Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Honored film star known for a career spanning nearly fifty years in Hollywood.
On the island
Eight records
The reason I chose that was because my father. We used to sing it, and my mother would play the piano.
Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, Chauncey Gray
I connect Burt Lound with that sort of thing... This was Bert Maun's theme song.
I remember coming in... one night as the room was sort of... dark... And the piano was in the center of the room and everybody was sort of seated around the tables and a lot of people on the floor. I'm George Gershwood. Bang, I've got a crush on you.
This for some reason reminds me of Marlena Dietrich when I was working on a picture. That we did together called Destri Rides Again... But we used to go to hear Rainoble and dance to his music
Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra
I connect this very closely with the... With England and the war.
Don't Cry, Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go, Let Her Go)
Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra
Now we're getting after the war and I'm back and... I'm courting my wife, Gloria. The first time I heard Bill Cry Joe, I remember Glory and I were someplace.
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
It reminds me of Glenn Miller first. I made a picture about Glenn Miller's life... perhaps after all these years... The music is still very popular
My father ... sang in the church choir ... And my mother played beautiful piano and played the organ sometimes in the choir. And this was sort of their favorite to him. They he he would break out with us, with my mother accompanying him. And I remember I sort of grew up with The Road to Mandalay.
It's sort of Glenn Miller's theme song. But I remember I last May I was up for a reunion. I served in the Eighth Air Force here during the war and I was up for our second division reunion and we stayed at Norwich ... They had an orchestra playing Glenn Miller music ... And somebody came up to me and said, You're supposed to lead the orchestra in Moonlight Serenade. Which I did.
Henry Fonda and I were friends for years and years ... after the picture [Cheyenne Social Club] was over ... Somebody wrote a tune for us and it was a combination of tune and fond of talking and we brought in the idea of the ride from Texas up to Montana. And it's called Rolling Stone, which brings back many memories, and of course ... brings back a truly wonderful memory and that's Henry Fonda.
Don't Cry, Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go, Let Her Go)
Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra
I don't know. It it was one of one, two, three, four that I have that over the years have become favorites of mine. I just like to hear them.
Number five, there I've said it again, is sort of Don't Cry Joe again because I just love the tune and I find myself humming it every once in a while.
In the thirties, there was a place in New York on West 52nd Street ... We came in this one night ... and both of us could hear the piano, and the tune was I've Got a Crush on You. So we sneaked up the stairs ... And at the piano was George Gershwin playing I've Got a Crush on You.
I really don't know when I first was introduced to this tune ... But I believe it was when I was in training in the service ... And I found that those five or six chords that my mother had taught me in the key of C. worked and played this tune to my satisfaction
DreamFavourite
I don't know whether everybody has heard of a favorite tune, but this is mine. Johnny Mercer has been oh, he's been gone for quite some time, but I think he just did some wonderful work ... But I think one of his best is Dream.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:33What would have been the worst thing for you about being on the desert island?
I never thought of this myself, but a lot of people say that I'm fundamentally sort of a loner. And I imagine there's a little truth that after I got married, I certainly wasn't, but I... I suppose there's a little truth to that.
Presenter asks
1:10Is music important in your life, and have you ever studied it?
Yes, very... No, and it's one of the things that I regret... My mother, bless your heart... tried to get me to take music lessons... I wish I'd learned sort of the fundamentals. As it was, my mother taught me a few chords in the key of C, and I guess through her, I was blessed with a sort of an ear for music.
Presenter asks
5:30What was your first ambition as a youngster?
Yes, I was going to be an architect.
Presenter asks
6:15What happened to you after graduation?
The keepsakes
Joshua Logan... and retain windows... who became also a very famous director in New York... they asked me... up to... old Silver Beach, not as an actor, But as an accordion player... And the first night was a near disaster. Because people said that... my playing spoiled their appetite. So that was the end of my accordion playing and then they... gave me... Odd job in the property department... and then... Small parts start to come.
Presenter asks
14:22Why did you switch from light comedy into Westerns in the early 50s?
I just found after a couple of pictures... After the war... white comedy that sort of I was falling back on... didn't work. People weren't accepting that kind of film... So the Western came as... Pretty much... desperation move on my part.
Presenter asks
17:00Is it depressing to see the great figures of Hollywood's golden era gone?
It's not depressing... actually, but... It was, or people say, the golden era, whatever you want to call it, it was a very exciting, glamorous golden time... I don't think that it necessarily has to return, you know. Arrows have a tendency not to return.
Presenter asks
0:42Is music important in your life?
Yes, it meant a great deal to me.
Presenter asks
4:28What did you read [at Princeton University]?
I had sort of a rocky road. I had started out as a civil engineer. And then a professor called me up to his desk one day and said ... I believe that you'd better consider getting out of this subject because it requires a certain amount of knowledge in mathematics ... So I took the hint and changed and sort of because of a a little skill in drafting ... I got interested in architecture. and graduated with a a degree in architecture.
Presenter asks
5:14What was the attraction [of the Triangle Club shows]? Was it the acting or the girls or what was it?
I think it was just the acting. And the the idea of the show, the idea of before an audience, came to mean a lot to me ... But it really sent me off in the acting direction because of Josh Logan ... he and a friend of his from Harvard started a stock company up in Massachusetts called the University Players ... And he came up and he said, Why don't you come up to the University Players in Falmouth this summer and spend a little time.
Presenter asks
11:59What was [the Hollywood talent scout] after? What had he got you in mind for?
Well, in those days the major studios had had they all had scouts on Broadway ... As a result of the test, I got a contract at MGM ... You were signed to a contract which had sort of options about pickup options ... You went to work every day. You weren't there for any particular part. You did little parts and big pictures and big parts and little pictures. You sort of learned your craft by working at it.
Presenter asks
17:45If you were allotted a part that you really felt was beyond you or not suitable, could you protest?
Yes. Yes, there was a great feeling of belonging ... the big studios have been painted so darkly by so many people ... as these enormous impersonal factories that turned out this rubbish ... it just was not true. and the Moguls that every one writes about with not too kind words. They were exceptional people. and they headed the studios. And they were proud of their jobs. They loved the motion picture.
Presenter asks
24:35Did [Hitchcock] mean that [actors should be treated like cattle]?
No. It was his way of getting out of a remark he was credited with that he didn't make ... He said, I did not say that actors are cattle. I said that actors should be treated as cattle. It's a fine distinction. And I I think the wonderful comedy and humor that he had sort of smoothed the thing over.
“I never thought of this myself, but a lot of people say that I'm fundamentally sort of a loner.”
“I can connect almost. Everything that's happened to me. With a piece of music, or with the tune, or with the song.”
“It was, or people say, the golden era, whatever you want to call it, it was a very exciting, glamorous golden time... Arrows have a tendency not to return.”
“She uh got in the habit of when I missed a note or hit a sour one, she hit me on the knuckles with a pencil. And well, I've never quite forgiven misses Buhide for that”
“I think I sort of halfway got stuck on all of them during the filming of the pictures. They were wonderful.”
“I've taken quite a few pictures. I've sort of followed my children growing up with pictures, and I have a big album. The trips we took and I think I'd take that. A family album to thumb through.”