Why did Universal drop the logo fanfare from House Of Dracula, Terror By Night, etc in Universal Horrors Forum

Forum Jump

Why did Universal drop the logo fanfare from House Of Dracula, Terror By Night, etc

Author	Comment
Gojira	Why did Universal drop the logo fanfare from House Of Dracula, Terror By Night, etc	Lead	[-]
Apr 10 12 6:27 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Seems odd to have done...a change in music director?
	Remove this ad
WalesGuy		#1	[-]
Apr 10 12 8:18 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Have often wondered that. And 2 different versions of TERROR BY NIGHT in the past has had 2 different music fanfares over the glass globe.
Ted Newsom		#2	[-]
Apr 10 12 2:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I expect the TERROR BY NIGHT double discrepency to be because the prints were syndicated TV prints, sold off by Universal in the 50s. There are a couple Holmes films where the end titles have been replaced as well, with alternate generic music. Similarly, titles on all the RKO syndication TV prints were replaced by "C & C Corporation," at least the main titles & end credit. Why the globe & fanfare might not be on there originally on HOUSE OF DRACULA or TERROR, who knows. It is odd. Last Edited By: Ted Newsom Apr 10 12 2:12 PM. Edited 1 times.
WalesGuy		#3	[-]
Apr 10 12 2:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Globes are on those two films usually, but not the fanfare
telegonus	TV Airings, Columbia, Screen Gems, C & C	#4	[-]
Apr 10 12 3:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's right, Ted. The TV airings of old movies was strange, with some studios owning the films of others,--as if I have to tell ya'. I believe nearly all olf Columbia's pictures used the studio's Screen Gems logo, complete with its trademark fanfare, as most Boomers recall from watching the Three Stooges shorts. To me it's far more memorable than the post-Laemmle Universal one since I've heard it about 8,000 times in my life. Apparently Columbia has restored the old pre-1950 logos in their library, which kind of bugs me since they look weird and unfamiliar. I grew up accustomed to their Screen Gems logo/fanfare, whether it was introducing a Stooges short or Lost Horizon. If a movie was old and it was Columbisa that's how it began. The C & C for RKO was kind of fun since I always knew that those films were RKO. They did an excellent job of blocking out that they were RKO releases, even going so far as imposing their own The End rather than, God forbid, showing the RKO The End, with its thunderbolt underneath. Yet many classic films of that studio were left alone, notably King Kong, which I've never seen C & C'ed, though Gunga Din was, as was Crossfire the first time I saw it.
Ted Newsom		#5	[-]
Apr 11 12 10:00 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't quite understand a studio's proprietary need to slap their own new logo onto something which everyone knows wasn't theirs in the first place. Still going on, on DVD and Blu Ray. Crazy. It's like a dog psssing on a fire hydrant, figuring nobody will recognize what it is once his scent is on it.
Wich2		#6	[-]
Apr 11 12 10:01 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've always found that stoopid too, guys. (Though mayhap, the studio Legal Boys demanded it?)
Ray Faiola		#7	[-]
Apr 11 12 11:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	As I recall, composer Hans J. Salter wanted to score the logo for the studio's big release of 1945, THIS LOVE OF OURS with Merle Oberon. At that point, the studio decided to jettison the McHugh fanfare and all logos thereafter featured original scores and not isolated fanfares. As for TERROR BY NIGHT - the actual fanfare music composed for the picture is the same that was written for DRESSED TO KILL. That music, in fact, was the beginning of a cue composed by Frank Skinner for SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR and appears on the Morgan & Stromberg recording of the score. Some pd dupers put the 1939 (a la SON OF FRANKENSTEIN) logo on TERROR BY NIGHT. Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
WalesGuy		#8	[-]
Apr 11 12 12:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Odd thing about the logo - when Universal released SON OF DRACULA on laserdisc they used a different version of the fanfare (someone said taken from an Abbott and Costello release)
telegonus	So True	#9	[-]
Apr 12 12 2:38 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	So true, Ted. They use the old Republic logos now for movies made by Warners, Paramount and other studios, which, for someone who knows nothing about the old Hollywood studio system could given them the impression that Republic was, fifty or sixty years ago, the biggest studio in town! Over the years the Disney people have gone to great pains to minimize the fact that until 1954 the Disney organization's product was distributed by RKO. They've left evidence of that on some of their old films and cartoons, in many cases have left traces in the credits that indeed the movie or short was an RKO release,--unless this has changed recently. Cartoon studios were tricky, and apparently the Fleischers sold or lost (not sure which) all their rights of ownsership to their Paramount cartoon series to the parent studio. This is the opposite of Disney, where the cartoon company survived, morphed into a major organization in its own right, while the studio with which it was long affiliated bit the dust.
Ray Faiola		#10	[-]
Apr 12 12 5:53 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	WalesGuy wrote: Odd thing about the logo - when Universal released SON OF DRACULA on laserdisc they used a different version of the fanfare (someone said taken from an Abbott and Costello release) I think it was actually the Miklos Rozsa tin band version from DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
	Remove this ad
Ted Newsom		#11	[-]
Apr 12 12 9:22 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	You sure? Wasn't it the dorky orchestration used in LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE?
Doctor Bohmer	Bit of trivia Re: Terror By Night	#12	[-]
Apr 12 12 9:41 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I know this has nothing to do with the subject of the thread, but it's not worth starting a new thread about. At the beginning of the film, when they are showing the narrated part about the discovery of the star of Rhodesia; the man shown getting out of the open car near the end of the scene is Basil Rathbone. It is stock footage from The Sun Never Sets.
Wich2		#13	[-]
Apr 12 12 9:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's a great bit of trivia, Doc!
WalesGuy		#14	[-]
Apr 12 12 12:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ted Newsom wrote: You sure? Wasn't it the dorky orchestration used in LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE? No, this was a speeded up version on the laserdisc
blackbiped		#15	[-]
Apr 13 12 4:47 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Also, there are at least two versions of the familiar "New Universal" logo music. The earlier one was played a bit slower, the later one played more briskly. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way. Porfle's Secret Blog HK and Cult Film News Andersonvision.com
Ray Faiola		#16	[-]
Apr 13 12 8:29 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	There are actually about 5 or 6 variant recordings of the fanfare. There were 3 (possibly 4) recorded between 1937 and 1940; and two recorded between 1940 and 1945. The difference between the two recorded in the 40's is in the opening bars, wherein one has a pronounced trombone section. I'm sure Mr. Chudnow can clarify this for me. John?? Also, at least one 1937 post-TOP OF THE TOWN (for which the fanfare was written) film did not use McHugh's music - ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL had the Tchaikovsky symphony begin under the logo and continue through the main titles. Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
telegonus		#17	[-]
Apr 13 12 11:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Even the biggest studios varied their logos somewhat over the years. Warners seemed to change the most. I really don't think of any particular one as definitive in the 30s. Eventually they settled on a larger shield later on, which grew in size after 1950 and is more or less the same one that they used for their TV series. Whenever I see an early talkie Warners logo, the narrow one, it looks odd to me. Once in a while even the usually staid Paramount would slightly alter their logo, dispensing with their traditional one altogether for the opening credits of Sullivan's Travels. Sometimes Fox would do away with their fanfare,--or maybe it was removed later for reissues and television airings--on certain films, mostly indie productions, after 1940 or thereabouts. I've never seen the 20th Century-Fox logo/fanfare on And Then There Were None, and I think that most television prints of A Walk In the Sun don't have the logo at all. During World War II RKO used the opening chords of Beethoven's 5th,--the V for victory sign/signal--behind the beeping radio tower. I'm not sure if it was used on every RKO film from 1942-45 but they used it a lot. My guess is that it was studio policy, that its occasional absence is likely due to the restoration of the original logo when the TV prints were changed back from C & C, which may have been merely a matter of slapping any old logo onto their print prior to the credits.
blackbiped		#18	[-]
Apr 14 12 5:17 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Warner's would regularly incorporate their familiar logo music as the introduction to the film's theme music, with no break in between. (At least as late as TIME AFTER TIME.) Did any other studio do that? ALIEN 3 has the 20th-Century Fox fanfare blending right into the opening of its title music, but that seems to be a pretty rare case. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way. Porfle's Secret Blog HK and Cult Film News Andersonvision.com
Ray Faiola		#19	[-]
Apr 15 12 5:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Warner fanfare was a composition, altered, variated and incorporated into each composer's score. It was never an isolated piece reprinted onto the head of a picture. The Fox logo was recorded and reprinted, as was the Universal logo/fanfare. RKO was recorded and reprinted until 1938 when it was individually scored and interpolated. Columbia was always scored and interpolated. Same with MGM (unless the Lion was sans music). Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
WalesGuy		#20	[-]
Apr 16 12 12:33 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Columbia, like Paramount had no fanfare
	Remove this ad