Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

THE MARY TYLER MOORE THEME (AND VARIATIONS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWOB9GBqJAAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op0NY8Fc5GY&t=55s In yesterday’s post we saw behind-the-scenes of the shooting of the MTM credits sequence. Today we’ll learn about the creation of that famous credit sequences’ equally famous theme song ‘Love Is All Around’. On a segment of CBS Sunday Morning, Sonny Curtis (who wrote among other hits ‘I Fought

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BEHIND THE SCENES WITH MARY (TYLER MOORE) RICHARDS

Behold some very cool behind-the-scenes footage of a crew shooting material for the iconic opening credits sequence of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’. As you probably know, the show took place in Minneapolis and the tasty, charming front credits set the stage in a very nice, semi-doc verite style, showing

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RCA AND THE CLOCK RADIO

Above is a charming reel of a few old RCA Victor television and radio ads. As always with ads for old technology, the yuk-yuk factor is easy, low-hanging fruit. Of course old TV sets look silly. So do the annoucers who sit there extolling their virtues. (They also sound silly–the

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WEEKEND STOOGEFEST

‘Idiots Deluxe’ (1945) is the 85th short film made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Thursday, October 5 through Monday, October 9, 1944 (that’s 78 years and ten months ago) and was released on Friday, July 20, 1945 (the 201st day of that year on

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JAZZ ‘AFTER HOURS’

I realize that by using the word ‘jazz’ in the title of this post I’ve probably caused at least half of my little audience to quickly move onto another blog (or to compulsively check their email) rather than explore today’s post. But hear me out; as a jazz musician myself

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NAT COLE MEETS ED SULLIVAN (briefly)

On June 10, 1956, Nat King Cole guested on Ed Sullivan’s famous Sunday night TV broadcast. Sullivan wisely asked Nat to do a piano instrumental–no vocals necessary. The song chosen was ‘Just One Of Those Things’ and, to put it mildly, Nat kills it. This is a superb clip as

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A NAT KING COLE MOVIE TWO-FER

Here’s a very nice combo/medley of the Nat Cole trio in 1946 performing a two songs, ‘It’s Better To Be By Yourself’ and ‘Solid Potato Salad’. As in yesterday’s clip the outstanding guitarist is Oscar Moore but this time the bassist is Johnny Miller. At 1:20 there are some excellent

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A NAT COLE TRIO SOUNDIE SPECIAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYsseoG5XV8 Apropos of yesterday’s Nat Cole/Chico Marx post, here’s a terrific demonstration of Cole’s artistry at a young age. It’s a ‘soundie’ (made for jukebox consumption) of ‘Come To Baby, Do’, featuring his original trio which included Wesley Prince on bass and the criminally underrated guitarist Oscar Moore. (I like

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NAT KING COLE MEETS…CHICO MARX?

Here are two versions of Nat Cole playing (not singing) ‘Tea For Two’ from his groundbreaking 1957 TV show. I have no idea if the idea of having him do ‘a Chico’ (1:24 on the first version) was his or the networks but my showbiz intuition tells me that someone

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WEEKEND STOOGEFEST

‘Commotion On The Ocean’ (1956) is the 174th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed on Tuesday, January 17th 1956 and released on Thursday, November 8th of that year. The abbreviated shooting schedule (a single day) was due to the fact that Shemp Howard

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