[78-L] OT Musical genres^

[martha]

 ...and a great many had organs, both hand-played and roll-played 
(Photo-Player and the WurliTzer One-Man Orchestra, for examples)  ...


 Long ago, I helped move a large collection of sheet music for silent 
movies, much of it hand-written,  from an old theater which was later 
renovated.  Sadly, we moved it all (along with an immense collection of 
valuable promotional material) into a place thought to be safe, but later 
plundered by future tenants.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Sultanof" <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:01 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] OT Musical genres^


> The biggest theatres most definitely had staff orchestras that played for
> prologues and the movie itself. Most movies had cue sheets that specified
> the music that was recommended to be played. The musical director of the
> theatre (Hugo Reisenfeld was one) would compile the score from hundreds of
> orchestrations that were in the theatre's library, and it would be 
> rehearsed
> and played. If the movie was big enough, the score would be newly 
> composed.
> At least one orchestra on staff at a movie theatre made a short - the
> ensemble for the Capitol Theatre in NYC, one of whose members was Jimmy
> Dorsey; this was once on laserdisc. It could play absolutely any kind of
> music from classical to the pop music (jazz) of its time.
>
> In fact, when sound came in, musicians for these orchestras realized that
> their jobs would end. Many of these musicians had been brought in from
> Europe, and some committed suicide. An adventurous group traveled out to
> Hollywood to join studio staff orchestras there.
>
>
> AFAIK, NO theatres
>> had "house bands" to provide the musical accompaniment to their film
>> offerings...?!