Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the film music of a composer who doesn’t get nearly the recognition he so deserves. Add to that, he was a lovely man who I got to speak to a few times back in the Bay Cities days when we recorded a classical piece of his (I still have his nice letter he wrote to me). I first took note of Mr. Gold the week of May 18, 1960, with his wonderful score to On the Beach, which I saw at my beloved Stadium Theater. Then, at the same theater on the week of January 11, 1961, I saw Inherit the Wind, and loved it and the score – by Ernest Gold. And a week or so later I was at the Wilshire Theater seeing the newly-opened roadshow film Exodus, with a score by – Ernest Gold. And what a score it was – I loved every minute of it and the film, and, of course, made my parents buy the soundtrack right after, in stereo, thank you very much. And the theme became a huge hit, thanks to Ferrante and Teicher’s rendition. I played both the LP that had the Ferrante and Teicher version and the soundtrack to death on my Columbia House Stereophonic Record Player. He had another score out that year, Judgement at Nuremburg, but it had very little music. My next real Gold sighting was when I saw a sneak preview of the movie Pressure Point in 1962 – that movie was shocking and I thought really good and the score was fantastic. Sadly, no soundtrack was released (well, not until Kritzerland came to the rescue over a decade ago), but I did see the film two or three more times when it came out. Then, early the following year, 1963, I saw the John Cassavetes’ movie, A Child is Waiting, starring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland and it, too, had a brilliant score by Mr. Gold. No soundtrack back then. Then in late November of 1963, I went to the brand-new Pacific’s Dome Theater and their opening roadshow attraction, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with a score by – Ernest Gold (also issued by Kritzerland). Who knew he could score a comedy so brilliantly? The music practically made the movie. Then it was two years until another Gold score for yet another Stanley Kramer film (all in all, Gold scored nine films for Kramer, either as producer or director), Ship of Fools. That didn’t have much score either but did have an incredible main title theme along with a lot of source music. There were about ten more scores to come, but given the huge hit films he’d done, it’s surprising that more people didn’t hire him. Some of his later scores are quite good – Cross of Iron (also released by Kritzerland – no one can say we didn’t mine for Gold) and especially Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff. In the 1970s, I discovered some of his earlier scores, which were all of high quality. His first marriage was to Marni Nixon. He passed away in 1999 at seventy-seven years old. There’s a wonderful album of his film themes – it was on London Records and I never knew of it back when it came out, which is surprising. It has an excellent CD release on Dutton Vocalion, where it’s paired with the Herrmann/Hitchcock The Great Movie Thrillers. It’s probably out of print but there’s a copy on eBay at the price it was when it came out.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403252391668?hash=item5de3b72ef4:g:2VAAAOSw4-NhdPUK
Yesterday was certainly a Saturday, I think we can say that much. I got about seven hours of sleep. Two hours, then up two hours, then an additional five. Once up, I answered e-mails and did stuff that needed doing, and then it was time to mosey on over to the mail place and then the Smokehouse for a meal with Robert Yacko. We like to go early – no crowds. I’ve been there many times at that hour and it’s always empty, but not yesterday. I mean, it wasn’t full, but I remarked to the host who seated me that I’d never seen it that crowded at four and he agreed completely and didn’t understand. It did preclude us from having a booth – so we were stuck at a table for two and I’m never that happy with those as there’s just not enough room. Robert had the fish and chips, which he loved, and I ordered the garlic cheese bread, of course, and then my trio o’ things: cup of clam chowder, shrimp cocktail, and their amazing wedge salad with thousand island dressing. It was all great. We had laughs and fun and were there a little over ninety minutes.
After that, I came right home, caught up on stuff, and then sat on my couch like so much fish and finished the Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro. It’s more kid oriented than some of his films, but it’s a winner – fun and warm, with memorable characters and a plot, such as it is, that’s just human and real, with no villains or contrived threats and drama. I had no idea just how beloved this one is (I prefer Kiki’s, which has much of the same qualities), but it’s made several lists as one of the best animated films ever made. It looks great on this Blu-ray and has another catchy score by Joe Hisaishi. I listened to a little of the Disney dub, and it’s not quite as bad as most of their dubs and seems at least somewhat faithful to the original intentions of the Japanese.
Then I ordered some frozen yogurt and that arrived, and I ate too much of it, but I haven’t had it in ages and it was very good. After that, I watched the first thirty minutes of another Miyazaki film, Porco Rosso, which I remembered really liking and my memory is proving correct, so I’ll finish that up today and move on to whatever the next one is – I have nine more to watch at this point. After that, I listened to music and then moved on to my Gold mining, which is still going on as I write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll pick up some packages that came after I was at the mail place yesterday, plus one that’s coming today, and then I’ll try to spend an hour or two writing for the project with David Wechter, which I’d hoped to do yesterday, but didn’t. Then I’ll finish Porco Rosso and choose the next film. I’ll probably save my two least favorites for last – Nausicca and Princess Mononoke. I’m hoping I like them better. Then I can do some listening and relax.
This week is getting the Kritzerland show set – rehearsals, announcing it and putting the flyer out and having it go live on the Vitello’s website. I’ll watch some of the Warner Bros. movies I can stream, and there’ll be some Zooming and some meetings and meals.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora or the Texas two-step, for today is the birthday of KevinH. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to KevinH. On the count of three – one, two three: A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO KEVINH!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, pick up some packages, write, eat, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gone mining for Gold.