at age 71. His songs, however, live on as a living monument to his great composing skills.

There's been 10,000 extra viewings to this topic in the last 6 weeks or so, making a total of nearly 60,000 to date.

Thanks very much to everyone for helping to keep lovely Lea's memory alive.

The song "I Have Eyes" is from Bing's 1939 film "Paris Honeymoon". Here is the film clip (the sound is a bit low).

I particularly like the final verse,..

I have eyes to see with
And yet when we're apart
I close my eyes
And see with my heart

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A beautiful song performed by Judy Garalnd (and also later Frank Sinatra). Judy tried to get it into one of her movies "In The Good Old Summertime" (1949) but unfortunately, it wasn't selected. I wonder if an unused film scene exists?

There are two touching performances of Judy on the Web:

From Wiki:

"Last Night When We Were Young" is a 1935 popular song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Yip Harburg. Arlen regarded it as the favourite of the songs that he had written.^[1] Lawrence Tibbett recorded the song on October 9, 1935.^[1] It was cut from his film Metropolitan but performed instrumentally behind the credits.^[2]

"Last Night When We Were Young" was highly regarded by Judy Garland, who recorded it twice, and frequently performed it.^[1] Composer Alec Wilder called it a "most remarkable and beautiful song" that "goes far beyond the boundaries of popular music." Continuing, he stated that "it is unlike any other Arlen song that I have heard. However, it is unmistakably his."^[2] Harburg did not know where he acquired the title, saying, "the juxtaposition of those two phrases is almost a whole world of philosophy".^[1]

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Judy Garland sings "Last Night When We Were Young" and note Mickey Rooney in the film clips.

From the Web:

The 1936 movie starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunn with songs composed by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II. 

Show Boat is arguably the finest musical ever produced by Hollywood. Not only does the movie contain an impressive array of wonderful and entertaining musical numbers, the acting is is excellent and the story compelling. All the performers are impressive. Irene Dunne, Helen Morgan, Alan Jones, Charles Winninger, Hattie McDaniel, Sammy White and all the others are excellent. But especially impressive is Paul Robeson, particularly Robeson's classic rendition of "Ol' Man River." Although cast in a supporting role, Robeson's presence nonetheless dominates the movie. "Show Boat" is definitely worth watching, and although the movie candidly deals with serious social issues, it's still a movie for the entire family.

A few further comments about the scene with Paul Robeson singing "Ol' Man River." This version of "Ol' Man River" has to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, single musical piece ever filmed by a Hollywood studio. What's also remarkable is that the movie was produced and directed by James Whale, a former British POW with no previous experience in making movie musicals. It just proves that when given the chance and the encouragement people can excel and do great things."

Allan Jones:

Jones, of Welsh ancestry, starred in many film musicals during the 1930s and 1940s. The best-known of these were Show Boat (1936), and The Firefly (1937) (in which he sang the popular "Donkey Serenade"). However, he is now best remembered as the romantic straight man to the Marx Brothers in their first two MGM productions: A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races

On the strength of his appearance in  A Night at the Opera,  however,  he won the coveted role of Gaylord Ravenal in the 1936 film version of Show Boat  (opposite Irene Dunne),  right  out  from  under  the  noses  of such screen musical favorites as Nelson Eddy and John Boles, neither of whom were noted for their acting.

(1936 Cinema Movie Poster)

Here is the movie song "You Are Love" as sung by Allan Jones and Irene Dunn.

NB. Jack Jones is the son of Allan Jones.

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Here's the song sung by Al Bowlly with Ray Noble's orchestra in 1934 as used on the Web in a tribute to vivacious Hollywood star, Jean Harlow - "The Platinum Blonde"(who died very young).

[video=http://saint-archives.activeboard.com/]

A couple of Jean Harlow's quotes are below:

"Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?"  
Jean Harlow (Helen) to Ben Lyon (Monte Rutledge), Hell's Angels (1930)

Jean Harlow: "I was reading a book the other day..... Do you know the guy said that machinery is going to take the profession of everybody."   Marie Dressler replies:-  "Oh, my dear, that's something you need never to worry about."
Dinner at Eight (1933)

From the Web:

Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911  June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s.^[1] Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" (due to her platinum blonde hair), Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute.   Harlow starred in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death from renal failure at age 26.

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The song "Midnight, The Stars and You" also played out the final scene and credits in the horror film "The Shining" (1980) starring Jack Nicholson.

A Review of the movie from the Web:

"When this film first came out in 1980, I remember going to see it on opening night. The sheer terror that I experienced in viewing "The Shining" was enough to make me go to bed with the lights turned ON every night for an entire summer. This movie just scared the life out of me, which is what still happens every time I rent the video for a re-watch.

I have seen The Shining at least six or seven times, and I still believe it to be simultaneously and paradoxically one of the most frightening and yet funniest films I've ever seen. Frightening because of the extraordinarily effective use of long shots to create feelings of isolation, convex lens shots to enhance surrealism, and meticulously scored music to bring tension levels to virtually unbearable levels. And "funny" because of Jack Nicholson's outrageous and in many cases ad-libbed onscreen antics. It never ceases to amaze me how The Shining is actually two films in one, both a comedy AND a horror flick.

Ghostly apparitions of a strikingly menacing nature haunt much of the first half of the film, which gradually evolve into ever more serious physical threats as time progresses. Be that as it may, there is surprisingly little violence given the apparent intensity, but that is little comfort for the feint of heart as much of the terror is more implied than manifest.

The Shining is a truly frightening movie that works symbolically on many levels, but is basically about human shortcomings and the way they can be exploited by unconscious forces combined with weakness of will. This film scares the most just by using suggestion to turn your own imagination against you.

The Shining is a brilliant cinematic masterpiece, the likes of which have never been seen before or since.

Highly, highly recommended. - Paul"

In 6 days time, it will be the Seventh Anniversary since lovely Lea De Mae (Andrea) passed away on the 9th December 2004 at the age of only 27.

On this Forum, we have tried to keep Lea's memory alive and several members of the Lea's own Forum created by Chris Danneffel have been to visit the graveside in Dablice Cemetery to pay their respects and place some flowers on behalf of us all far away.

Special thanks to Adam, Pavel and Marek for their kind visits there.

"Here's looking at you, kid"

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