We note the passing of legendary actress
Shirley Temple yesterday at age 85. Despite her countless starring roles in major motion pictures, she is today best-known as the inventor of the non-alcoholic cocktail. Nonetheless, she has a
Raymond Scott connection—or two. The first she knew about. The second, probably not.
A young (age 9) Shirley tap-danced with
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to Raymond Scott's "
Toy Trumpet" in the 1937 film
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (YouTube clip
here.) The scene was apparently captured in one continuous take. The Raymond Scott Quintette performed the tune, but do not appear on camera (though they do appear in costume in the above publicity still).
After their breakout radio and recording success in New York in 1937, Raymond and his band were signed to 20th Century-Fox and whisked off to Hollywood. They provided music for and sometimes appeared in a half-dozen or so films with such major stars as
Carole Lombard, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, and
Sonja Henie. Scott reportedly disliked the film industry, which he found shallow. About studio execs he once griped, "They think everything is
wonderful." The costumes in the above photo were no doubt another reason for Scott to despise Tinseltown. "We are musicians," he groused, "not comedians."
The Marr Archives, which houses the Raymond Scott collection, includes a disc with an unfinished composition entitled "Shirley's Tune." It dates from the RSQ's Hollywood sojourn, but the unreleased work never made it into the film and its purpose remains a mystery. However, it was sampled by The Bran Flakes on the forthcoming remix album
Raymond Scott Rewired, on the track "Shirley's Temple Bells," which you can hear on
Soundcloud.
Featuring actors & props rendered in LEGO®, this short animated music video film, A Grand and Merry Race, won first prize at the Brickfest Animation Festival. The soundtrack contains passages from Raymond Scott's classic "Powerhouse." Watch it: here
For some reason we've never posted the film clip of Scott's legendary 1937-39 Quintette miming "Twilight in Turkey" in the 1937 Eddie Cantor farce Ali Baba Goes to Town. It's both entertaining and historically significant. There is precious little footage of the 1930s RSQ, and despite the gag performance, the viewer gets the sense of the band's chemistry. Scott typically assumes a minor role—no close-ups, a mere background prop, as befits his often acknowledged discomfort being on camera. What immediately comes to mind is Scott's derisive quote about why he left Hollywood and flew his band back to New York a year later: "We are musicians, not comedians." Nevertheless, it's great to see drummer Johnny Williams even when he's faking it.
