Gershwin at 80; Part 4

<v Speaker>[instrumental music plays]. <v Miles Krueger>While the 1930 musical "Strike up the Band" was in rehearsal, the Fox Movietone Newsreel

<v Miles Krueger>cameramen dropped by for a visit. <v Miles Krueger>In the soundtrack of that very carefully rehearsed, seemingly spontaneous visit, <v Miles Krueger>George and the cast anxiously await the arrival of the stars Bobby Clark and Paul <v Miles Krueger>McCullough. Even the casual asides were scripted, as proven by the 4 variant <v Miles Krueger>versions of this scene housed in the archives of the Institute of the American Musical. <v Miles Krueger>Spontaneous or not, it is a joy to hear the popular team of Clark and McCullough sing <v Miles Krueger>"Mademoiselle in New Rochelle," with the composer at the piano. <v Miles Krueger>This recording then segues into George Gershwin playing his famous "I Got <v Miles Krueger>Rhythm" variations. <v George Gershwin>Hey George, are Clark and McCullough here yet? <v Stagehand>Nope, they're not here yet. <v George Gershwin>Those fellows are always late. Tell you what we do, while we're waiting for them, let's <v George Gershwin>take the girls and uh the ?buck dance? <v George Gershwin>and strike up the band. <v Stagehand>Okay. Alright, folks, c'mon, strike up the band. Hurry up. <v Speaker>["Strike Up the Band" instrumental] <v Paul McCullough>Hey wait, wait. Let's get going here. Let's get some work done.

<v George Gershwin>Say where have you been? You boys are a half hour late. <v Paul McCullough>George, I was never late in my life. They've had to hold the show several times, but I've <v Paul McCullough>never been late. <v George Gershwin>And you boys don't even know your lyrics to this show, yet. <v Paul McCullough>We know the lyrics, all right, but they're too high. <v Paul McCullough>You see, I'm a bass singer. I sang bass for 10 years at the Metropolitan. <v Bobby Clark>Opera House? <v Paul McCullough>Museum. All my family are musicians. <v George Gershwin>Listen, you may come from a very musical family, but you still don't know the lyrics to <v George Gershwin>this show. <v Paul McCullough>I'd know the lyrics, if you wrote some notes in there like you wrote in your "Rhapsody in <v Paul McCullough>Blue.". <v George Gershwin>Listen, you'll sing the mademoiselle song that I wrote for you, and like it. <v Paul McCullough>I like all your songs. How are you going to argue with an impresario like that? <v Speaker>[Clark and McCullough sing "Madmoiselle in New Rochelle"] [Gershwin plays "I Got Rhythm" variations] <v Miles Krueger>It may not be generally known that very few composers of Broadway musicals orchestrate

<v Miles Krueger>their own songs. Even George Gershwin, who orchestrated all his own concert pieces <v Miles Krueger>following the "Rhapsody in Blue," turned to other specialists in this field, both on <v Miles Krueger>Broadway and in Hollywood. <v Miles Krueger>Creating the sound of a Broadway or Hollywood musical is a special craft, and the dean <v Miles Krueger>of orchestrators is my dear friend, Robert Russell Bennett. <v Miles Krueger>When did you first meet George Gershwin? Do you remember? <v Robert Russell Bennett>Oh yeah, sure, I remember very well. I heard his music before I met him. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I went to a little play called "La La Lucille" and he <v Robert Russell Bennett>had written the score and- and I was looking always for another Jerome Kern because <v Robert Russell Bennett>I already before I ever got to New York, which was in 1916 <v Robert Russell Bennett>when I first came here, I had already gotten quite well acquainted with Kern, <v Robert Russell Bennett>and he seemed to stand out from all these musical comedy thing. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And I was such a snob, I think you know that about me, Miles. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I don't need to dwell on the fact that uh if you put um ?Baum's? <v Robert Russell Bennett>Name on "Pistol Packin' Mama," I would say it's a great piece of music. <v Miles Krueger>[laughs]

<v Robert Russell Bennett>I just- it's not in me! I just can't. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I just can't- I'm just such a snob. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And I can't possibly take a Richard Rodgers piece of music seriously, <v Robert Russell Bennett>I can't possibly take a George Gershwin piece seriously until he started <v Robert Russell Bennett>to write extended things and started to dream a little higher. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And even then, I used to have the most awful arguments that George Gershwin, because <v Robert Russell Bennett>I said, "George, why do you have to write all these songs?" And- and <v Robert Russell Bennett>he said, "Well, I want to make enough money so that you write my serious music." I said, <v Robert Russell Bennett>"How much money do you need, for goodness sake?" I said, "You don't need much money to <v Robert Russell Bennett>write records. Go! Dream, and write great music!" Because <v Robert Russell Bennett>he really had the talent. I never took any- any of those tune writers that seriously an- <v Robert Russell Bennett>any time before. Even Kern, who is adorable. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And the more I hear of currently, the more I realize that that kind of music has a very <v Robert Russell Bennett>big place in the world of art, but not for me and uh not very much. <v Robert Russell Bennett>[laughs] <v Miles Krueger>Well, like you saw la- "La La Lucillle" in 1919. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Yeah, I went and saw- saw that-

<v Miles Krueger>And of course, Gershwin's concert piece, the first 1, was on Lincoln's birthday in 1924. <v Miles Krueger>So for 5- for 5 years you didn't take him very seriously. <v Miles Krueger>[laughs] Is that what I'm- <v Robert Russell Bennett> Well, no um. Then I was- I have another <v Robert Russell Bennett>personality, I suppose that when I go down Broadway, I <v Robert Russell Bennett>fully respect and admire people who are great on Broadway, too. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I'm not- I don't look down on them. <v Robert Russell Bennett>They just don't- I don't see any future for them in the- in the world of art. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I just can't conceive of them being the kind of thing I want to carry <v Robert Russell Bennett>with me into another world or anything like that. <v Miles Krueger>Were you friendly with George before you actually began to work with him? <v Robert Russell Bennett>I sort of started to say I saw this show and I was quite charmed by the melodies. <v Robert Russell Bennett>They were quite cute. And I thought, gee, he's got a little of Jerry Kern's <v Robert Russell Bennett>twist to things, you know? And- and I uh then I met George. <v Robert Russell Bennett>George- I mean, his name became quite well-known. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And some people said this about him. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Other people said that about him. He was a he was an awfully simple personality. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Oh, it is just wonderful how uninhibited, uneducated,

<v Robert Russell Bennett>un- everything you could be and be as- as gifted and as successful <v Robert Russell Bennett>as George Gershwin. <v Miles Krueger>Well, when did you first work with George? <v Robert Russell Bennett>Well, pretty soon thereafter, I should say that was in 19 hundred and 19. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Toward the end of the year, I had just come back from the service <v Robert Russell Bennett>of Uncle Sam. And- and uh the first work I started <v Robert Russell Bennett>to get was this arranging these things. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And I wrote Irene "Swanee" for the Princeton, the original <v Robert Russell Bennett>arrangement of "Swanee". <v Robert Russell Bennett>And uh he had 2 or 3 things in shows. <v Robert Russell Bennett>But this time I had established a certain kind of reputation with these <v Robert Russell Bennett>fellows. I hadn't worked for Kern yet at that time, but I had worked for <v Robert Russell Bennett>2 or 3 of the you know the top writers. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And at this time Gershwin was looking around for somebody to arrange his <v Robert Russell Bennett>music like a man named Frank Saddler, who used to work for Jerome Kern. <v Robert Russell Bennett>But Frank was a very gifted man, one of the most brilliant arrangers that's ever been.

<v Robert Russell Bennett>And purely an arranger, I don't think he- and he's always talking about writing a <v Robert Russell Bennett>symphony with 4 tubas in it but I never saw the symphony. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I don't think he ever wrote it. But anyway, George first said to me, "I'm-" <v Robert Russell Bennett>He says, "I'd like to establish a little partnership like uh <v Robert Russell Bennett>Kern and Saddler." Well, and I made 1 orchestration for him. <v Robert Russell Bennett>He said, "Oh it was fine." But I never heard anything more about the Kern and Saddler. <v Robert Russell Bennett>In the course of the years, I did a great deal of Gershwin's music. <v Miles Krueger>What about shows? What was your first Broadway show with him? <v Robert Russell Bennett>Well, I never- he never had uh um a regular arranger to take the whole <v Robert Russell Bennett>show in those days. They had 3 or 4 of us there. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And I did numbers for him, I never took on a whole show. <v Robert Russell Bennett>I took on a whole show at the same time he was opening a couple of shows. <v Robert Russell Bennett>That may have been 1 reason why they- because the publisher put me on the other show <v Robert Russell Bennett>instead of on the Gershwin show. <v Miles Krueger>So in a sense, the first real scoring that you did for a whole score would <v Miles Krueger>have been in Hollywood at RKO.

<v Robert Russell Bennett>No way down the line there, I did uh "Girl Crazy." That <v Robert Russell Bennett>was my-. <v Miles Krueger>Oh in 1930. <v Robert Russell Bennett>?inspiration all the way through? And I did "Of Thee I Sing." I was the principal <v Robert Russell Bennett>arranger for that and 2 or 3 shows that I did do. <v Miles Krueger>I'm curious about um "Girl Crazy" and the relationship between <v Miles Krueger>the pit orchestra and the Red Nichols band. <v Miles Krueger>Now, was the Red Nichols band a separate entity, or were they in the orchestra pit? <v Miles Krueger>How did that work? <v Robert Russell Bennett>That's one of the cute stories that I quote er a lot when people ask me about <v Robert Russell Bennett>dance and theater and all that sort of thing. <v Robert Russell Bennett>We had Red Nichols band engaged as a band, and with that we added <v Robert Russell Bennett>the strings, the full string section of musicians headed <v Robert Russell Bennett>by the famous old Joseph Smith, who was at the Plaza Hotel <v Robert Russell Bennett>and had a pretty good-sized orchestra there at the Plaza when they had real music. <v Miles Krueger>Is that the Joseph Smith, who was the musical director at Victor Records in the early <v Miles Krueger>days? <v Robert Russell Bennett>Many times, yes. Sure. That's the same man. <v Robert Russell Bennett>He was our concertmaster and we had a string section and <v Robert Russell Bennett>then we had Red Nichol's band. And I guess that covered the whole uh

<v Robert Russell Bennett>brass woodwind and- and percussion. <v Robert Russell Bennett>And the cute story about it is that this man that he <v Robert Russell Bennett>brought in had as its first clarinet and saxophone, Benny Goodman. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Had as his first trumpet, Red Nichols and Ruby Bloom was the second trumpet. <v Robert Russell Bennett>He had as fresh trombone, Glenn Miller. <v Robert Russell Bennett>He had as a drummer, Gene Krupa. <v Robert Russell Bennett>[laughs] Before any of them had ever been heard! <v Miles Krueger>Incredible. Just incredible. <v Miles Krueger>So actually, the pit orchestra in "Girl Crazy" was the Red Nichols Orchestra <v Miles Krueger>with an augmentation of strings. <v Robert Russell Bennett>Yeah. <v Miles Krueger>Now, did they have a featured spot in the show as a band? <v Robert Russell Bennett>No. <v Miles Krueger>I mean, did they play in the on-track [inaudible] or anything like that. <v Robert Russell Bennett>No, no, we didn't put the spotlight on them at all. <v Robert Russell Bennett>As I remember, it was just that we just engaged the band, and they <v Robert Russell Bennett>never went on the stage. <v Miles Krueger>They never were on the stage, the way George Olsen had been for [inaudible] and "Good <v Miles Krueger>News." <v Robert Russell Bennett>Yeah. Yeah. And it was me. It was a job. And I would glad to have Red Nichols because <v Robert Russell Bennett>they played like little angels.

<v Robert Russell Bennett>As you have just heard, Robert Russell Bennett is most cautious in doling out <v Robert Russell Bennett>compliments. But here now is his enthusiastically endorsed Red Nichols <v Robert Russell Bennett>orchestra playing I Got Rhythm from "Girl Crazy." <v Speaker>["I Got Rhythm" plays]