Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: bob crosby

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Let's Make Music(1941).

Bob Crosby with Betty Grable.

Let's Make Music(1941). Cast: Bob Crosby, Jean Rogers and Elisabeth Risdon. Written by Nathanael West. The songs in Let's Make Music include the Bing Crosby (Bob's brother) classic "Big Noise From Winnetka".

Malvina Adams, teaches music appreciation to the students of, Newton High, who prefer "swing" to Chopiln. Malvina decides to write a song for the school band, "Fight on for Newton High," . Malvina's niece Abby, mails the song to band, leader Bob Crosby, who is surprised to discover that the writer is an elderly woman. Malvina's debut is a big success only for a short time. After, Malvina's contract is canceled, she writes another tune, inspired by Central Park, but.. it is not very good until, Bob secretly rewrites the composition.

Lets Make Music, is a charming musical, that will make you will smile and it is a great treat to see a movie with Bob Crosby performing.

Jean Rogers (March 25, 1916 - February 24, 1991). She is best remembered as, Dale Arden, in two of the three Flash Gordon serials.

Jean Rogers, as a teenager in 1933, won a local beauty contest sponsored by Paramount Pictures, which helped launch a career in Hollywood. Rogers starred in a number of serials for Universal from 1935 to 1938, including: Ace Drummond and Flash Gordon.

Soundtracks:

"Fight on for Newton High"
Written by Roy Webb, Dave Dreyer and Herman Ruby
Played on piano and sung by Elisabeth Risdon
Reprised on piano by Donna Jean Dolfer with Elisabeth Risdon singing
Reprised by Bob Crosby Orchestra and sung by Elisabeth Risdon, Bob Crosby and the Bobcats

"You Forgot About Me"
Music by James F. Hanley
Lyrics by Richard Robertson and Sammy Mysels
Played by Bob Crosby Orchestra and sung by Bob Crosby and the Bobcats

"Three Little Words"
Lyrics by Bert Kalmar
Music by Harry Ruby
Played by Bob Crosby Orchestra

"The Big Noise from Winnetka"
Written by Gil Rodin, Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc and Bob Crosby
Played by Bob Crosby Orchestra
Sung by Bob Crosby and the Bobcats; whistled by Bob Haggart

"Central Park"
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Music by Matty Malneck
Played on piano by Jean Rogers and sung by Bob Crosby
Reprised at school with Donna Jean Dolfer on piano and sung by Gale Sherwood and the students

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Bob Crosby: Brother to Bing Crosby.

Bob Crosby, began his singing career with Anson Weeks and later with the Dorsey Brothers. He led his first band in 1935, when the former members of Ben Pollack's band elected him as leader. He recorded with the Clark Randall Orchestra in 1935, led by Gil Rodin and featuring singer Frank Tennille, whose pseudonym was Clark Randall. Glenn Miller was a member of that orchestra which recorded the Glenn Miller "When Icky Morgan Plays the Organ" in 1935. His most famous band, the Bob-Cats, was a Dixieland jazz group with members from the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Both the Bob Crosby Orchestra and the smaller Bob-Cats group best known for performing Dixieland jazz. Crosby's singing voice was similar to his brother Bing, but without its range.

The Bob Crosby Orchestra and the Bob Cats include: Yank Lawson, Billy Butterfield, Muggsy Spanier, Matty Matlock, Irving Fazola, Ward Silloway, Warren Smith, Eddie Miller, Joe Sullivan, Bob Zurke, Jess Stacy, Nappy Lamare, Bob Haggart, Walt Yoder, Jack Sperling, and Ray Bauduc. Arrangements for the orchestra were often done by a young trumpeter by the name of Gilbert Portmore who, during the time he was a decorated WWII fighter pilot in the South Pacific, started an Air Force swing band known as Cap'n Portmore's Hepcats.

The orchestra was actually led by sax player Gil Rodin, with Crosby himself simply the front man, chosen for his personality, looks, and famous last name.

Hits included "Summertime" (theme song), "In a Little Gypsy Tea Room", "Whispers in The Dark", "South Rampart Street Parade", "March of the Bob Cats", "Day In, Day Out", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Dolores" and "New San Antonio Rose" (last three with Bing Crosby). A bass and drums duet between Haggart and Bauduc, "Big Noise from Winnetka," became a hit in 1938-39.

Bob Crosby has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Television and Recording.

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.