Who Writes The Songs?: Good Question–Lots of People Including Frank De Vol, Jay Livingston, and Ray Evans.

December 3, 2018December 3, 2018 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

At this time of year, we tend to watch a lot of football bowl games. Most of the attention centers on the coaches, the quarterbacks, and a handful of other star players like running backs, wide receivers, and occasionally kickers. While these positions influence the games, there is an entire team behind them which determines whether they get a win or a loss. This year I will be trying to look at some of the behind-the-scenes players in the television industry.

Today we look at three composers who often influenced shows, even though many viewers never heard of the song writers.

Frank Denny De Vol was born in West Virginia in 1911. His family moved to Canton, Ohio where he grew up. His mother owned a sewing shop, and his father was in charge of the pit orchestra at a local movie theater. He graduated from McKinley High School in 1929 and started at Miami of Ohio University but quit after six weeks. His parents were hoping he would pursue his law degree, but he was set on a career in music.

This wasn’t surprising because he had become a member of the musicians’ union at age 14. He worked for his father at the theater and played the saxophone and violin.

Once he left college, he joined Emerson Gill’s orchestra and traveled around Ohio. Later he became a musician with Horace Heidt’s band, and Horace let him try his hand at arranging. He would then travel with Alvino Rey’s band which led to a long-life friendship with the King Family.

During his career as a traveling musician he married his wife, Grayce McGinty in 1935. The couple’s 54-year-long marriage would produce two daughters.

During the 1940s, he would write arrangements for many of the country’s top performers including Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Vic Damone, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Shore, and Sarah Vaughn. His version of “Nature Boy” for Nat King Cole went to number 1 in 1948.

In 1943 he moved to California and started his own band. He appeared on the radio on KHJ and accompanied many stars including Jack Carson.

In the 1950s, he moved into movie composing and worked on more than 50 film scores including What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, The Glass Bottom Boat, The Dirty Dozen, and several Herbie movies. He received Academy Award nominations for his work on Pillow Talk (1959), Hush . . . Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), Cat Ballou (1965), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967).

During the 1950s, his orchestra also was frequently seen at the Hollywood Palladium as “Music of the Century.”

It seems natural that De Vol would ease into television work as well. He composed the jingle for Screen Gems’ “Dancing Sticks,” which appeared on all television series produced by Columbia Pictures.

Photo: pinterest.com

Frank became the musical director on Edgar Bergen’s game show Do You Trust Your Wife? His orchestra was featured on a variety of musical shows including The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney.

Today De Vol might be best known for his work as a composer for television series. He wrote the music for My Three Sons, Family Affair, The Brady Bunch, and The Smith Family. My Three Sons theme song was a hit single in 1961 by Lawrence Welk, more musically complex than many sitcom themes of the time. He would continue his work for My Three Sons for all 380 episodes.

Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of The Brady Bunch, first turned to George Wyle to create the Brady theme. Wyle and Schwartz had composed the theme for Gilligan’s Island. With Wyle already committed to The Andy Williams Show, he approached De Vol. De Vol would provide music for 117 episodes of the original show, as well as music for The Brady Girls Get Married, The Brady Brides, The Bradys, and A Very Brady Sequel.

Frank was credited as composer for 37 movies and television series and listed as part of the music department for 87 total.

Photo: sitcomsonline.com

Not only was he musical composer for these shows, but you can see him acting in many of the shows he worked on as well. His first acting appearances were on Betty White’s Show, Life with Elizabeth where he played a variety of roles.

Photo: aveleyman.com

He then appeared on several television series including State Trooper, My Favorite Martian, The Farmer’s Daughter, Gidget, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, Get Smart, That Girl, and I Dream of Jeannie (37 different shows in all).

While composing on My Three Sons, he would actually portray a bandleader on the show and a father on The Brady Bunch.

Photo: imagenesmy.com

Many people will remember him as the dour-faced band leader Happy Kyne on Fernwood Tonight and America 2-Night, shows starring Martin Mull in the late 1970s.

One of my favorite roles of his was the head of the boys’ camp on the original Parent Trap.

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His last acting role would be on Charles in Charge, the Scott Baio comedy from 1990.

When he was in his 80s, Frank was still active with the Big Band Academy of America. About this time, he married Helen O’Connell who had been a big band singer and actress. (His first wife passed away in 1989.)

Helen passed away in 1993, and Frank died from congestive heart failure in 1999.

Photo: pinterest.com

Like so many of these stars of the classic television era, he was a multi-talented guy. He could sing, he could play instruments, he could compose, he could arrange, and he could act. Sadly, when he does his job right, the music is so attuned to the shows that we almost don’t realize it’s there but try listening to a show with no background noise. Thank you Frank De Vol for not becoming an attorney.

We also take a look at a song-writing team of the golden age, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania in 1915. After studying piano with Harry Archer in Pittsburgh, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in journalism but also studying composition and orchestration.

Ray Evans was born in Salamanca, New York the same year. He also ended up at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a degree in Economics.

Livingston organized a dance band at the University that played on campus as well as at local nightclubs and even cruise ships during their summer breaks. One of those band mates was Ray Evans. Evans and Livingston became a partnership and they wrote some of the most iconic songs from film and television.

Photo: filmmusicsociety.org

After their graduation in 1937, the duo moved to New York City to work in Tin Pan Alley. They wrote for Broadway productions, including special material for Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson.

Livingston joined the Army when World War II began while Evans went to work for an aircraft company. When Jay came back home in 1945, he and Evans decided to try their luck in Hollywood. They received a contract from Paramount Pictures, and the team would stay with the company for a decade. Their first film was To Each His Own, starring Olivia DeHaviland, and they were nominated for an Academy Award.

During this time at Paramount, Livingston married Lynne Gordon. It must have been a happy marriage because they were married until 1991 when she passed away.

The exact same year, Evans married Wyn Ritchie. They were married until her death in 2003.

In 1947 the team began writing for Bob Hope for his personal appearances. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, they would write many tunes that became jukebox favorites and popular songs. In Warren Craig’s book The Greatest Songwriters of Hollywood, he called them “the last of the great songwriters in Hollywood.”

Photo: pinterest.com

The year 1948 brought them their first Oscar win for “Buttons and Bows,” from Bob Hope’s western comedy, The Paleface. The jukebox version was recorded by Dinah Shore.

In 1950, they scored their second Academy Award for “Mona Lisa,” written for the movie Captain Carey, USA but made famous by Nat King Cole.

Photo: moviemovieblogblog.wordpress.com

Evans and Livingston would appear in Sunset Boulevard this same year at the New Year’s Eve party scene.

We can all smile and thing of Livingston and Evans each Christmas when we hear “Silver Bells.” The song, originally titled “Tinkle Bells” was written for The Lemon Drop Kid in 1951, also starring Bob Hope. Thankfully, they decided “tinkle” had other connotations and “Silver Bells” it became. (Some sources credits Jay’s wife Lynne with the name change.)

When their Paramount contract ended in 1955, they became free lancers and wrote both individual songs and complete scores for a variety of movies. They would receive ten additional Oscar nominations during their career.

Doris Day had a huge hit in 1956 with “Que Sera, Sera” from The Man Who Knew Too Much with Jimmy Stewart and that hit would win them a third Oscar. The song would also become Doris’s theme song for her television show in 1968.

In 1957 they began writing the music for the Tammy movies that would be a staple of that era, beginning with Tammy and the Bachelor.

Jay and Ray would return to Broadway in 1958. They were nominated for a Tony for Oh, Captain! They also wrote songs for Let It Ride in 1961, a musical comedy adaptation of Three Men On a Horse, and Sugar Babies in 1979.

Photo: tidal.com

Though most of their work was in the film industry, the team is probably best known for their television compositions. In 1959, they were asked by Desi Arnaz to write a song for a Western show being developed. The show, thought likely to last a year, didn’t have money for a weekly salary, but he allowed them to keep the rights to the song. Luckily for them, that show, Bonanza, made them millions, and would be on television until 1973.

In 1960 they composed the theme song for The Bugs Bunny Show, “This is it.”

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In 1961, Mister Ed debuted. Livingston and Evans not only wrote the well-known song, but Livingston is the one singing the line “I am Mister Ed.”

After Lynne’s passing, Jay would marry Shirley Mitchell in 1992.

Livingston and Evans were presented with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame in 1995.

In 2001, at the age of 86, Jay Livingston died from pnuemonia. Ray Evans lived until 2007 when he passed away from heart failure.

Photo: rayevans.com

It’s fun to see a friendship and partnership span six decades and be so successful. Although they were born in the same year in the same area of the country and married the same year and their marriages would last decades until the death of a spouse, the two men were very different. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1985, Evans said “I’m nuts about sports, play baseball and tennis every weekend. Jay couldn’t care less. He’s restrained and quiet. I’m more outward going. Jay is a marvelous musician. I have a tin ear. But our tastes are similar, and we both like good music and song.” The duo had 26 songs that sold more than a million records and their total record sales has exceeded 400 million dollars.

Michael Feinstein released an album in 2002 devoted to the team. He said, “they had a strong work ethic and they wrote a lot of plays that have wonderful and sophisticated songs that are quite different from movie songs.”

Like Frank De Vol, most viewers today have probably never heard of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, although they recognize much of their work. It’s good to look behind the scenes of and dig deeper into the television industry to learn more about all the pioneers who made the era so great.

A Tribute to Rose Marie

January 29, 2018 / thewritelife61 / 5 Comments

Rose Marie had one of the longest-running careers in the entertainment industry – more than 90 years in the business. During her career, she was in vaudeville, on the radio, in the movies, performed in live concerts around the country, did some Broadway, and became most famous for her television performances.

Born in 1923 as Rose Marie Mazetta, she won a contest at 3 and began performing as Baby Rose Marie. On her official site, she mentions she was born the same day the Broadway show Rose Marie opened. In 1927 at the age of 4 she was featured in a Vitaphone short that opened with Al Jolson’s Jazz Singer.

By age 5, she had her own national radio show. She worked in vaudeville with Edgar Bergen and Milton Berle. She made several records, and the first one released was with Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. By 1933 at age 10, she was starring in her first film, International House. During these years, she performed at the White House three times—for Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt.

It was during her vaudeville stint that the doorman informed her and her father that a gentleman wanted to see them in the back alley. The “gentleman” was Al Capone who called her father Happy Hank and told them that “the guys” wanted to meet Rose Marie. She was taken to Capone’s house the next day where she performed for about 24 guys. Al gave her a ring with three diamonds which she still had when she passed away. He said they would always take care of her. He was true to his word. Even after he was incarcerated, Rose Marie was met and protected by the mob for her entire career. Decades after the most notorious gangsters were gone, men showed up at her shows checking on her just to make sure she was doing okay, getting work, and not in need of anything. Later she learned that her father, who was an actor by trade, was Capone’s arsonist, the one who burned down buildings of men who disappointed the gangster. There is an article about her meeting with Capone on The Mob Museum’s website. (The Mob Museum is located in Las Vegas.)

As a teenager, Rose Marie transitioned to clubs, touring the United States. In order to make her sets longer, she began to add comedy to her singing acts.

In 1946 she met Bobby Guy who as with the Kay Kyser Orchestra. They were engaged within a week, and he remained the love of her life until he passed away in 1964. They had one child, Georgianna. Guy would become the lead trumpeter on The Tonight Show.

It was also in 1946 that Rose Marie opened the Flamingo with Jimmy Durante. Jimmy Durante mentored her earlier in her career and she loved him. He was always mentioned as one of her favorite people. At that time, the only other hotels in Vegas were the Last Frontier and El Rancho. Bugsy Siegel owned the Flamingo, and Rose Marie received work in clubs from her mob connections. She also had a 40-year friendship with Frank Sinatra that was also probably tied to some of their mob connections.

In 1951, Rose Marie tried her hand at Broadway, appearing in Top Banana with Phil Silvers. She knew Silvers from appearing on his radio show with Alice Faye. She played their daughter and Sheldon Leonard (who would hire her for The Dick Van Dyke Show) played their son.

In 1954, Top Banana was made into a film. Once again Phil Silvers was in it. Rose Marie recorded her musical numbers. The producer tried to manipulate her to have sex with him. She said no in front of several people, and in retaliation he cut all her numbers from the film. In 2017 before her death, she shared the incident on Twitter to help support the women who have been exposing the sexual assault in Hollywood. She appeared in ten movies after that, most of them in the 1980s and 1990s, but she quickly became disillusioned with the film industry.

Tired of the Hollywood politics, Rose Marie embraced the new television culture. She appeared in Gunsmoke in 1957 and would continue to receive roles in the new medium through 2011. During her career, she appeared on 48 different shows.

In the 1950s, she had a recurring role in The Bob Cummings Show as Martha Randolph and she appeared in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. The first sitcom she had a permanent role in was My Sister Eileen; she played the sisters’ friend Bertha. The show ran for 24 shows during 1960 and 1961.

In 1961, Sheldon Leonard cast Rose Marie in the role of Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. She recommended Morey Amsterdam for the role of Buddy Sorrel whom she had known since age 9. The show was originally to star the office cast with the home life coming in second; however, as things changed, Mary Tyler Moore became the costar with the home life dominating the scripts and Sally and Buddy were featured less. The show produced 158 episodes and is undoubtedly one of the best written sitcoms ever produced. She and Morey received the same salary despite her being a woman. That sounds only fair today, but at the time it was not the normal practice. She loved working on The Dick Van Dyke Show. When asked about her time on the show, Rose Marie said, “We loved each other, we helped each other . . . We were really very close.”

No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book Cover Usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by CBS-TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock (5880763g) Rose Marie, Dick Van Dyke, Morey Amsterdam The Dick Van Dyke Show – 1961-1966 CBS-TV USA

After The Dick Van Dyke Show ended, Rose Marie took roles on several shows including The Monkees and My Three Sons. In 1969, she received a role as Myrna Gibbons on The Doris Day Show, playing Doris’s friend and coworker.

She showed up in many series during the 1980s and 1990s including The Love Boat, Mr. Belvedere, Suddenly Susan, Wings, and was a cast member in Hardball, about a struggling baseball team.

In the 1990s, Rose Marie would take on the role of Frank Fontana’s mother on Murphy Brown. Later she would appear in S.W.AT. as Hilda providing doughnuts and coffee, as well as comic relief, on the show.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Rose Marie transitioned to voice overs for such shows as Hey Arnold and Garfield.

Rose Marie also liked game shows and was a regular on Hollywood Squares through all the different versions.

From 1977-1981, she performed across the country with Helen O’Connell, Rosemary Clooney, and Margaret Whiting. They called the show 4 Girls 4. Rosemary’s nephew, George drove their bus for them. At some point they made enough money to afford airfare, and George Clooney went on to create a little career for himself.

Rose Marie received the 2184^th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000. Her baby shoes, along with 40 other items, have become artifacts in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.

Actress/singer Rose Marie is gleeful as director Carl Reiner, right, and Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, present her with the 2,184th star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Rose Marie is best known for her role as Sally Rogers on the “Dick Van Dyke show.” (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Her hobbies included cooking Italian meals, knitting, and reading; she especially loved Stephen King novels.

When she first appeared as Baby Rose Marie, someone handed her a bouquet of roses, but she needed to take her bow, so she handed them off and said, “Hold the Roses.” That became the title of her autobiography that was published in 2002.

She was the subject of a documentary Wait For Your Laugh in 2017. Dick Van Dyke said that was her catchphrase, and whenever they were anywhere something funny happened, even a waiter dropping a tray full of food, she always repeated the phrase.

She accomplished so much in her career you wonder how she could have had any regrets, but she was denied two accomplishments. She received three Emmy nominations for her role as Sally Rogers but never won an Emmy. She also wanted to direct and never had an opportunity to do so.

Sadly, Rose Marie passed away in December. Happily, she left an amazing legacy of performances in a variety of mediums for us to remember her by. While she was so much more than a television star, Sally Rogers will always be one of my favorite characters. Thank you Rose Marie for so many fond memories.