Tag Archives: David Drazin

“Silent Records, Silent Movies,” by David Drazin

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(This is a revised and expanded version of the article that appeared in IAJRC Journal, Vol. 48, No. 4, December 2015)

Records appear in films from the silent era fairly often. One would think an image of records being played onscreen would be something to avoid in the era in which movies were accompanied by live musicians. On the contrary, records used, played and heard by actors in a motion picture could be everything from casual to a definite, and significant, placement in a picture.

Buster Keaton takes a record off his Grafonola turntable and hangs it on the wall in The Scarecrow, a 1921 comedy short.

Buster Keaton in "The Scarecrow."

Scarecrow2     Scarecrow3 Scarecrow4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It appears to be a “Magic Note” Columbia label, though we never get close enough to see for sure.

Scarecrow5

 

 

 

 

In this case it’s irrelevant, as the point is that Keaton has turned his machine into a stovetop and an oven.

 

 

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Navigator1

In The Navigator, Buster Keaton’s memorable 1924 comedy feature in which he and a  girl are marooned on a cast-adrift ocean liner, the record Asleep in the Deep, sung by Wilfred Glenn and Navigator2recorded in 1913 on Victor 17309, makes a strong showing. It looks like the song title on the record label was highlighted to direct our attention to it. Due to the rocking ship, the Victrola’s turntable is accidentally started. Though we know Keaton and the girl (played by Kathryn McGuire) can hear the record, we’re aided by the song’s lyrics being superimposed on the shot of the Victrola.

As this recording had already been around for ten years and the song was also recorded for all the other labels, not to mention being a common salon concert selection, presumably lots of people in the audience were familiar with it.

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In 2004 I was hired by the Milestone Film and Video company to record scores for several comedy shorts to be included on their forthcoming Charley Chase DVD set.

MamaBehave1

The opening shot of Mama Behave, a 1926 Hal Roach comedy directed by Leo McCarey, is the label: The Original Charleston by The Knickerbockers, recorded in early 1925 on Columbia 355-D. Naturally, I imagined having the chance to play The Charleston by my idol and favorite hot pianist: James P. Johnson.

However, I was instructed not to play The Charleston as the cost of clearance would be more than the cost of producing the whole DVD set. “Just play something Charleston-esque,” I was told. My heart sank as I worried that anybody watching would think: “Why isn’t the piano guy on this DVD playing The Charleston?”

MamaBehave2

 

The record label sets the stage for this wild comedy in which Charley doesn’t want his wife to think he can do The Charleston, though in fact he’s an excellent dancer.

MamaBehave3

 

 

 

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MyBestGirl2In Mary Pickford’s last silent film: My Best Girl, directed by Sam Taylor and released in 1927, the record Red Hot Mama by Ray Miller and his Orchestra, recorded in New York on August 5, 1924 and released on Brunswick 2681-B, plays an important part near the end of the movie. Pickford plays a shopgirl who’s afraid she’ll be rejected by her boyfriend’s (Buddy Rogers) father (the wealthy owner of the department store where she works) for being poor. She makes a last-ditch and ridiculous effort to convince Rogers that she’s a bad girl by playing Red Hot Mama on the Victrola and doing a naughty flapper dance, much to the bewilderment of her puzzled parents.

Ray Miller’s records are not too hard to locate to this very day. Perhaps his band’s popularity set the stage for public acceptance of another future bandleader named Miller.

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Not all of the appearances of records in the silents are in comedies. One of the most remarkable films of the late silent era is The Crowd, directed by King Vidor for MGM in 1928. Near the final curtain of this film there is an emotional reconciliation between the characters played by James Murray and Eleanor Boardman with help from There’s Everything Nice About You, by Johnny Marvin accompanied by Andy Sannella on Victor 20612 and recorded in 1927, played on their portable wind-up machine.

(I wasn’t able to snip this image because this film has never had a DVD release and it’s not on You Tube.)

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When Jimmy Finlayson sets a stack of records on top of a Victrola in front of his store in Liberty, a 1929 MGM Hal Roach comedy directed by Leo McCarey and starring Laurel and Hardy…

…we know what’s coming.

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Smashing records is funny, I suppose, though the first time I saw this I said “Oh no!” If only we could have had a chance to see, one disc at a time, those nice new records.

David Drazin is a pianist and composer who has acquired a national reputation for his piano improvisations accompanying silent films.

Did Bix Record a Film Soundtrack? || Guest post by David Drazin

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Five and a half minutes into the 1931 film, Morals for Women1 (1931), directed by Mort Blumenstock, the female lead played by Bessie Love goes dancing with her returning hometown boyfriend, played by John Holland. A montage sequence showing them enjoying New York’s nightlife resolves with them at a restaurant. The music on the soundtrack is I’ll Be a Friend With Pleasure.

Twenty-one minutes into the film, David Rollins, as Bessie Love’s character’s brother, is out with pals in a café or speakeasy.   A jazz band is heard (but not seen). There’s a hot cornet break and, but wait! For a few seconds it sounded like Bix!

At thirty-two minutes, Bessie Love peels a page off a calendar. July 13 becomes July 14, 1931. At nearly forty minutes into this fifty-one minute film, I’ll Be a Friend With Pleasure is heard again.

Is there any evidence from existing research that Bix could have recorded a film soundtrack for a New York-produced feature in mid-1931?

In a letter home on March 4, 1931 from the 44th Street Hotel in New York, Bix wrote: “I may go back on the camel hour or syncronize (sic) movies…”2

This is a wonderfully evocative offhand remark. Researching that is problematic. Since many film prints are lost, we can’t have them all. There’s currently no systematic way to view New York-produced films of 1930-1931 compared to listening to hot jazz records that have been made chronologically available on CD reissues.

There is also this general consensus: “…not much is documented in his summer, 1931, activities.”3

Renting agent, George Kraslow (4/8/59): “During the next few weeks Bix did no outside work of any kind and did not leave the building save to buy gin.”4

This seems pretty final, but is it? If Bix were hired to record a film soundtrack, where would it have taken place?

I’ll Be a Friend With Pleasure was recorded September 8, 19305 and released October 24, 19306 for Victor, located in Camden, New Jersey. “…Jesse Lasky’s announcement in October 1929 that Paramount aimed to create a “complete production center” in New York,…”Our plans call for the creation of a miniature Hollywood in Astoria,” Lasky beamed…February 1930…To direct…shorts (Larry) Kent’s staff now included…Morton Blumenstock…”7

The director of Morals for Women (formerly Big City Interlude) was definitely directing in New York.

“Because so many films produced in the East at this time were equally marginal (and therefore hard to research), historians have generally found it easier to conclude that there simply was no film production going on outside Paramount or Warner Bros., a complete misreading of the often feverish activity actually taking place.”8

Johnny Powell (10/31/61): “…we would go to Loew’s New York Theater and attend the 8:30 a.m. movie. We would sit in the balcony with a jug of gin under the seat. Whenever someone in the film took a drink we would join in. Some of those “society” films featured considerable drinking and it got to be hard on us to stumble out of the theater at 11:00 a.m. drunk, into the bright sun, with the press of the crowded sidewalk.”9

Another evocative description, with Bix going to the nearby movies quite often. But it doesn’t prove Bix never had anything to do after 11:00 a.m.

Where were some of the talking-picture studios of New York at that time? E.B. Kohlenbeck’s American Sound Studios, 344 W. 44th Street10; Powers Cinephone…723 Seventh Avenue (New Jersey). Powers soon moved…to a converted factory building at 29-20 40th Avenue in Long Island City11; Caravel Studio at 29-18 40th Avenue; Voca Film – 122 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, became Cromotone; Ideal…opposite 86th Street in Manhattan12; …Later in 1930 Louis Simon…appeared in a series of…comedies at Ideal, at least one of which was directed by Morton Blumenstock.13

The talking-picture studios were all around Bix, and his various home addresses.

“(Richardson) Turner offered them the use of his uncle’s 15-room apartment at 1 West 72nd, the famed Dakota…The flat was all soundproofed…”14 They could have recorded there.

June 16, 1931 letter home from Bix: “…I’ll give you my definite address in a few days – until then – 2460 32nd St. Astoria L.I.” The address supplied is the home of Rex Gavitte,15 (Smith) Ballew’s bassist.16

“Late June or early July – Bix moved into the grand (sic) floor of a new apartment building at 43-60 46th Street, Sunnyside, Queens.”17

There is no music credit on the film. Is there a reason why it couldn’t be Smith Ballew’s musicians with Bix?

The appearance of the date on the calendar in the film doesn’t prove when the film was made, though there’s evidence from myriad other films that dates on letters, calendars, checks, etc. were intended to be current. Why? Because young audiences don’t want to see an old movie. Movies should be up to date! This doesn’t explain why a distributor named Amity Pictures18 would take two dozen films made in 1930 – 1931 and reissue them in 1937 including Morals for Women. Nevertheless, the tight economics of the poverty row studios mandated the films to be shot in five to ten days and up and running locally as soon as possible if they hoped to make a profit and to get further financing.

Finally, I don’t mean to state beyond a doubt that Bix is the cornet player heard briefly in this film. However, their use of I’ll Be a Friend With Pleasure, is certainly very interesting, and Bix could have recorded for this and maybe other yet to be discovered New York-made films of 1931.

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David Drazin is a jazz pianist and silent-film accompanist.

This article made use of three books:

  • Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story, by Philip R. and Linda K. Evans; Prelike Press 1998.
  • Bix, Man and Legend, by Richard L. Sudhalter, Philip R. Evans with William Dean Myatt; Schirmer Books 1974.
  • Hollywood on the Hudson, by Richard Koszarski; Rutgers University Press 2010.

In the notes the books will be referred to respectively as: Evans, Sudhalter and Koszarski.

Notes:

1. Morals for Women is available on DVD from Alpha Video and is currently on You Tube.
2.  Evans, page 533.
3. Sudhalter, page 327.
4. Evans, page 544.
5.  Evans, page 517.
6. Evans, page 518.
7.  Koszarski, page 204.
8. Koszarski, page 239.
9. Evans, page 537.
10. Koszarski, page 235.
11. Koszarski, page 231.
12. Koszarski, page 231.
13. Koszarski, page 237.
14. Sudhalter, page 325.
15. Evans, page 541.
16. Sudhalter, page 326.
17. Evans, page 543.
18. IMDB Data Base.