Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

Music in Pictures cannot be exactly corrected with any existing composition, genius in composing is necessary. An example of a required original composition is the score which the eminent composer, Herbert Stothart, wrote for Night Flight, a dramatic story of an aviator's efforts to fly through a storm. Something was needed to offset the monotonous whirr of an airplane motor, something to make that motor more important as a dramatic medium. Stothart composed a score which supplemented the sound of the motors. So cleverly did he accomplish his task that few who hear the score can recognize at what point the motors leave off and the music begins. Critics were wise in their high praise of this achievement. For modern and original musical photoplays like Gold Diggers, Wake Up and Live, Broadway Melody, Waikiki Wedding, and Born to Dance, composers of original popular songs are required. At one time popular songs came almost entirely from the musical comedy or vaudeville stages. Today, a good half of the songs that everyone whistles spring from musical photoplays. It is interesting to note that popular songs have only about one-half the life and a fraction of the sheet music sales they enjoyed when they came exclusively from the stage. The radio and the motion picture combined have given songs an audience so large that "catchy tunes" become popular in days rather than in months. Every school boy or girl can name a score of danceable, singable songs or orchestral numbers which originated in "some movie." Among the many are numbers like "Singin' in the Rain," "Off to Buffalo," "IVe Got [213]