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| Questions for Good Ol' RR | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 19 2009, 03:35 PM (615 Views) | |
| mort bakaprevski | Sep 19 2009, 03:35 PM Post #1 |
Soony Roony!
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HE'S BACK....... & boy am I ecstatic. One of the problems in the past was asking him a question on a given thread.... and then, hoping like hell he'd peruse that thread & answer it. S-o-o-o-o, I thought, why not set up a separate thread which we all can go to & ask our silly-ass questions. And.... HERE IT IS!!! My first question regards Frank Sanucci. Are you familiar with him & his very unique scores for countless Monogram westerns??? Did he actually compose these things... or did he just happen on the music somewhere & re-use it endlessly ala Abe Meyer?? Any info on the lad will be greatly appreciated!!! |
| “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.” | |
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| riddlerider | Sep 21 2009, 11:19 AM Post #2 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Wow, my own thread! You're really putting the pressure on me, Mort. I'm afraid I'm already at a disadvantage, because I don't know a lot about Frank Sanucci. But then again, I don't think anybody else does either. I do know that he was an Italian who lived many years in Argentina and had a background in classical music composition and orchestration. He broke into pictures working for Ed Finney on the Tex Ritter series released by Grand National between 1936 and 1938. Initially he wasn't composing background music; he was responsible for arranging the songs and supervising the studio recording sessions. He also helped select library cues for the few Grand National Ritters (such as MYSTERY OF THE HOODED HORSEMEN) that incorporated background music in their sound tracks. Somehow Sanucci came to the attention of former Monogram executive and producer Trem Carr, who had gone to work for Universal after leaving Republic in 1936. Carr and his production manager, former stuntman Paul Malvern, produced the six non-Western John Wayne Bs released by Uni during the 1936-37 season. When Universal decided to launch a B-Western series to compete for the Autry demographic, Carr launched the Bob Baker series and Sanucci performed the same chores he had undertaken for the Ritters: arranging the songs for studio recording and choosing cues from Universal's vast library of background music. Following a 1938 strike, the Musicians Union negotiated a contract that forbade unlimited use by the studios of previously recorded music. By this time Trem Carr was back at the newly reorganized Monogram and Malvern was producing the Bakers himself. Since he was obliged to bring them in on a previously fixed per-unit cost, he elected to take the cheapest route possible and asked Sanucci to write and record new cues himself. Rather than hire studio musicians, Sanucci simply added a trumpet and a piano to the six-piece cowboy band being used to play Baker's songs. If I recall correctly, WESTERN TRAILS is the first Baker to use the newly composed Sanucci music. Don't hold me to that, though. As Sanucci was still working on the Ritter series, which by this time had moved to Monogram, Ed Finney had him do something along the same lines. These limited-arrangement cues were subsequently rerecorded under Sanucci's supervision, and they formed the nucleus of the collection later dubbed "the Sanucci Symphony." (The Symphony includes all that familiar music used in the Range Busters, Tom Keene, Jack Randall, and Trail Blazers series.) But even those rerecorded cues were performed by a small orchestra, something like 12 or 14 pieces. That's why they sound so thin and tinny. In his first five or so years in movies, Sanucci wrote music for only a handful of non-Westerns, primarily the Tailspin Tommy features produced by Malvern for Monogram release in 1939. I'm pretty sure he got screen credit as Musical Director on those pictures, although he didn't write every single cue used in them. Although most of his compositions were written for Monogram, that studio didn't own them; Sanucci retained ownership. He later rented cues to PRC (where they occasionally popped up in Buster Crabbe Westerns) and his old Monogram co-worker Robert Tansey, who made some Westerns independently for release by Screen Guild. Sanucci kept 35mm negatives of the music at the Pathe laboratory and simply ran off prints of his cues to whoever licensed them. Those negs burned up in a lab fire, sometime in the '60s, I think. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, the last film to use Sanucci Symphony cues was BUFFALO BILL IN TOMAHAWK TERRITORY (1952), which was produced by Sanucci's old boss Ed Finney (with B. B. Ray). I don't really know what Sanucci did right after he got out of the movie business, but when he died in 1991 he and his wife Virginia were running a piano school in Tarzana. I never spoke to him myself, but my friend Sam Sherman did, and it's from Sam that I got some of this information. |
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| Sgt King | Sep 21 2009, 03:47 PM Post #3 |
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Charter Member
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Good reading and very interesting. Thanks Riddle! |
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| mort bakaprevski | Sep 21 2009, 05:54 PM Post #4 |
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Soony Roony!
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Good grief... & this is a subject you "don't know much about." Certainly, much more info than I've been able to glean. Thank you!! I think we're off to a rousing start!! |
| “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.” | |
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| mort bakaprevski | Sep 23 2009, 02:55 PM Post #5 |
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Soony Roony!
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Hey look what I found. A whole page of music by Frank Sanucci on YouTube. No Monogram stuff... but I didn't expect any!! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=frank+sanucci&search_type=&aq=f |
| “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.” | |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | Sep 24 2009, 04:37 PM Post #6 |
Balconeer Creeper
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I have an easy one for you RR. I would like to read The Shadow stories/books in chronological order. Are these available in reprinted editions, and are they easily available? Could you provide a link? Same with The Spider. |
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"She's got style, she's got grace She's got long, long legs, she's got... Savoir Faire" | |
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| Zodiac | Sep 24 2009, 04:43 PM Post #7 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Here is a starting point: http://www.pulpfest.com/links/ There are about 24 Shadow and about 12 Spider and about 12 Doc Savage in nice reprints - 2 stories per book- don't know how chronological they are though - didn't research that |
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| riddlerider | Sep 25 2009, 09:49 AM Post #8 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Stony, the entire run of Shadow pulp stories -- 325 yarns in all -- was once available on line but had to be withdrawn when Conde Nast (which owns the character) licensed reprint rights to Tony Tollin's Sanctum Books several years ago. Tony publishes two novel-length adventures in each book, which sells for $12.95. However, he chose not to reprint the stories in order. Most of the early ones were published many years ago in paperback form, and Tony decided it would be a better idea to start with novels that haven't been seen since they were issued in pulp form. His books also include the original illustrations, by the way, and he's also reprinting the Doc Savage, Avenger, and Whisperer stories in the same format. You'll find the Sanctum Books site on the PulpFest link posted by Zodiac. On the same page you'll find a link to Girasol Collectables, which published licensed reprints of the Spider saga in various forms. Girasol has been issuing complete facsimile reprints of the original Spider pulps (everything exactly as published, including the ads) as well as newly typeset versions of the novels, printed two to a volume. At $35 each, the facsimiles are pricey, although nice copies of those magazines in original pulp form would cost you a couple hundred bucks each -- more than that for the earliest issues. I believe Girasol gets $14.95 for their two-fer volumes, released in trade-paperback format. Even if you could still download all the Shadows, I wouldn't recommend reading the series in order. It took Walter Gibson quite a while to hit his stride, and while the 1931-32 novels all have things to recommend them, the series doesn't really hit its stride until 1933. Reading too many of the early ones in sequence might actually turn you off. You could easily read the Spiders in sequence, though. The first two, which were written by R. T. M. Scott under the Grant Stockbridge byline, are a little tame, but when Norvell Page took over the series with number three, he fairly quickly established the Spider that we know and love, and by the six or seventh issue was already cooking on all burners. The Girasol boys have been printing the facsimiles in order (one a month, as originally issued), and are now up to early 1937. So the meat of the series has already been reprinted. By the way, after you've visited the sites on PulpFest's Links page, take a tour of the PulpFest site itself. I'm one of the PulpFest committee members, and we held our first convention early last month. It was far more successful than we expected, given the economic climate, and we've already begun planning next year's show. |
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| Sgt Saturn | Sep 25 2009, 11:27 AM Post #9 |
Charter Member
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Just to satisfy my curiosity, how closely do the pricey facsimiles duplicate the look and feel of the original? The (relatively cheap) ones that I have seen, (Planet Stories and Captain Future mags from Adventure House) have been reprinted with heavier paper covers, trimmed edges, better paper, and used 'perfect' or 'thermal' binding -- and no reprinting of the back cover. None of this represents a big loss. Indeed, I should not want a magazine printed on the self-destructing paper of yore. Still, I can understand why a student of yesterday's pop-culture might be interested in those back-cover ads. Do any of the pricey facsimiles use wire staples, untrimmed edges, and covers that extend beyond the page size? |
| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | Sep 25 2009, 12:00 PM Post #10 |
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Balconeer Creeper
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Thanks RR and Zodiac. |
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"She's got style, she's got grace She's got long, long legs, she's got... Savoir Faire" | |
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| riddlerider | Sep 25 2009, 01:46 PM Post #11 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Girasol's facsimiles are the closest you can get to the actual pulp. (Their slogan is, "So much like real pulps you can almost smell them," a reference to the distinctive aroma of acidic pulp paper.) Although they're printed on single sheets rather than 16-page "signatures," the text block is stapled rather than glued. Originally, the Girasol guys printed covers with edge "overhangs" like the originals, but oddly enough most of their customers are more comfortable with the trimmed edges. (In this respect, today's collectors are just like yesterday's consumers, who found the overhanging covers and untrimmed paper to be a pain.) Further replicating the pulp "look," the Girasol replicas are printed on cream-to-ivory toned paper rather than the bright white most frequently used on today's books. The reproduction is excellent, and while Girasol's Neil Mechem might do a little Photoshop work to "repair" defects on the covers he scans, he very carefully replicates the original covers and has scrupulously avoided making them overly vivid with super-saturated colors. I own mint copies of some issues of SPIDER which came from the publisher's files, and I can't see a lick of difference between my covers and those reprinted by Girasol. So, in my opinion, the facsimiles are worth every penny and I'm maintaining a complete set, even though I already have quite a few issues in the original pulp format. By the way, Girasol began its replica production with selected issues of THE SHADOW, about 15 to 20 unauthorized editions of which they released before Conde Nast sent them a cease-and-desist letter prior to licensing the character to Tony Tollin. One of Girasol's SHADOW facsimiles was the first issue, which in top condition is today a ten-thousand dollar magazine. Occasionally, an early Girasol customer auctions off SHADOW facsimiles on eBay, and they're worth looking for. By the way, in addition to releasing licensed facsimile reprints of such pulps as SPIDER, OPERATOR #5, WEIRD TALES, and TERROR TALES, Girasol also publishes facsimiles of rare pulps that have fallen into the public domain, including the various SPICY pulps and such obscurities as MAGIC CARPET, ORIENTAL STORIES, STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES, and GOLDEN FLEECE, to name a few. Since they don't have to pay royalties on the p. d. titles, they sell them for $25 each, as opposed to $35 for the licensed titles. It's all great stuff and very affordable compared to the real thing: these days you can't touch a high-grade '30s SPICY ADVENTURE or SPICY MYSTERY for less than three hundred bucks, and that's assuming you can find copies in such condition. If any of you guys wind up doing business with Girasol, please tell them I recommended you. They're long-time friends and advertisers in BLOOD 'N' THUNDER, but even if they weren't, I'd steer business their way because they turn out top-quality products. That's not to diss Adventure House (the owner of which is another old pal), but their reprints are done differently, and they're cheaper for a reason. The Girasol facsimiles are all hand-made. |
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| mort bakaprevski | Sep 25 2009, 03:20 PM Post #12 |
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Soony Roony!
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Interesting stuff. I slightly disagree with RR on one point. When Jove started re-printing the Shadow novels with the great Steranko covers (gawd, how many years ago was that), they did them sequentially. I found it interesting in that the first six (or so) stories did a lot towards defining the character. Don’t remember if it was the first story or the second, but it included the first meeting of The Shadow & Lamont Cranston… where the suggestion is made that Cranston take a round-the-world cruise as The Shadow wants to use his identity for awhile. Lotsa fun!! |
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| riddlerider | Sep 25 2009, 05:01 PM Post #13 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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The Cranston/Shadow meeting to which Mort refers takes place in "The Shadow Laughs," the third novel in the series. The previous entry, "Eyes of the Shadow," introduced Cranston and strongly hinted that he was The Shadow. Subsequently, Gibson and his editors decided to preserve a mystery element by revealing that The Shadow was someone else entirely; hence the explanation that he impersonated Cranston while the latter was globe-trotting. This is what I meant when I said that it took a while for Gibson to hit his stride. The earliest Shadow novels have numerous characters, gimmicks, and sequences that are introduced only to be summarily dropped just a few issues later. The original contact man for The Shadow's agents, a sympathetic and popular character, was slain by mobsters in the fifth series entry. Gibson did this for shock effect but then had to create another, almost identical character to serve the earlier one's narrative function. Another early novel found the villain dropping dead after seeing The Shadow's face, although the reader wasn't told what that face looked like. Still another early story hinted that The Shadow didn't have a face. Also, the early stories relied heavily on the use of what Gibson called a "proxy hero" -- one of The Shadow's agents, or another male character, who basically carried the story forward. The Shadow himself makes limited appearances in the early stories. Another device highlighted in the first year or so of the magazine's run was The Shadow's habit of appearing on radio as himself, theoretically telling stories but actually broadcasting code messages to his agents. This, too, was done deliberately, to tie in with THE DETECTIVE STORY HOUR, the radio anthology series for which the character had been created (as narrator) in 1930. The 13th Shadow novel, a botch job that still has never been reprinted, had to be almost completely rewritten because Gibson, writing from scratch without any outline, kept jamming supporting characters into it. The rewrite got rid of some narrative clutter, but the story -- titled "The Blackmail Ring" -- was still considered a failure. At that point, Gibson began having regular story conferences with his editors. Upon settling on a basic concept with them, he created a detailed outline that specified all the characters and plot points. He would then submit the outline to chief editor John Nanovic, upon whose approval he would actually write the story. Like I said, none of the early novels is totally uninteresting, and some of them are quite good. But it took Gibson a while to develop a workable formula -- and he needed a formula, because the magazine became a hit and in its second year went from quarterly to monthly to fortnightly, which meant Gibson had to write a 60,000-word novel every two weeks just to stay on schedule. If I had to pick one story as the turning point, I'd say it was "The Shadow's Shadow," which appeared in the February 1, 1933 issue. (That one was reprinted in the Jove paperback series to which Mort refers.) |
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| mort bakaprevski | Sep 26 2009, 08:43 AM Post #14 |
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Soony Roony!
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If memory serves (& it seems to serve less & less as the years go by) I seem to remember an article many years ago by Shadow/Doc Savage editor, John Nanovic, entitled something like “I Always Called Him Mr. Ralston” (alluding to the fact that although Nanovic worked with Street & Smith general manager, Henry Ralston, for years, he never called him by his first name). Frankly, Nanovic did not come across as being a very bright bulb. He even related an anecdote about a cover artist who would openly ridicule him when coming into the office for his assignments. Unfortunately, that’s about all I remember. I have absolutely no idea where I came across it either. RR, did you ever read said article?? |
| “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.” | |
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| riddlerider | Sep 26 2009, 10:40 AM Post #15 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Yes, Mort, and more than once. It was written for the 1975 Dover trade-paperback reprint of two excellent Shadow novels, "The Crime Oracle" and "Teeth of the Dragon." Nanovic was bright enough. He lasted 13 years at Street & Smith, and it was his idea to leave. During his tenure he was responsible for all of the company's single-character titles (THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, THE AVENGER, THE WHISPERER, NICK CARTER, THE SKIPPER, THE WIZARD, etc.), and under his leadership SHADOW and DOC achieved sales of 300,000 copies per issue -- not just once, but year in and year out. During the Depression, no less. People who met and talked to Nanovic in later years all agree that he was extremely bright and knowledgeable about the publishing business. He couldn't have overseen so many popular magazines had he not been. |
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2:41 AM Nov 26
