Rebecca

03/10/21 • -1 min

1940 was a banner year for Alfred Hitchcock. Two of his films Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca were nominated for a total of 17(!) Academy Awards. For the latter, he was nominated for best director, though he would lose to John Ford and The Grapes of Wrath. As a matter of fact, Hitchcock would be nominated in the category 5 times over his career but would never take home a statue.

Of his 144 compositions, Franz Waxman called Rebecca his favorite. He was invited to arrange the piece for the Standard Symphony hour, a popular radio show on the NBC radio network. The arranged suite was broadcast, in the words of production manager Ray Klune “May 9^th at 8:30 PM, over the entire Pacific Northwest Radio Network as far East as but not including Chicago.”

Previous Episode

Mean Ol’ Twister

There are about 1,000 twisters every year in the United States, and most of them, go figure, happen in an area known as Tornado Alley. It’s loosely defined as the area from Rocky Mountains to Appalachians. Why this region? It’s the meeting place for cold dry air from Canada and the Rockies, warm moist air from Mexico and hot dry air from the Sonoran Desert. Most tornadoes last about 10 minutes, but the longest one in history is thought to be the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, reported as lasting 3¹/₂ hours. It was the deadliest tornado in American history, killing 700 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It travelled twice speed of an average twister, 60-70 mph, and...perhaps the most terrifying fact ever mentioned on Sound Beat, it didn’t have a funnel cloud. Translation...it was nearly invisible.

You’ve been listening to Kokomo Arnold with “Mean Old Twister”in a Decca recording from 1937. How did Prohibition help Arnold’s music career? Find out right now at soundbeat.org

Next Episode

Happy Days Are Here Again

Lyricist Jack Yellen wrote Happy Days are Here Again with composer Milton Ager in 1929. Yellen was a registered Republican...which bears relevance in that the song would become not only Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign song, but the unofficial song of the Democratic Party for years to come. He probably still cashed those checks, though.

You’ve been listening to Leo Reisman and his Orchestra on a Victor 78 from 1929. The song was featured in the 1930 MGM film Chasing Rainbows, and the Recording Industry Association of America put it #47 on their “Songs of the Century” list in 2001.

This episode was co-written with Christina Reid, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Image: FDR with Anna Roosevelt Halsted and Eleanor Roosevelt during campaign at Warm Springs, Georgia enroute from his cottage to the station. October 24, 1932. Licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.