Hollywood On 52nd Street
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You lyrics were written by Ned Washington and the music by George Bassman and surfaced to become a jazz classic out of the 1947 fictionalized biographical film The Fabulous Dorseys.
The Story: The rise and rise of the Fabulous Dorsey brothers is charted from their humble beginnings of boyhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in this whimsical step down memory lane, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey play themselves in this vehicle for their excellent music. From being raised by their father who insists on them learning music, to the split that just saw their careers rise even further, to their personal reunion.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Harry Warren composed the music and Mack Gordon, the lyrics for the now jazz standard, I Had the Craziest Dream, for the 1942 film Springtime In The Rockies. The film starred Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Harry James and His Music Makers and the vocal group Six Hits and a Miss.
The Story: Broadway partners Vicky Lane and Dan Christy have a tiff over Christy’s womanizing. Jealous Vicky takes up with her old flame and former dance partner, Victor Price, and Dan’s career takes a nosedive. In hopes of rekindling their romance and getting Vicky back on the boards with him, Dan follows her to a ritzy resort in the Canadian Rockies, where she and Victor are about to open their new act. But things get complicated when Dan wakes after a bender to find that he’s hired an outlandish Latin secretary, Rosita Murphy, which makes Vicky think he’s just up to his old tricks again.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Stormy Weather is both title track composed by Harold Arlen in 1933 and title of the 1943 film starring Lena Horne, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, Ada Brown, Dooley Wilson and the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold. The romantic role of Selina, was invented for the film as Robinson did not have such a romance in real life. The song has been performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Red Garland, Charles Mingus, Don Byas to name a few. But the classic Horne is what you’ll hear.
The Story: The film is based upon the life and times of its star, dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson who plays Bill Williamson, a talented born dancer who returns home in 1918 after fighting in World War I and attempts to pursue a career as a performer. With his perpetually broke friend Gabe Tucker (Dooley Wilson along the way, he meets a beautiful singer named Selina Rogers (Lena Horne) at a soldiers’ ball and promises to come back to her when he “gets to be somebody.” Years go by, and Bill and Selina’s rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to settle down.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
This Time The Dream’s On Me was given to the jazz world when Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer penned what would become a classic standard. Debuting in the 1941 film, Blues In The Night, starring Priscilla Lane, Jack Carson, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Wallace Ford and Elia Kazan.
The Story: Jigger Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger “Character” Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play ‘blues’ music. The dedication isn’t paying off in money and while riding the rails in a boxcar they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former real-good friend of Davis. But when Powell learns that Character is about to have a baby, he returns to her. Jigger tries to make Kay the band’s singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown. Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with “Jigger”, who knows better but just can’t help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in that condition. He gets in and drives the car over a cliff, leaving no survivors in the two-passenger crash. The band is back together at the end, still using boxcars as their transportation, but happy playing the blues.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Irving Berlin composed Blue Skies in 1926 as a last-minute addition to the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy. After only 39 performances the song was an instant success, though the show closed. However, in 1927, it became one of the first songs to be featured in a talkie, when Al Jolson performed it in The Jazz Singer.
The Story: The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy the traditions of his religious father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer. Cantor Rabinowitz is concerned and upset because his son Jakie shows so little interest in carrying on the family’s traditions and heritage. For five generations, men in the family have been cantors in the synagogue, but Jakie is more interested in jazz and ragtime music. One day, they have such a bitter argument that Jakie leaves home for good. After a few years on his own, now calling himself Jack Robin, he gets an important opportunity through the help of well-known stage performer Mary Dale. But Jakie finds that in order to balance his career, his relationship with Mary, and his memories of his family, he will be forced to make some difficult choices.
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