Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Breakfast at Tiffiny's soundtrack ~ Audrey Hepburn

vinyl LP 
photo by Styrous®


Today is the anniversary of the birth of Audrey Hepburn. To me, as well as probably millions of others, her greatest role was that of Holly Golightly in the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's. The film was based on the Truman Capote, novel Breakfast at Tiffany's.     

vinyl LP back cover
photo by Styrous®
The score for the film was composed by Henry Mancini. Aside from his Award winning song, Moon River, arguably one of the most beautiful songs ever written and which ranked number 11 on the 1964 top chart list, my favorite song is Hubcaps and Taillights. The song is one of the great stripper songs of all-time along with The Stripper, by David Rose, and the incredibly sensual 1939 jazz standard written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers, Harlem Nocturne. My favorite version of Nocturne was by Earl Bostic; his erotic rendition on the sax is outstanding! 
vinyl LP label detail
detail photo by Styrous®


The basic plot of the film is about Holly, a country girl turned New York café society girl. As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men, who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and expensive presents; she hopes to marry one of them. According to Capote, Golightly is not a prostitute but an "American geisha."





vinyl LP sleeve front
photo by Styrous®


Breakfast at Tiffany's was received positively at the time, and won two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Moon River. It was also selected as the fourth most memorable song in Hollywood history by the American Film Institute in 2004. The film was also nominated for three other Academy Awards: Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.

In 2012, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.    



vinyl LP sleeve back
photo by Styrous®


Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium. She was the epitome of chic. She was a fashion icon as well as a movie star, was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in the Golden Age of Hollywood and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

photo by Bud Fraker

Bud Fraker was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1916. He Attended Los Angeles City College. He was hired by Hollywood photographer A.L. 'Whitney' Schafer at Colombia. He photographed stars of the 1930s. He also worked for Paramount Studios in the Publicity Photography Department and assisted in the portrait gallery

Hepburn was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. George H. W. Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF. Grateful for her own good fortune after enduring the German occupation as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping impoverished children in the poorest nations. Hepburn's travels were made easier by her wide knowledge of languages; besides being naturally bilingual in English and Dutch, she also was fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German.
 On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died in her sleep at home. After her death, Gregory Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her favourite poem, "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore. Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz on 24 January 1993. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral, while Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of UNICEF delivered a eulogy.  
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences posthumously awarded her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity, with her son accepting on her behalf.  
"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."
                                             - Audrey Hepburn

  


Net links:        
             
Audrey Hepburn Filmography and stage roles     
                 
YouTube links:       
       
Moon River    
Audrey Hepburn sings Moon River     
Hub Caps And Tail Lights       
Earl Bostic - Harlem Nocturne              
David Rose ~ The Stripper               
Moon River documentary  
Audrey Hepburn ~ A&E Biography     



Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 4, 2016  

Monday, February 22, 2016

The James Dean Story soundtrack

The James Dean Story soundtrack
artwork by David Stone Martin
score by Leith Stevens 
photo by Styrous®

James Byron Dean was born on February 8, 1931. He died in a car crash on September 30, 1955. He was only 24 years old.   

James Dean 
Publicity photo
circa 1953
photographer unknown


On September 30, 1955, Dean was scheduled to compete at a racing event in Salinas, California. Accompanying the actor to the occasion was stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier's photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" car. Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche. At 3:30 p.m. Dean was ticketed for speeding, as was Hickman who was following behind in another car.    
 
As the group traveled to the event via U.S. Route 466, at approximately 5:15 p.m. a 1950 Ford Tudor was passing through an intersection while turning, ahead of the Porsche. Dean, unable to stop in time, slammed into the driver's side of the Ford resulting in Dean's car bouncing across the pavement onto the side of the highway. Dean's passenger, Wütherich, was thrown from the Porsche, while Dean was trapped in the car and sustained numerous fatal injuries, including a broken neck. The driver of the Ford, Donald Turnupseed, exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries. The accident was witnessed by a number of passersby who stopped to help. A woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse, but "death appeared to have been instantaneous". Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m.       
 
 James Dean and Porsche Speedster 23F 
Palm Springs Races March, 1955 
photographer unknown 


On February 15, 2009, all three of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers who dealt with James Dean on the day of his death—Officer Otie Hunter, who ticketed Dean for speeding, and Officers Ernie Tripke and Ronald Nelson, who investigated the fatal crash—participated and shared their memories of that fateful day in an SCVTV documentary titled The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride, co-produced by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society (see link below).   

James Dean Gravestone
Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Indiana
photographer unknown
 
Ironically, just days before he died, in September, 1955, Dean was interviewed by actor Gig Young for a "safe driving for teenagers" public service short film which is on YouTube (link below).      

James Dean made only three films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark, as Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rest on his performances in only these three films.



movie poster 


Released two years after Dean's death, this Warner Bros. Pictures release chronicles his short life and career via black-and-white still photographs, interviews with the aunt and uncle who raised him, his paternal grandparents and outtakes from East of Eden, footage of the opening night of Giant, and Dean's PSA for safe driving from Warner Bros. Presents.

The  narration by Martin Gabel was written by Stewart Stern, who scripted Dean's Rebel Without a Cause, and a directing credit was shared by Robert Altman and George W. George.

The score for The James Dean Story was written by Leith Stevens. Stevens also wrote The Wild One (1953), When Worlds Collide (1951), Destination Moon (1950), The War of the Worlds (1953) and many other films (see links below).     

 movie poster
Eagle-Lion Classics Inc.,



Tommy Sands sang the song, Let Me Be Loved, featured in the film (YouTube link below).  He was born Thomas Adrian "Tommy" Sands on August 27, 1937. He is an American pop music singer and actor. He started as early as 1949 and became an overnight sensation and instant teen idol when he appeared on Kraft Television Theater in January 1957 as "The Singin' Idol." The song from the show, Teen Age Crush, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox.      

 Publicity photo
circa 1957
photographer unknown




The James Dean Story soundtrack   
      

Tracklist:  
Side 1:       
A1     Prelude    
A2     Boyhood    
A3     Who Am I?    
A4     Thinking Of Home    
A5     Rebel At Work    
A6     Finding His Power     
Side 2:       

B1     Hollywood    
B2     The Movie Star    
B3     Lost Love    
B4     Success And Then What?    
B5     Testing The Limits Of Life    
B6     Return Home    
B7     End Title (Theme) "Let Me Be Loved" -
Vocal – Tommy Sands written by Jay Livingston, Ray Evans

Credits:
        
Label: Capitol Records ‎– W-881
Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1957
Style: Soundtrack





             
James Dean Interview on YouTube            
             
SCVTV.com The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride        
        
Let Me Be Loved on YouTube                  
Tommy Sands discography                 

The Wild One ~ 1953           
        
The War of the Worlds ~ Worlds on Film               





Dean has become a legend larger than life.



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I started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. Inquire for information here.   

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Styrous® ~ Monday, February 22, 2016