1936: Records

We're going to hang around 1936 just a little longer to listen to some of my favorite records from that year!

Again, not necessarily the best, but here are ten that I like a lot.

So, in alphabetical order by artist, here are both sides of each 78 rpm record...

Fred Astaire's movies with Ginger Rogers always had great scores by great songwriters and Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields delivered the goods for "Swing Time":

Love Fred's tap-dancing on Side Two!

The Boswell Sisters were outstanding purveyors of close harmony. This single was one of their last before the act broke up and Connee Boswell pursued a successful solo career:

Fun take on the ubiquitous "The Music Goes 'Round and Around!"

Here's an interesting 12-inch record to promote the Bing Crosby picture "Pennies from Heaven." Side One features Frances Langford and Louis Armstrong (who was featured in the movie) in addition to Bing singing the title song, backed by Jimmy Dorsey's band. Side Two has those same artists with a medley of songs from the movie:

A lot of talent there! And dig Jimmy's alto sax chorus on the title tune!

Tommy Dorsey vocalist Edythe Wright "borrows" Dave Tough's drum kit!

Jimmy's brother Tommy Dorsey had split from the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra the year before and was now leading his own band. He had a small group within the band, the Clambake Seven, to play Dixieland-inspired music. They always sound like they're having a blast! Here's one of those records, featuring vocalist Edythe (misspelled on the label) Wright:

Love, love, love "At the Codfish Ball" especially, with tenor saxist Bud Freeman and drummer Dave Tough in top form!

Duke Ellington poses with his band including Barney Bigard (middle left) and Cootie Williams (top left).

For my money, Duke Ellington may have been the greatest musical talent of the twentieth century! He certainly was a brilliant composer and arranger with a great band of top musicians. This record features showcases for trumpeter Cootie Williams and clarinetist Barney Bigard respectively:

Cootie used "Echoes of Harlem" as his theme song when he formed his own band in the 1940s.

Like Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman also featured small groups in addition to his full band. In 1936, he had the Benny Goodman Quartet, which also featured star drummer Gene Krupa from the band and pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. I can't think of any other group ever that featured such talent. Four absolute masters of their instruments. Here's a great record from them:

Will Hudson's "Moon Glow" has been recorded a zillion times, but never better!

We turn to the sweeter side with Hal Kemp's orchestra. The group had a staccato approach and I think it's a great sound and singer Skinny (later Skinnay) Ennis is perfect with the group. Skinnay takes the vocal on the first of two numbers from "Golddiggers of 1937":

Skinnay on Side One and the more conventional Bob Allen on Side Two make an interesting contrast.

Leader Andy Kirk (left) and vocalist Pha Terrell go over an arrangement with pianist Mary Lou Williams.

 

Andy Kirk had a great band that featured variations on "Clouds of Joy" as its name. He alternated ballads sung by Pha Terrell, such as this huge hit here on the A-side, with instrumentals often arranged and/or composed by the ultra-talented pianist Mary Lou Williams, such as the flipside here:

It seems that a lot of modern listeners think that ballads with vocals like "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" were necessary evils faced by swinging bands like Andy Kirk's.

But those records are part of the fabric of popular music at the time and fans liked them!

Whatever the case, this was an underrated band, I think.

Not underrated by aficionados is the tremendous band led by Jimmie Lunceford. Their not-so-secret weapon was arranging genius Sy Oliver, one of the best. This was a big hit for them:

"Organ Grinder's Swing" was another number composed by Will Hudson, who was co-leading the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra with lyricist/singer Eddie DeLange at the time.

Here's a nice early record by the Sons of the Pioneers while Roy Rogers (far right above) was still in the group. It's a couple of songs from the movie "Rhythm on the Range," in which the group appeared:

Fun take on "I'm an Old Cowhand!"

If pressed, I'd say that Benny Goodman probably had the best year on records, but Tommy Dorsey overtook him the next year.

As a bonus, here's a 1936 record from Victor featuring the full bands of Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, each with their respective take on "Star Dust":

Two great sides there! Hoagy Carmichael's tune was already a standard by then!

And for a bonus bonus, since "The Music Goes 'Round and Around" is stuck in my head, let's embrace it and listen to Mike Riley (spelled incorrectly on the label) and Eddie Farley's original hit (and its flipside) with their Onyx Club Boys:

This record was released in 1935, but was very popular in 1936!

Plenty of other great records were released in 1936, but hopefully you enjoyed these!

1936: Movies

While we're still hanging around 1936, I thought I would share a list of some of my favorite movies from that year, non-holiday-related!

Here are ten that I like a lot, not saying they're the best, in alphabetical order:

You can't beat a mid-1930s Warner Brothers gangster picture! Give me anything with Eddie G!

Fred and Ginger also had "Swing Time" in 1936, so a good year! I like this one a little more because it's a little different from their usual formula. Plus we get Harriet Hilliard and Randolph Scott are a nice secondary couple!

MGM could sure roll out the all-star casts!

This is a certified classic from Frank Capra. Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur also starred in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Plainsman" (as Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane) in 1936, showing their versatility.

I think Wheeler & Woolsey are totally underrated and this particular film is even underrated by their fans! (Similarly, "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" from 1955 is also underrated!)

A screwball classic. William Powell and Carole Lombard had been married but were divorced by the time this movie was made.

This was Sonja Henie's first feature. I think she's delightfully amateurish here, but she never got better. And I dig the Ritz Brothers!

Stan and Ollie are always great and this has them in dual roles!

I always enjoy college movies from the 1930s and this has a fun cast. Judy Garland makes her feature debut here on loan to Fox from MGM, so she seems a little different, as Fox was not grooming her for stardom.

 

This one's a lot of fun. The "I'm an Old Cowhand" number features not only Bing and Bob Burns, but also Martha Raye, Louis Prima and the Sons of the Pioneers (with Len Slye/Roy Rogers)!

Here's a clip:

Pretty fun!

I think William Powell had the best year of any movie star in 1936. He was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for "My Man Godfrey" and starred in the Best Picture winner "The Great Ziegfeld."

In addition at "Libeled Lady," he also starred in "After the Thin Man," the second of that popular series with Myrna Loy (also in "Libeled Lady" and "The Great Ziegfeld") at home studio MGM and the Thin Man-esqe "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford" with Jean Arthur over at RKO.

For the record, Ronald Colman had only one picture that year, but it was a good one:

And in the non-feature department, this serial is perhaps my favorite release of 1936:

Also of note (to me anyway!) is that the Three Mesquiteers series of B-Westerns from Republic Pictures got started in 1936:

A good time at the movies that year!

Christmas 1936 - Part 5 - Disney!

                              

While still hanging around Christmas of 1936, let's see what Walt Disney and his gang had going!

At the top is the studio's Christmas card for 1936!

Here's a cool book:

And a sample page:

A couple of newspaper inserts:

And these awesome string lights:

Fun stuff!

Christmas 1936 - Part 4 - Comic Books (and things)

                                     

Still hanging around Christmas of 1936, we take a look at a few comic book covers.

This was a couple of years before Superman made his debut, forever changing the comic book landscape. A lot of comic books of the time were reprints of newspaper comic strips.

So, here's a few:

Let's throw in a couple of kids' magazines:

And a songbook:

And one for the grown-ups:

They all really have a fun mid-1930s look!

Christmas 1936 - Part 3 - The Movies

Next up for Christmas 1936, we hit the neighborhood movie theater to see if there's any holiday themed material playing.

There actually don't seem to have been any honest-to-goodness Christmas movies released in 1936. For reference, "Scrooge" with Seymour Hicks was released in 1935 and MGM's "A Christmas Carol" wouldn't come out until 1938.

There was one of those is-it-really-a-Christmas-movie? type films, though. You know, the kind that takes place on or around Christmas, but people debate over whether it's a Christmas movie, "Die Hard" (1988) being the poster child these days.

Our 1936 movie is "Three Godfathers," Peter B. Kyne's story which has been filmed a number of times (most famously in 1948 as "3 Godfathers" with John Ford directing John Wayne). It concerns three bandits who come across a baby in the desert and bring him to the town of New Jerusalem. It takes place around Christmas, so I say it's a Christmas movie!

Here's a trailer (with Spanish subtitles):

A pretty good flick, even if Chester Morris is no John Wayne!

Another popular movie from 1936 had a Christmas scene of note. This would be "Stowaway," a Shirley Temple vehicle in which everyone's favorite moppet sings "That's What I Want for Christmas."

Here's a clip of the scene, colorized and out-of-sync, but still fun:

I like that song, even though it never really went anywhere.

There were a couple of recordings of the song from around that time, but neither was released in 1936.

There was Gray Gordon and his Tic-Toc Rhythm Orchestra from 1938:

The lyrics are a bit different from the ones that Shirley sang and then it turns into a safe driving PSA!

Gray Gordon's band's Tic-Toc Rhythm is very reminiscent of the more successful Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra, but they have fun 1930s sound.

And here's Dick Robertson from 1939 with different different lyrics:

Despite the billing on the label, Dick Robertson wasn't really a bandleader, but a prolific studio singer. He cut a number of snappy Christmas songs for Decca in the 1930s.

But even if there weren't any overly Christmas-y movies in theaters in 1936, there were a couple of cartoons!

There was "The Pups' Christmas," a Happy Harmonies entry from Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising released by MGM:

It's cute, but this other entry, "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" from the Fleischer studio is brilliant:

I love Grampy! This one is his only cartoon without Betty Boop and his only color one!

He really did save Christmas!

Christmas 1936 - Part 2 - Radio

We continue to hang around Christmas 1936 to see what radio listeners had going for them.

The biggest news by our standards was that 1936 was the year that John Barrymore subbed as Scrooge for his brother Lionel, whose wife Irene had passed away on December 24.

That broadcast from the Louella Parsons series "Hollywood Hotel" does not survive. That's too bad, as it would be fascinating to hear John take on the Scrooge role. Word is that he performed the show imitating Lionel!

There actually aren't a ton of radio broadcasts that survive from the mid-1930s, but there are some and we're glad to have them.

I had shared an excerpt of the George Burns and Gracie Allen Christmas show a while ago, but here's the whole broadcast from December 23rd:

We can't hear John Barrymore in "A Christmas Carol," but we can enjoy Gracie's wacky take on the story!

And for a bonus, here's that program's singing heartthrob Tony Martin with a Christmas song from 1941:

Fun fact: Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day in 1913!

Back in 1936, we're again fortunate that the Christmas show of George and Gracie's good friend Jack Benny also survives. Here it is, from December 20th:

As another bonus, here's that show's star singer, Kenny Baker, with both sides of a Christmas 78 rpm record from 1938:

It's interesting to hear those early episodes from Burns and Allen and Jack Benny, as they have a different vibe from their shows from the 1940s, which are more commonly heard and more similar to their respective TV shows.

It's especially odd, I think, to hear George and Gracie presented as both being single although they had been married since 1926. It wasn't until 1941 that their radio show was rebooted to more of a sitcom with them as a married couple, which is how they're best-remembered (when they're remembered at all!) these days.

Jack Benny's show gradually evolved, but its format didn't change all that much throughout its long run. He had been married to his costar, Mary Livingstone, since 1927, but the show never presented them as husband and wife.

1936 is an interesting year for the Benny program, as it was the first year to feature Phil Harris as the orchestra leader, but Eddie Anderson had not yet appeared as "Rochester." 

During this time, Kenny Baker was the featured singer rather than the now more familiar Dennis Day. Kenny was popular on the show, but didn't enjoy playing the "dumb kid" character and left the show in 1939. When Dennis replaced Kenny, however, he took that persona and ran with it!

Announcer Don Wilson was already on board in 1936 and he, Mary, Phil, Dennis and "Rochester" formed a great cast for Jack's program during its best-remembered years.

Elsewhere on the 1936 dial, we have "The Cavalcade of America Series" with the story of Christmas Seals from December 9th:

Here's what the Christmas Seals for 1936 looked like:

So, a small sample of what radio listeners heard during the 1936 holiday season!

Next: What was at the movie theater?