1937-02-13 — Page 16

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THE ...... HONGKONG... TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1937.

ON YOUR GRAMOPHONE

☆

Spike Hughes Discovers

T was only to be expected

when the music had been round and around and gonë out there for the last time that Tin Pan Alley would look around for a successor nonsense song, thus showing that Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood are not so distantly related as you might think. Both share an uncon- trollable desire to do the same thing at least twice.

Whether Ise a Muggin'" will make another fortune for tho song-writing boys I do not know. It seems to me more of a tune for listening than for whistling while delivering the groceries.

Also, for one so unmathematically minded as myself, it has the added drawback of providing a musical You have to say numbers game." "boom" every time a 7 comes round.

Or something. Maybe you can get the hang of it. Anyway the record- ings are coming along nicely.

The man who started the song in the Brat place is a certain "Etuff "Smilli, who adds yet another pleturesque namo to the Jazz roll of Buds, Fuda, and Als. "Staff "—and lils nonsense nong-can be heard on Brunswick 02182,

Other recordings have been made by the Teagarden Boys-Jack Teagarden 14 hin name, not a place on II,M.V. BD 5003; Lew Stone (Decca P 5952); Joe Haymes (Rex 8777).

*

"OINCIDENT with the arrival of

'I'ne a Muggin'," comes the intest "swing" tune. You may think that description a contradiction in terina, but "Christopher Columbus" has got a swing and quite a tune with it.

If I should appear to take a personal 'interest in 11 Hittle composition, IL 18 because it in the work of a Harlem Baxophonist whom I helped to discover "way back in 1033.

In one of the smaller gin-mills of Che time there used to play a round, chubby-faced young Negro, who to all appearances earned his living while

COLUMBUS

CHRISTOPHER

COLUMBUS

fast asleep. At least, It was only when ho had finished playing for the night that he opened his eyes, popped his Instrument in a velvet bag, and went off to play in some other dive for fun, and again with his eyes shut.

This shut-eyed wanderer was known simply na "Choo ": It is thought be

enuse of some Chinese-philosophic something in the way he looked. It took many weeks of patient research to discover that "Cho0 was known to the postal authorities as Leon Berry,

The best recording of Leon Berry's

IS THE STRATOSPHERE

USEFUL?

PUT Mont Blanc on top of and so able to set a straight course Mount Everest and Snowdon and keep to it. There is a constant wind In the direction opposite to on top of both and you are still the rotation of the earth, so that a good way below the new aero- steering will be very simple.

But there will have to be a new! plane height record. Having contrived to soar 50,000 feet in type of engine. The internal com

bustion engine needs oxygen and the air, mankind is busy won there is too little oxygen to supply dering to what practical use he can at 50,000 feet. In Russia they are put his achievement.

already experimenting for strato- sphere flying with a combination of a normal engine and a rocket system; and there is talk of rocketing mails across the English Channel by using which will reach the

An aeroplane that can only fly at 180 miles an hour at sea level can fly at 550 miles an hour at that height, because of the diminished resistance of the rarefled air. That would mean London to New York "In Jess than six hours.

n trajectory stratosphere.

tile masterpiece is by Benny Good man's Orchestm (HMV B8431).

Among others nro Fletcher Hender fon. (Brunswick 02190), Joo Haymes (Vocalion Swing Record, No. 6), Dob" Crosby (Decen F5962),

*

WITH the exception of the Fifth,. perhaps the most readily.nccept- able of. Beethoven's nine symphonica is the Seventh,

It is a gay one, and people renet willingly to galety in musle, especially when it is datico ntusic. The Seventhr Beethoven has been called tho "Apethcoals of the Dance,” a tag that explains its popularity and also why so many conductors give uninspired performances of

Columbia INS

just lasued a new. recording of the Seventh (LX 4848). As a per- formance It is expert and authentic. The Vienna Philliermonto Orchestra has no peer; Weingartner, who con- ducts, edited the edition of Beet. hoven's symphonies lint is used all over the world, no. his credentials

· should pass.

Unless you are exceedingly particu inr. this is a no performance, and certainly the best so far recorded.

In the quietest of whispers, however, I must admit that I was disappointed. -There remain in my memory two per- formances and a couple of mornings' rehearsal of the saine symphony under Toscanial Inst year—performances that will never be forgotten by those who heard them and cheered the conductor with the most spontaneous cheers I have ever heard in a concert hall,

*

As played through these records,

I remembered how Toscanini had slumped this phrase and that, how ha had produced an almost wibearable rhythm in the last movement, and in the Weingartner performance these things don't happèn,

He comes near to it, but the Anal drive-a sort of musical "follow through" absent, and one is left in. trigued instead of thrilled.

But they are unusual records--the first ulme I have dared to listen to the Soventh since that night at Queen's Hail last June.

You Should Like-

LE CID, BALLET MUSIC (Columbia DD1638-9) Dance tunes from Mas-

senet's opera. In the Spanish manner,

charming and excellent balict music.

GINGER ROGERS. (Decca F5983)

Fred Astaire's partner sings the nu

Putting all My Eggs in one Basket" and "Let Yourself Go."

bers from Follow the Fleet" "I'm

DENNY GOODMAN AND HIS (H.M.V. 18421.) ORCHESTRA.

Gordy-Goody" and "Breakin' in n pair of shoes are so well played by

this white American band; that is why the record is included here under the band's name. not the music. Good

One-scientist-has-been-pointingman's name should be enough for you out that the stratosphere has pos- in future There is no better guaran Morcover, in the stratosphere it sibilites as a health resort--plenty of tee of jazz quality. will not encounter storm currents, I sunshine arid ultra-violet rays.

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Specially Staffed by Waiters who have boon Carefully Trained to render Faultless Service.

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CINEMA NOTES

מה

Man proposes and woman dis- poses of him with swift dispatch. millionaire especially if he is susceptible to the wiles of International beauty who his her eyes on his bank roll. That, with amusing embroidery, is the theme of Universal's comedy drama, "Three Smart Girls," which is showing to- day nt the Alhambra Theatre. Deanna Durbin, who has been ringing on Eddie Cantor's national broadcasts for many months, makes her screen debut in "Three Smart Girls." She has the role of the youngest sister, The other wo girls are portrayed by Non Grey and Barbara Bead. Binnie Barnes is scen as the fortune seeking temptress and her mother In played by Alice Brady. Ray Milland, cast as the sweetheart of one of the girls, scis the snaro

for Binnie. Charles Winninger is the millionaire father. Mischa Auer impersonates the Count; Nella Waller 18 LIC mother and John King portrays the fance of the second sister.

"Earthworm Tractors" Millions have

"read of the hilarious exploits of Alexander Bolts, the whimsical and egotistical tractor salesman and comedy hero of the famous series of stories, "Earthworm Tractors," written by

by William Hazlet Upson for the Saturday Evening Post, Now Alexander

Botta has been brought to life on the screen in the

Flest National comedy "Earthworm Tractors." which is scheduled as the feature attraction at the Majestic Theatre Sunday, Botts. on the

sergen, is no other than the famous wide mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown. Joe

by is supported nolable cast. not

He hos two leading indics, June Travis and Carol Hughes, and such talented players ng Guy Kibbee, Dick Foran, Gene Lockhart. Olin Howland, Joseph Crehan, Sura Edwards, Charles Wilson, William Davidson, Irving Bacon and Stuart Holmes.

"Our Relation's" Theatregoers, enjoying through the years the sidesplitting effusions and the ribtickling screen fantasies, of Lourel and Hardy hud to rub, their eyes of mirth and wonderment last night at the Majestie Theatre in the showing of the Hal Roach-M-G-M feature

"Our Relations." The thin, shy Ston, and his rotund,

comedy jully partner, "Olle," appear to-

gether with their twin sailor brothers lean, whimsical "AI," and int, pompous "Bert," in veries of episodes so natural and riotously

funny

that the audience was intrigued and kept in a constant state of expectations. It is the famous fun team's first essay of dual roles in a

fenture full-length

and "Our Relations," a screen play suggested by W. W. Jacobs short story, ""The Money, Box, is to be classed as the best vellele they have ever steered to universal favour. It is

a Stan production. Laurel

"Charlie Chan at the Race Track"

Charlie Chán encounters the strangest and thost baffling case of his carcer as he combats the deadly machinations of a ruthless killer in "Charlie Chan at the

Race Track" Twentieth Century-Fox

picture which opens at the Queen's Theatre to-morrow. Murder with a phantom

horseshoe, an

that burls intra-ray unseen death; and a poison foam

that bubbles venomously, are but n

but a few of the macabre means of murder that Chan deals with as he races neck- and-neck, half-way 'round the world, with an invisible killer. Warner Olund once again plays Charlie Chan, Earl Derr Biggers famous sleuth, with Keye Luke, Helen Wood, Thomas Deck and Gavin Mule also featured in the cast, "Charlle Chan at the Race Track" is unquestionably the best and most thrilling Charlie Chan pleture ever brought to the "Sing, Baby, Sing"

screen.

With Alice Faye swinging torchy new tunes and romancing with Michael Whalen, Adolphe Menjou going daffy and roaming around in his nightle, Gregory

the de- Inon dialectician,

the English language, the king and queen of comedy, Ted Healy and Patsy Kelly, smashing all laugh records, and the Ritz Brothers bringing a new kind of musical sing" opens on to the sereen, "Sing, Baby, Sunday at the Star Theatre. Fresh from

the hit mint of Twentieth Century-Fox, the picture is said to top their previous triumph, "Thanks A Million," in a million ways. A laugh-Jammed, sang-erammed scram- borce of sturs, songs

and

show- stoppers, "Sing, Baby, Sing" starts crowding the laughs in the opening scenes and only the sizzling songs and romantle love-making provide inter- ludes from the sldc-splitting,

mirth,

"That Girl From

A Novelty in musical pletures, with an hilariously funny step thread on which the world's foremost colora- tura poprano strings. pearls of song, 13 offered to picture-goers in "That Girl From Paris" which is showing to-day at the Queen's Theatre,, cust Lilly Pons, Jack Oakie and Geno Raymond. Breaking away entirely from the customary type of musical comedy, the now offering turns out to be a gay laugh-feast from start to finish, with a notable cast alding the tiny prima donna.in her mirthful endeavours. Miss Pons herself is as brilliant an actress and comedienne as she is a singer, and her per- formance is a

mond turns in Gene Roy-

the best work

of his carcer as the romantic saxophonist; and Jack Oakle, Mischa Auer and Fronk Jenks as the other three members of Raymond's orchestra, Herman Bing as a rond- house owner and Gregory Goye AB Raymond's Parisian rival are out- standing.

"Swing Time"

Few pictures this season have pre- sented a supporting east laden with such glittering lights as stud the roster of "Swing Time," the delight- fol Almusical,

Fred co-starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers showing at the Oriental Theatre on Sunday, (Continued on Page 0.)

LOR

THIS IS ALL WRONG-

H.B.

BUT H.B's ALL RIGHT!

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