Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A leading figure in British dance music, best known as a band leader.
On the island
Eight records
Well, the first one is uh by someone that I've always admired a great deal, someone I knew very well since I was about twenty years old.
Leopold Stokowski and his orchestra
This time is Claire DeLoon, and the reason I play this record is because. I used to play in a lot of movies with my band and this one day I went to Fox Films and I was playing in a nightclub set and I looked down and I saw the most beautiful extra a girl and uh sitting at a table and uh it didn't take me long to get her on the dance floor and and my band played some music while I was setting up the cameras for the next shot.
So now I'd like you to hear uh a tune that they made famous while they were singing with me and called Mississippi Mud.
Well, my judgment must have been uh right, because uh his name turned out to be Liberace. And you're good to hear him nod. Yes, I I think uh I'd like to hear uh you know him playing uh a recording of a tune he used to play up uh there on on the roof. It's called uh Intermezzo.
I think it's one of the greatest lyrics of any tune that I've I've ever heard, of all the thousands of tunes I've played, and it's sung by one of my very favorite performers, Sammy Davis, Junior.
Paul Whiteman and his concert orchestra
Well, I suppose it's uh one of my all time favorite pieces of music. It dates back all the way to the first night that Paul Whiteman opened with his very first band in the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles. and uh he played this wonderful Rhapsody in Blue.
Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2
Well, now for something that I think is really very, very soothing, and something I can close my eyes and really enjoy listening to, and that's Nocturne in E flat. The shop bag. That's it.
WhisperingFavourite
Roy, inasmuch as I'd like to have a recording of my own band just to remember the gang. You know, the fun we had and the nice times. I'd like to take my recording, my last recording of Whispering.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:42Could you reconcile yourself to loneliness on this island?
Well, I suppose I could, uh, Roy, because although I've been in contact with millions of people all my life, I think the sort of life I've … the way I live these days, I uh pretty much of a launter, I would say.
Presenter asks
1:02What was your plan in choosing your eight disks for the desert island?
Well, I like to sort of remember back throughout my life and remember people and things that happened and I think that'll sort of keep me going.
Presenter asks
8:04What brought you to England for the first time?
While I was at Fox Films I was head of the musical production department, making the big musicals they made at the time, and one day I received a cable to come over here and bring my American band, which I did. That was in nineteen uh thirty. Yes. And I came over here. I thought I was coming over for eight weeks. And it developed into, uh, well, just over … about forty-three years.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
What are the chances of good musicians dance bands coming back?
I should think they will one of these days. Of course it'll be a very expensive thing. It won't be like pre war because uh … Now it's uh it'd be almost impossible, I should think, to tour a large band on the road. Not so long ago I was approached by a West End hotel. … I I think that there's every possibility that could happen. I think that the big bands once the kids hear it and … even now a lot of uh the letters I get and the people get in touch with me are as, you know, very young young boys and girls that … they they they love the groups, but uh once they hear my records and the records of the thirties bands, Ambrose, the you know, the different bands, they they uh seem to appreciate that kind of music.
Presenter asks
18:31In your career, Roy, have you had any experiences that could be useful in preparing you for a desert island existence?
Well, I suppose uh on a desert island you'd uh you'd have to do a bit of cooking, and fortunately when I was twelve years old in Los Angeles, going to school … I uh and the rest of the boys in the uh School had to take cooking class. I think that I learned to cook pretty well and I think that might be most useful. There wouldn't be a lot to cook. … I used to do a lot of fishing one time. I'd I'd get me a little pin and a string or something and and go out and catch some fish and then I'd know how to cook them.
“I asked her her name, and uh she said, Well, uh … she had to change it because uh she'd uh selected four names. Uh uh she had to select one of them because her uh grandfather would uh disinherit her if he knew she was in Hollywood trying to break into film, so she asked me the one I would prefer out of the four, and I selected the name of Jean Harlowe, and uh that's what she called herself.”
“It started when I looked into uh the window of a second hand shop, and I saw a nice little cornet in the window there, so I talked my mother into spending eleven dollars to buy me my first cornet.”
“My opening night at the Cavite Perry after leaving uh Hollywood, I came over and I I had a terrific uh tuxedo made and uh I, you know, I thought that I was very smart and I had a terrific bow tie with a little white pinstripe in it. I thought I was really, something. And I opened and I noticed a lot of people, you know, were in these tails and white ties. And so Jack Buchanan was there my opening night, and he called me over and went to s sat down at the table with him. And he said, Roy, he said, the music's great. He said, but I hope you don't mind me mentioning the fact that just look around the room, you see all these people. He said, you see that man down there? And he pointed to the Prince of Wales. And he said, everybody has white ties. But he said, if you don't mind, I'd like to meet you tomorrow and take you to my tailor. And I think you should have some tails and a white tie, which I did. An investment that paid off.”
“one of the uh the people that used to frequent uh the club uh very often was Al Capone. Anyway, uh one of the tunes that uh that I uh uh played at the time. I think it's one of the greatest lyrics of any tune that I've I've ever heard, of all the thousands of tunes I've played, and it's sung by one of my very favorite performers, Sammy Davis, Junior.”