Medford mail tribune., March 01, 1936, Page 16, Image 16

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By Jean Jacques
RACKETEERING song agents offer extraordi
nary bait for would-be song writers on the fal
lacious premise that motion picture producers are
seeking new songs and musical scores from out
siders. This is an erroneous "come-on" for, if it is
difficult to crash the screen with an original story,
it is next to impossible for embryonic song writers
to sell their immature efforts to producers.
While thousands of persons have spent hard
earned money with gyp song agents in the hope
that their efforts would reach the screen, this as
tounding fact prevails some fifteen individuals
compose almost all of the musical and lyrical num
bers of today's talking pictures !
In none of the departments which function in
the making of motion pictures, is there a branch
requiring more training than in composing music
and lyrics.
So unique is the training for film composers that
a number of men who have written song and in
strumental successes for Tin Pan Alley and the
stage have "flopped" at composing for the screen.
Writing music and lyrics for motion pictures re
quires an extraordinary knowledge of the mech
anics of cinema production. While the continuity
or dialogue writer is permitted to write until the
story idea has run its course, the composer must
make his music fit exactly a pre-arranged number
of film feet.
THE most consistent composers, working in
teams, are Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
(the oldest song writers, in point of service, in
pictures) ; Harry Warren and Al Dubin; Sam Cos
low and Arthur Johnston; Mack Gordon and Harry
Revel; Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn, and Ralph
Rainger and Leo Robin. In addition to these teams,
there are three or four other consistent composers,
most notable of whom is Richard Whiting.
It is interesting to note that, In the recollection
of an authority in the business, no major motion
picture company has ever purchased a musical
number or song from an unrecognized writer. The
reason for this is simple. With the minimum aver
age cost of an ordinary full-length major picture in
the neighborhood of $250,000, a producer cannot
afford to gamble on untried efforts.
Work endless work is the lot of the song
writers. A picture, for example, used four songs
but the composers wrote more than twenty to get
those four! It is not unusual for one team of com
posers to be working on the musical numbers of
from three to five productions at the same time.
Due to the enormous use of songs in radio, tho life
of a modern hit, ojccept in raro instances, is but
three or four months.
TO explain the qualifications necessary for suc
cess in writing music and lyrics for tho screen,
consider the experience and background of two suc
cessful writers, Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin.
Robin and Rainger entered the field when the
musical picture was a mere infant. Today, some
five years later, though still in their early thirties,
they arc the deans of tho music department at the
Paramount studio!
Robin, born in Pit tsburgh, Pennsylvania, once en
tered tho University of Pittsburgh to study law, but
gave this up for editorial work. In his spare time he
studied dramatics at Carnegie Tech and soon left
for New York to become an actor."
On Broadway, Robin discovered that there were
far more actors than parts. Disheartened, but not
discouraged, he turned his hand to writing lyrics.
His first success, "Whistle Away Your Blues,"
found a spot in the final edition of the Greenwich
Village Follies. Two years after his arrival on
Broadway, tho young Pittsburgher gave to the
world, through the stage success "Hit the Deck,"
the number, "Hallelujah," which attracted the at
tention of Paramount officials, and resulted in a
year's contract.
Ralph Rainger, a native New Yorker, found more
detours on the road to success. Ralph entered
Brown University, but loft it to attend the New
Jersey School of Law at Newark. After graduating,
he joined a prominent New Jersey law firm, but
began to devote more and more time to music. Ho
studied piano with Paolo Gallico and later was ad-
PAGE TWO
While sundry to-called "agents" flourish by advertising that they'll "sell your song to the movies," the bus. - of
supplying music for fllmdom's screen offerings actually is vested In 15 men. Typical of this highly specialized group
are the above two song writers, Ralph Rainger, left, and Leo Robin, right, who form one of the ace teams. The
sketch tells the story of some of their many hits and the stars who sang them but back of that Is a tale of long,
hard work before they hit the sucoess standard.
"Songs For Movies" Racket Profitable
For Everyone But Would-Be Composer
Survey Shows That 15 Men Are Producing All Screen Music and None Is Bought From "Outsiders;"
' Even "Tin Pan Alley" Veterans Fail to Hit Right Note! :
Robin and Rainger. Since that time they have never
been separated and have composed such hits as
"Please," "Here Lies Love," and "Love in Bloom"
(which promises to surpass anything they have
done to date), for Bing Crosby; "A Park in Paree,"
for Chevalier; "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love,"
for Claudette Colbert; "Take a Lesson From the
Lark" and "Do I Love You," for Ben Bernie; "Low
Down Lullaby" and "I'm a Black Sheep Who's
Blue," for the late Dorothy Dell; "Laugh, You Son-of-a-Gun,"
for Shirley Temple, and "Love Divided
by Two," for Carey Grant.
Over a period of approximately five years they
have averaged almost two published songs a
month!
ADD to this some 300 numbers that died shortly
after birth, the "situation" songs and "spe
cial material," which is of important value to a pic
ture, but never sees the light of publication, and
you have a fairly good idea of what is expected of
a composer of music for screen production.
mitted to the select Damrosch Institute of Musical
Art, studying under Clarence Adler.
THEN came stage engagements. He was a mem
ber of a featured two-piano act in "Queen High,"
the "Ziegfeld Follies of "27," "Rosalie" and the
first "Little Show," for which he composed his first
published number, "Moanin' Low." On the strength
of this one hit, Rainger was given a Paramount
contract.
In Hollywood, Robin and Rainger became close
friends.
. Robin's first assignment when he came West was
to write, with Richard Whiting, Maurice Chevalier's
first picture song, "Louise." Then followed "Be
yond the Blue Horizon," for Jeanette MacDonald;
"My Ideal," for Chevalier; "True Blue Lou," for
Hal Skelly, and "One Hour With You," for Che
valier and Miss MacDonald.
When Paramount contracted Bing Crosby for his
first picture, "The Big Broadcast," officials teamed
The tax upon the versatility of the writer of
munin and Ivrics for the screen is far Ereater than
.. ?.
in any other form of musical composition. In this
Held the composer is called upon to write ior many
types of characters; to compose numbers ranging
from the sublime to the ridiculous.
To illustrate this: In "Little Miss Marker," there
were two vastly different types of characters which
called for songs. The childish, tomboy characteriza
tion, played by Shirley Temple, and the none-too-pure
girl character, played by the late Dorothy Dell.
For Mistress Temple, Robin and Rainger had to
write a number that woujd fit both the characteri
zation and the youthful actress. The result was
"Laugh, You Son-of-a-Gun!"
' " don't mean a snicker 'heh, heh, heh.'
I don't mean a giggle 'hee,heehee.'
don't mean a chuckle-
yo, no, no, no,
What I mean is 'ho, ho, ho, ho.' "
Miss Dell played a worldly young woman whose
better qualities were touched by the child. Such a
person, in real life, would not sing a typical lullaby.
So the composers wrote "The Low-Down Lullaby":
' "Go to sleep you gorgeous little rascal, , .
Thank your lucky stars you've got a bed;
You better get some shut-eye while the gettin'
is good.
You've go some tough nights ahead, ' V"
' You'll grow up and find it's all a racket,
Cards are stacked against you from the start,"
etc.
Another test of versatility for screen composers
and lyrists is writing "down" to the limited vocabu
lary and pronunciation of foreign stars. Chevalier,
for example, has had a hard struggle with English
words over three syllables.
From this it may be seen that, regardless of
advertisements of certain "song services" for re
vising, arranging and composing music for your
lyrics, the road to success is not through any
racketeering correspondence school or agent!
"Wives Must Be Trained Wisely," Says Reno Preacher
Famed Sky-Pilot of Separation Center Finds Few Women Want Divorce (
man and a training for the woman. And it all must
be done with such fineness, that neither may be
aware of the handling.
The trouble seems to be that we think marriage
is just a gamble a matter of chance, with always
the possibility that our number may be a blank.
A bridegroom asked the minister what the fee
should be.
"Whatever you think the bride is worth." '
"Just a minute, Reverend. I'll go you on that. I
don't know what she's worth, and I won't for
awhile. If you will wait until I find out, I'll pay you.
Or, will you take $2 now?"
"If you have the $2 handy, maybe I'd better -
take it."
Encouragement is the only thing that works III
training dog or wife. Argument and criticism
may not be grounds for divorce, but they surely
are the great causes. You wouldn't take it. Neither
would she. Nor do any of us. Even the dog will lay
down and quit under a harsh word, but a "Hi J
along, old fellow," will send him back into the
sage and cactus, tongue rolling from heat and
thirst, but tail wagging for happiness.
You've got to train them, but not tell them.
Down on the Walker Lake sink in Nevada is the
U. S. Navy's munitions depot.
An efficient and orthodox engineer was in charge
of construction. He employed a number of Indians.
One, Jim. was a good worker, but his wife Susie,
still carried the tommy-hawk. She drank, and when
she drank she talked, and when she talked she
swung an ugly knife.
"Jim," ordered the engineer, "You send your
squaw back to the reservation, or tell her to keep
sober."
Jim, like his tribe, did nothing about it. The
engineer called him in again after Susie had gone
on the warpath.
'Vim, you tell your wife to be good, or she will
have to go back to the reservation."
"t"h," grunted Jim. "You tell em."
BREWSTER ADAMS believes that few of the
women who go to Reno for a divorce really
want one. Most of the trouble lies in the fact that
their husbands lacked the wisdom and ability to
train them properly. In his numerous contacts with
marital difficulties, he has learned that more love
and understanding, less criticism, will keep most
marriages from going on the rocks. Follow his in
formative articles every week in Five Star Weekly.
By BREWSTER ADAMS
For 25 Years Reno's Baptist Preacher
STRANGELY, a great many women come to Reno
to get a divorce, but very few really want one.
Many a good wife has been lost needlessly lost
and that just for want of encouragement train
ing, I would call it.
You re crazy, some
one will surely say.
"Don't they go to Reno
for the 'cure?' "
Hf rnurA. T hnvo
heard that word for a
(ft , quarter of a century.
V 2 t' J almost every day in my .
; ministry here where so
many trails divide.
But, honestly, I have
yet to meet a case that
seems to be completely
"cured." There are too
many recurrent symp
toms, heart flurries
which cannot be sup
pressed. Affection is an Infection difficult to escape
and rarely to be cured.
It is pathetically evident, if not beautifully so,
that the visitor who has become dowdy with drud
gery in hor home, begins to be particular with her
appearance when she arrives in Reno. The pathos
of it is that she didn't start "being beautiful" be
fore, or that someone did not give her encourage
ment to do so.
A chap from New York talked to mo of how
Brewster Adams
careless and slovenly his wife had become after
they were married. He came out tb contest the
case, not for tho sake of objecting, but really to
validate the decree in New York.
After the "contest," which is the name they give
the thing which does not exist, he came to say
goodbye, and surprised me with the frank state
ment: "If I had known what a good-looking woman she
could be, I would never have let her escape. When
she came into the courtroom, all I could think of
was when as a bride she walked down the aisle of
the church. She looked even more beautiful today.
I've been a fool, I guess."
Then I got the chance for which I had waited.
You see, she had been to see me, and I knew that
she cared for him more than she would ever care
for any man. She would have gone back to him, if
things were different. You must understand that
divorce is usually more a separation from a situa
tion than from a person.
That is why a forced reconciliation does little
good. Things have to be different to make a differ
ence. The New Yorker was honest, and realized the
situation.
"You're right, doctor," he declared. "I never en
couraged her as I should. She's a sweet woman
better than any woman I've ever known. I might
have made a good wife out of her and I didn't. I
am only sorry that it is too late now."
Fortunately it was not
SO I have often thought, and wondered, as they
have come to my door good women, fair
women, faithful women, with no other affection in
the world than for theme with whom they have
broken why should somebody have failed to make
a good wife out of them?
And so, I am sure that a man has to be tamed
and a woman has to be trained put it as crudely
as that, if you please. Happiness has to bo capti
vated and cultivated. Marriage is a taming for the