Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Picnic In The Park #5


Picnic-5, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 6/01/2011 06:20:00 AM

4 comments:

Roger Smith said...

ERIC BEHEIM MIGHT KNOW: Harold Ronk is listed as Vocalist in RBB programs for 1951-1953, but that wasn't his voice in the picture. One story I heard several times out here (California), or maybe better ranked as a persistent rumor, was that Norman Carroll won the assignment to sing both "Picnic in the Park", and "Popcorn and Lemonade". I was surprised not to get the answer from Harold. When I asked him who sang for DeMille, he became very vague.

02 June, 2011 02:25
Eric said...

According to Joe Bradbury, who referenced a BILLBOARD column by Mary Jane Miller, Ronk left the show after the Philadelphia stand and was replaced by Willie Krause. (According to Buckles, during the under canvas years, Ronk only appeared at the major dates like New York, Boston, and San Francisco.) The singing in GSOE was probably added during post-production, when it would have been more convenient to use Hollywood talent.

02 June, 2011 09:19
Frank Ferrante said...

One of his greatest professional disappointments was not appearing in the film, but appearing with the show. Someone help me out here, I seem to recall a more detailed account on the blog about a year or so ago. Buckles? ~frank

02 June, 2011 10:18
Anonymous said...

There is a great two part article by Harold Ronk in the Mar.-April & May-June 1998 issues of White Tops.
In the article Harold describes his life on the road and how he became the "Singing Ringmaster".
He mentions that Willie Krause and at times David Murphy did the singing on the road as he was only contracted for the indoor dates in 1951.
Some of the singing during the spec(movie) was his but he wasn't sure which part. You can tell that there is more than one person singing.
DeMille changed the spec music drastically that it doesn't really matter who was singing. If you listen to the actual performance music and compare it to the movie music there is a great difference. I happen to like both versions.
Eric you are correct in that the music/singing was done post-production in Hollywood. I have in my collection several of the sound bites/cuts(I think that is what they are called)and you can hear Victor Young calling out instructions to the orchestra on the various songs.
Dom

02 June, 2011 12:47

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