Jule Styne

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 10:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy eight and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 30:31

On our desert island this week is the songwriter Julie Stein. Now where do we start, Mr. Stein?

Jule Styne0:37

Not mister Stein, Julie. All right. Julie spelled J U L E Julie. Rather unique. Yes, it is indeed.

Speaker 30:45

What's the the first record among that meagre allowance of just eight to take to the island?

Jule Styne0:51

People by Barbara Streisand

Jule Styne0:53

That glorious voice was a very important song to me, funny girl.

Jule Styne1:01

Well, there's nothing to be said other than listen to the record and you'll understand why I'm taking it to your desert island.

Speaker 41:12

People

Speaker 41:15

People who need people are the luckiest people.

Speaker 41:28

In the world

Speaker 31:34

Barbara Streison singing People from Funny Girl.

Speaker 31:38

Music by Julie Stein.

Jule Styne1:41

You were born in London, is that right? Yes, I was. I was born in London and. Whereabouts?

Jule Styne1:45

Well, in Brick Lane. Some address on Brick Lane. But then we the the the address I really remember was number seven Ducal Street.

Jule Styne1:54

There is no longer a Ducal Street, because I try to find it

Jule Styne1:58

Several years ago, my last trip to London.

Jule Styne2:02

In Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green. How old were you when you left London?

Jule Styne2:06

I was uh

Jule Styne2:08

Seven and a half. Where did you settle? In New York? No, Chicago. My father was an egg inspector and the English egg inspectors were the best in the world because England used to pack eggs for all of its colonies. So they the United States imported all these egg handlers because United States started shipping eggs all over the world.

Jule Styne2:30

And uh so that's took us to Chicago. That's where he was engaged. Now, did you grow up with a with a musical background?

Jule Styne2:39

I uh I was a Harry Lauder imitator as a child, you know, at parties and so on. At parties and for for hire, you know, a child entertainer.

Speaker 32:43

Yeah, that's

Speaker 32:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jule Styne2:50

I did the kids. I had the whole thing because Harry Lauder had some recordings. I learned all my records from him. And in fact,

Jule Styne2:59

When I was five years old, the family took me to the hippodrome.

Jule Styne3:05

which is now uh a big cabaret in London called Talk of the Town. Used to be formerly called the Hippodrome, and Harry Lauder appeared there.

Speaker 13:12

Yeah.

Jule Styne3:13

and I jumped over the box on the stage,

Jule Styne3:17

And of course the people thought I was a plant. I was working with Harry Lauder because right in the middle of the song everybody started laughing. You know, who is this boy that walked out?

Jule Styne3:26

Uh especially pushed over from the box.

Jule Styne3:29

And he said yes, stopped his song.

Jule Styne3:33

What do you do?

Jule Styne3:35

I said I sing all your songs.

Jule Styne3:37

He says, Which one would you like to sing now? I said, She's my Daisy.

Jule Styne3:42

And he said, What key? I said, Your key.

Jule Styne3:44

Which got a giggle. Everybody s was sure I was working with her. I got through. He handed me his crook and I did his She's my Daisy

Jule Styne3:54

etcetera

Jule Styne3:56

Went back to his dressing room to apologise, which my father made me do.

Jule Styne4:00

And he said, Never imitate, and you should take up a musical instrument, such as a piano. So indirectly, he was responsible for my starting.

Jule Styne4:09

My piano lessons.

Speaker 34:10

Are you dead?

Jule Styne4:11

Pretty well at the piano. In fact, you were a a prodigy.

Jule Styne4:14

Yes. After studying one year in Chicago, I started London Conservatory. I continued in Chicago.

Jule Styne4:21

I won a Mozart scholarship for playing the D minor Mozart piano concerto.

Jule Styne4:28

And that I guess I won a Mozart scholarship, which was amounted to twenty-five thousand dollars for my musical education.

Jule Styne4:35

I had the privilege of going to Europe, but I decided to stay in Chicago with my family and study. And you played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? Yes, I did. Frederick Stock was conductor. How old were you then?

Jule Styne4:45

I was uh

Jule Styne4:47

Eight years and about three months. And other orchestras too? Yes, I appeared in uh Detroit and I p appeared in Cincinnati, Ohio, with their their symphony orchestras. Now what happened to your piano playing?

Jule Styne5:00

Well, a sad day happened when I was about

Jule Styne5:03

12. Going to high school.

Jule Styne5:05

I was studying with a great

Jule Styne5:08

Teacher Harold Bauer.

Jule Styne5:10

Who said you're a very, very big musical talent? Perhaps you should take up conducting.

Jule Styne5:16

or writing or whatever, but he says you will never

Jule Styne5:20

be what you intend to be.

Jule Styne5:23

Be great because you have too small a hand.

Jule Styne5:26

The hand will play Mozart.

Jule Styne5:29

And it will play lighter things, but when you get playing Brahms or Rachmanenoff or

Jule Styne5:34

Even Beethoven, Your Hand Will Never Be Anything. It was a sad day for me. And I went back to school and

Jule Styne5:41

I was very dejected.

Jule Styne5:44

And uh at every lunch hour the boys and girls would dance in the gymnasium.

Jule Styne5:50

And uh I went over to the piano casually, played a couple of Chopin etudes, and nobody paid no mind to me.

Jule Styne5:58

and the next day I came in,

Jule Styne6:00

And I played Alexander's rack time band in St. Louis Blues, and I was the smash of the whole school. And so I said, goodbye.

Jule Styne6:08

Look at this, I'm no longer lonely,'cause being a concert pianist lonely is proxy. Everybody loves me and I'm a big favorite at school. So from then on I started playing with bands, etcetera, etc.

Speaker 36:18

Well, at this point let's have your second record. What's that to be?

Jule Styne6:21

My second record is the little thing that won me the scholarship, the Mozart D minor.

Jule Styne6:28

Played by Ashkenazi in the London Symphony.

Jule Styne6:32

That is one of my favorite, favorite pieces. I shall never forget that piece.

Speaker 37:36

An excerpt from the first movement of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. twenty in D minor, Ash Genazi with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Schmidt Ischerstedt.

Speaker 37:46

So you decided that your future lay in jazz piano.

Speaker 37:50

What steps did you take about that?

Jule Styne7:52

All the great jazz artists came to Chicago, and so I started rubbing elbows with them, and we'd go to the union, and a fellow'd stand up and say, uh, a piano player for Saturday night. And one night I was invited for a Saturday night job, you know, a a gig, a one night gig, and uh I found myself in a band with uh

Speaker 18:07

Yeah.

Jule Styne8:10

Big spider back.

Jule Styne8:12

Teschmacher was a great piano player, and Ben Pollack was playing drums, and I was playing the piano. It was a four-piece band.

Jule Styne8:19

And uh

Jule Styne8:21

You know, they say, What are you doing? and I said, Fine. And so pretty soon I got to play with the Ben Pollack band. And then you decided to have your own band. Yes.

Jule Styne8:29

We're very young.

Speaker 38:29

I uh

Jule Styne8:31

Yes, I was very young.

Jule Styne8:32

Uh when I started having my own band I was about sixteen.

Jule Styne8:36

And I played at the Bismarck Hotel in Chavalaga. Now I stole a few players that I thought should be replaced. I stole Benny Goodman from Ben Pollock.

Speaker 38:44

Men

Speaker 38:45

He was in your band.

Jule Styne8:46

Yeah, Benny Goodman was in my band, and I found another boy who uh played banjo and guitar, and he uh subsequently became a big band leader around Chicago. His name was Frankie Masters. And at that along about that time,

Jule Styne9:02

I was in Florida playing with another band. I gave up my band, joined a band by the name of Arnold Johnson, a great band, a name band at that time.

Jule Styne9:10

This was 1927.

Jule Styne9:13

And I wrote my first song, Taking a Girl Home, early in the morning on the beach on the Miami Beach.

Jule Styne9:20

I start humming a tune.

Jule Styne9:22

And she said, What is that? I said, I don't know.

Jule Styne9:25

And then this is really a twenties expression. She says, I guess you made it up.

Jule Styne9:30

I said, yes, I made it. She said, look.

Speaker 19:31

Yeah.

Jule Styne9:33

If you make a little orchestration, play it at the club tonight. I played at the Hollywood Country Club.

Jule Styne9:39

She says, Then I'll date you again. So I wasn't going to miss a date with this lovely girl. So I wrote the song and it became Sunday, was my first song. One of t to this day it's one of the big standards. Every year some great jazz musician makes a record of it.

Speaker 39:54

The first of the hundreds and hundreds of songs that you've made up since. I made up, yes, I made up fourteen hundred of them, something like that.

Jule Styne10:03

to date.

Speaker 310:03

Yeah.

Jule Styne10:03

Now, what took you to Hollywood? That was the next step in your career, wasn't it? The next step, there was a lag. I was I didn't want to write music.

Jule Styne10:11

I didn't want to play any bands. I didn't want to have my own band. I I was searching and I found that I have a talent for t teaching girls how to sing.

Jule Styne10:21

Telling them what songs, and a vocal coach, presenting them so they can work cabarets and whatnot.

Jule Styne10:27

And uh Twentieth Century Fox heard about me and they engaged me as the vocal coach of the Twentieth Century Fox Studios. I was the vocal coach and writing every once in a while I'd write a little song and there'd sneak one in there. I don't know. I guess I was meant to be a songwriter even though I hated it. Who did you coach at Twentieth Century Fox? Alice Fay, Shirley Temple, Tony Martin.

Jule Styne10:48

And when did you start writing for movies?

Jule Styne10:51

I started writing for the movies in nineteen.

Jule Styne10:54

Forty one. I wrote I Don't Wanna Walk Out You Baby with Frank Lesser, which was my first song.

Speaker 310:58

And then I have

Jule Styne10:59

My head written.

Speaker 310:59

Yeah.

Jule Styne10:59

Yeah.

Speaker 311:00

Mm at Westons.

Jule Styne11:01

Yeah.

Jule Styne11:01

Yes, at Republic. Oh, you remind me. You you don't forget a thing. Yes, there was that.

Jule Styne11:08

I draw a blank on my Republic days writing for Trigger and a Horse and Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and whatnot, but I did have a hit song with Gene Autry, a Western song called Purple Sage in the Twilight.

Speaker 111:10

Uh

Speaker 411:10

Heading for

Speaker 311:12

Right

Jule Styne11:19

It's time we had another record, what now?

Jule Styne11:21

We have here one of the great jazz singers of all time.

Jule Styne11:27

And she is going to, one of my favorite things, she's going to sing Let It Snow.

Speaker 311:31

And it just happens to be another Julie Stein Dune.

Speaker 411:41

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. It doesn't show signs of stopping. And I've brought some corn from popping. The lights are turned way down low. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Speaker 312:04

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Ella Fitzgerald. Now, after the Westerns, you started writing scores for the major studios.

Jule Styne12:10

Yes. That happened because I wrote uh right after the Westerns, I went and wrote I Don't Wanna Walk Without You, Baby, which Harry James recorded and and I've teamed up now with Sammy Kahn. The relationship which lasted for seven years. And uh all the major studios wanted us and so uh

Jule Styne12:28

We were on our way. Out of the dozens of films you worked on, which ones stay in your mind?

Jule Styne12:34

Well, the best movie musical that I did

Jule Styne12:38

With Sami Khan.

Jule Styne12:40

was

Jule Styne12:42

Anchors away

Jule Styne12:43

Sinatra later with Sinatra, Sinatra Gene Kelly. That had in it the song called I Fall in Love Too Easily.

Speaker 312:43

Sinatra

Jule Styne12:53

I begged her and uh I start making a little noise for myself as a movie writer with that score. And of course you

Speaker 312:59

got an Oscar for for one number. Well it was just w one loose number, as it were, that turned into a complete score.

Jule Styne13:06

Yes, because you see, Twentieth Century made a movie based on a book called Three Coins in a Fountain. And when we were asked to write a song by a producer, he said, Would you fellas do me a big favor? I've got a movie. It's a terrible movie. But maybe a song can help it. Those were the days when theme songs were really helping movies.

Jule Styne13:25

And uh

Jule Styne13:27

We saw this movie. It was called We Believe in Love, and I said it's a ghastly title. It's a B picture title. And Sammy Khan said, Why don't you call it Three Coins in a Fountain?

Jule Styne13:38

Well, the producers you can't write a song called Three Coins and Fountain.

Jule Styne13:42

He said, I can write a better song to Three Coins in the Fountain, especially if the money's right. I could write a song about you to the producer.

Jule Styne13:52

We wrote three coins in a found. I will say we wrote it.

Jule Styne13:55

I was in a room by myself.

Jule Styne13:58

I stayed there one hour and Sammy went home for one hour and he called me. He says I have half of the song and we did three coins in a fountain. I guess all put together in about two hours, a whole song and of course I got Sinatra to record it in the main title and uh we won an Oscar for it. And I it was a memorable win because as I think back now, Crosby was the presenter of that award to me. That's why I'm taking it to Desert Island, understand.

Speaker 314:26

And so, all in all, you don't regret that two hours you spent on it.

Jule Styne14:29

No, not at all.

Speaker 414:35

Three coins and the fountain

Speaker 414:40

Each one seeking happiness

Speaker 414:46

Grown by three hopeful lovers Which one will the fountain bless?

Speaker 314:59

Frank Sinatra

Speaker 315:00

Now you were doing all right in Hollywood. Why did you decide to go to Broadway, the Great White Way? Yeah.

Jule Styne15:06

Well, the thing that made me go to to the theater, I said, Well, if I'm going to be a songwriter.

Jule Styne15:12

I want to try

Jule Styne15:14

and find a media that can draw the very best in me. I just feel myself gonna grow old out here.

Jule Styne15:21

and not write any better, because I w they can't let me write better.

Jule Styne15:26

And so I said the theater must be the place. Rogers started in the theater, Gershwin, Kern, Colporter. That must be the place. That's where I want to go. And that's where I went inspired.

Jule Styne15:37

By the greatness of George Gershwin. I soon learned, though, in the theater, that it isn't inspiration, it's perspiration. I mean,

Jule Styne15:46

Only amateurs get inspired, actually. What was the first show score you wrote?

Jule Styne15:51

First show score I wrote closed on the road. It was called Glad to See You. It had a uh song in there which was a standard. I hope we get to play it. I know we will. Uh called Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.

Jule Styne16:06

But in the meantime, you're going to let me hear Andre Prevan play a little bit of the Gershmin Conservato?

Speaker 316:11

Because Gershwin inspired you to be a broad man.

Jule Styne16:14

Brought it, man.

Speaker 316:15

He's still an inspiration.

Jule Styne16:17

Okay.

Speaker 317:16

Andrei Preven with the London Symphony Orchestra, Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F major.

Speaker 317:22

Right, so your first show folded on the road. What was the first one to go in?

Speaker 317:27

High-button shoes. Which was a great

Jule Styne17:29

Big success. Big success. And it came over here, of course. Yes. And the second one also was a success, a general fur blonde with Carol Shaney of the United States. That didn't do any harm.

Speaker 317:35

That didn't do any harm.

Speaker 317:38

Oh, there are so many. We we can't go through them all. The bells are ringing. That was a big success here, too.

Speaker 317:44

You did that with Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Right. That had just in time in it and party's over. Two lovely numbers.

Speaker 317:51

And Gipsy, why was it such a long time before we saw Gipsy in London?

Speaker 317:56

Yeah.

Jule Styne17:56

Well, there's a story connected with that. You see, Princess Margaret's favorite show is Gypsy, and when she heard the album,

Jule Styne18:06

In London, she was hoping we'd bring it over. I worked on it hard and I got the producer to Greedor London Company, but only Ethel Merman.

Jule Styne18:13

because the illness of her parents could not go.

Jule Styne18:18

Later on when we brought Funny Girl with Barbara to Barb Funny Girl to London, Barbara Streisand, you know, after the benefit, uh Princess Margaret came on stage and you're presented, you know, the usual thing, the cast lines up and you're presented Her Royal Highness and uh

Jule Styne18:35

Sir Bernard Delphant, or his lord, no, I'm not sure. Anyhow, whatever it is, he.

Speaker 118:39

Anyhow.

Jule Styne18:42

Said, and this is Julie Stein. And she came right close to me and says, When are you bringing Gypsy here? Here she is over the funny girl that's Gypsy.

Speaker 118:48

Yeah.

Jule Styne18:53

The the reason was that uh of Merman. Uh

Jule Styne18:57

parents' illness. That's why we didn't bring Gypsy for a long time. And but we did Angela came over and did it just beautifully.

Speaker 319:04

Angela Lansbury.

Jule Styne19:05

Andrew Lansbury. How many Broadway shows have you done altogether? This is my thirtieth show. I've done twenty-nine. And you produce as well. You you produce quite a few of them. I produced a few. But it's very bad to produce.

Speaker 319:12

It was

Jule Styne19:16

A show where you've written the music because you can't wear two hats. Let's have some more music. Now, you said we were going to hear um, what was it? Guess I'll hand my tail out to dry. Is that it? That's right. That was from the first show that closed out of town, but it the song became a standard, nevertheless. And who sings it?

Speaker 319:26

That's right.

Jule Styne19:33

Well

Jule Styne19:34

The King Sinatra

Speaker 419:38

I must get a new alibi.

Speaker 419:48

I stay at home and ask myself who is here.

Speaker 419:58

Guess I'll hang my tears out.

Speaker 420:02

To draw

Speaker 320:05

Mr. Sinatra. Now you're in Britain, Julie, to launch a new one, a new show. Right. Very exciting.

Jule Styne20:11

It was based on a prize-winning teleplay by Jack Rosenthal and Peter Witt.

Jule Styne20:20

came over to the United States. Peter Witt is the producer of the show. He came over to the United States and asked me would I like the music and he ran the film for me and I was very excited about it. And I I put away what I was doing at the time and and started working on this. And of course I'm writing with a wonderful British

Jule Styne20:40

London-born lyric writer. First time I've written with him, I was reluctant to, but

Jule Styne20:47

He turned out wonderful, and I think it's almost the best job he's ever done. What's his name? His name is Don Black.

Jule Styne20:53

And I'm very excited about it because uh it's something I always wanted to write. It's a subject matter I always wanted to write. As you well know, a Bar Mitsva boy is any Jewish boy who becomes thirteen. It's called Bar Mitsva, he becomes a man, so to speak.

Jule Styne21:10

And uh this is a rebellious boy.

Jule Styne21:12

who doesn't want to become a man because of his father and grandfather

Jule Styne21:19

and his sister suitor are examples of men. He says I'm not ready for it. And so he runs out at the height of the ceremony, and so it's a very powerful play and very funny.

Jule Styne21:30

Now you've been performing a solo act, Julie. This this is a new departure. Yes. Well, all my life I never wanted to be an actor or a performer. I adore them when they do their work, but not me.

Jule Styne21:44

But some strange thing happened. We live in the same apartment house in New York City that Neil Sadaka lives in, and he's crazy about my two children, and of course he plays them all his albums and gives them folios and what not. And my daughter at dinner one night said, You know, Dad,

Jule Styne22:02

You never play anywhere, do you? You don't go to Las Vegas and London and uh Florida and play in California before people.

Jule Styne22:12

I said, well, I could if I wanted to. My son said, oh, well. So, you know, I booked myself into the rainbow grill.

Jule Styne22:20

Where I did a whole act of fifty four songs out of my fourteen hundred, supported by two other people, Bobby Vann and his wife. And it it was a good act, and they came and I finally made it with my children. They knew I was something. That's the only way I could prove that I could prove it.

Speaker 322:36

That's the only way I can prove that I can

Jule Styne22:39

Another record. We got a number seven though. You know, I had the

Jule Styne22:42

Good fortune in my lifetime to write

Jule Styne22:45

Only it's my personal opinion.

Jule Styne22:47

for two of the greatest singers of our time.

Jule Styne22:51

In the 40s

Jule Styne22:52

Early fifties

Jule Styne22:54

It was Sinatra.

Jule Styne22:56

And then twenty years later,

Jule Styne22:58

For Streisand.

Jule Styne23:00

And now we're gonna hear one of my favorite songs. I wrote it as a piano instrumental piano piece, and then I used it in Funny Girl because it had a drive to it, and it's a dramatic piece, but sung beautifully by Barbara. It's called Don't Rain on My Parade.

Speaker 423:21

Don't tell me not to live just sitting putter Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter Don't bring around a clouds of rain on my parade

Speaker 423:34

Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to. If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade.

Speaker 323:45

Barbara Streisand.

Speaker 323:46

Julie, are you an open air type? How are you going to manage on this island? Ever done any camping out?

Speaker 323:52

Um Long time ago.

Jule Styne23:54

Have you ever done any fishing?

Jule Styne23:56

I d I d I love fishing. Where do you fish? Oh, I I like uh inland fishing. I I don't like deep sea fishing. I like uh

Jule Styne24:04

To

Jule Styne24:04

Cast my rod. Would you try to escape?

Jule Styne24:08

No, I'd be

Jule Styne24:10

Maybe at peace.

Speaker 424:11

Mm-hmm.

Jule Styne24:12

I may at some future time I may try to escape.

Jule Styne24:16

We got your last record. What's that to be?

Jule Styne24:19

Well, the last record, being a jazz fan all my life.

Jule Styne24:23

Uh it's recognizable in my music. I'll hear a lot of

Jule Styne24:27

Jazz, little riffs in between, fill-ins.

Jule Styne24:31

lasted by the great, great band, the great orchestrator, great musician and composer,

Jule Styne24:37

Duke Ellington accompanies Frank Sinatra.

Jule Styne24:41

From my favorite show that I've done in the past.

Jule Styne24:46

Gypsy, and a sage called All I Need Is the Girl.

Speaker 424:51

Got my tweed pressed Got my best pest All I need

Jule Styne24:59

Uh

Speaker 425:02

Now is the girl got my stripe

Speaker 425:11

Time for my hope

Speaker 325:15

Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington. If you could take only one disc out of the eight you've played us, which would it be, Julie?

Jule Styne25:23

I would have to take Mozart I never seem to tire of Mozart.

Speaker 325:27

And you're allowed to take one luxury with you, something of no practical use at all. What would you like?

Jule Styne25:33

Well

Jule Styne25:34

I'd like a picture.

Jule Styne25:35

My family

Jule Styne25:37

My father, my mother.

Jule Styne25:39

and all my children.

Jule Styne25:41

Yeah.

Speaker 325:41

And my wife. Right. And one book you're allowed, not the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already on the island, and we don't encourage big encyclopedias. What would you like?

Jule Styne25:51

Yeah.

Speaker 325:52

Well, this may sound like

Jule Styne25:53

Sounds childish, but the book I've taken.

Jule Styne25:56

It's a child's book.

Jule Styne25:59

'Cause I'm the eternal Peter Pan myself.

Jule Styne26:03

I'm seventy one now.

Jule Styne26:06

It's going to seventy-two.

Jule Styne26:08

And I still enjoy

Jule Styne26:10

Something that I read

Jule Styne26:12

Way, way back, and that is a book called Black Beauty.

Jule Styne26:16

I think it has every qualification.

Jule Styne26:19

I never get tired of reading it.

Speaker 326:21

Right. And thank you, Julie Stein, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. And thank you. It's been a great pleasure to meet.

Jule Styne26:27

Yeah.

Speaker 326:28

Goodbye, everyone.

Jule Styne26:28

Yeah.

Speaker 126:38

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.