Weird Music History
Casablanca (1942)
Play it again, Sam? Nope. Not only was this line never said in the
classic movie, Casablanca, but the piano player was also faking it. The
part of Sam was played by Dooley Wilson. He actually was not a pianist
at all, but a professional drummer and singer who later took up acting.
During the film, he watched an offstage pianist, Elliott Carpenter, and
mimed along. Carpenter, placed just outside of the shot, was responsible
for the piano playing heard in the film. The two became life-long friends.
Dooley Wilson made only $350 a week for seven week’s of work. No
information could be found about how much Carpenter, the actual piano
player, earned for his off screen role. Wilson and Carpenter were the only
two African-Americans on the set of the film.
Source: Wikipedia
Caruso records Cohan
7/11 Today in Weird Music History: 1918. Italian tenor Enrico Caruso
wanted to help the war effort as WWI drew to a close. He naturally
turned to music, and records the popular song, Over There, a major hit
by All-American songster, George M. Cohan. But Caruso’s English
pronunciation was spotty, so he was coached by his newlywed,
Dorothy Park Benjamin on diction. Despite all that, “Johnny” comes
out as “Gianni,” and the later verse is sung in Italian on the recording.
It’s a wonderful examination of Caruso the Italian who had lived and
performed in New York. Here’s a link to this historic and unusual
recording:
Song in English (Cohan, George)
Date of recording: Thursday, 11/07/1918
Dorothy Park Benjamin, whom Caruso married six weeks after the
recording was made, used phonetics to coach Caruso on the English
text.
She later said: "He liked everything about 'Over There'. The text, the
melody, the idea and the composer George M. Cohan."
Source: Wikipedia