I found the record from the "Roaring 20's" television at a flea market when I was in high school in 1976. I loved it and I've always wondered about the program. Is there anybody out there who remembers the show? If so please e-mail me at [email protected]!
shareAren't we a rare minority: people who recall 'The Roaring 20's'! I loved this show (I was nine when it debuted), and felt sad when it was cancelled. I wanted to grow up to be just like Pinky Pinkham: svelte, bubbly (but with a serious side), and ever so popular.
The show paralleled '77 Sunset Strip' - with reporters instead of private eyes and, of course, it tried to cash in on the then-retro Twenties' popularity of Robert Stack's 'The Untouchables'.
It's grand, bluegreen5555, that you have a recording from the show. Could you describe the music on it?
There were two, not just one, original soundtrack record albums from this classic TV series, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, both on Warner Bros. Records, from WB where the show was made, and both feature Dorothy Provine as Pinky singing actual 1920s pop tunes to a 1920s-dixieland jazz-style band. The first album was released in 1960, the second on the second season in 1961. They both have different covers. There are minimal production credits on each album, with co-stars Rex Reason and Donald May only mentioned in passing as if they were the supporting actors. The real star of the show was Dorothy Provine, who provided a lot of bubbly ebullience in her role as the flapper showbiz girl Pinky. The show has a wonderful main title theme song. It's a real shame it's not being shown on Cable TV now, or available on video or DVD.
Dejael
Dejael or BlueGreen, is there any listing of the musicians playing on those albums? I always thought the music on that show was pretty well done, and I know WB issued two excellent dixieland albums at about that time with some great players -- Matty Matlock, Stan Wrightsman and others. I enjoyed the show, and, as a 12-year-old, I thought Pinky was hot.
McVouty78
Hello mcvouty78,
The musicians who played on the soundtrack albums for this show were all under contract to Warner Bros. at that time, and most of them were regular players under the batons of either Ray Heindorf, Frank Perkins, or Warren Barker, the three major WB musical directors at that time for both theatrical pictures and for WB-Television in Burbank.
This show's music was directed by Warren Barker, who worked on almost all of the hour-long WB TV series from 1957 to 1966. Warren was wonderful, a real prince of a musical director who deserved to be working in theatrical films but chose television because he enjoyed it and it was more steady, regular work than theatrical pictures. He composed and conducted a lot of classic themes and tracks for TV shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Cheyenne, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Bronco, Bourbon Street Beat, and many others.
I'm not sure, but it may be that WB hired some session players who were adept at playing dixieland jazz of the 1920s era for this show's soundtrack to supplement its regular staff of professional musicians.
Dejael
I am BCPMD and I was 11 and 12 when the Roaring Twenties and have the two albums recorded. They where some of the songs ththat Pinky aka actress Dorthy Provine recorded
She was in 4 movies after the show ended, That Darn Cat a Disney movie with a young Hailey who was in the original Parent trap. also Good Neighbor sam with Jack Lemon . Go to netscape type in their search columum and it will list the 4 movies and a brief description of each. Hope tha help you all out their Ms Provine is retired and lives with her husban on a vineyard in sonoma or Napa Calif.
I remember The Roaring 20s TV show. I was a kid when it was popular but I can remember the theme song and a few of the lyrics. It was remeniscing some of the TV shows of that time that recalled to me The Roaring 20s. I came to IMDB to see what info I could find about it. If you have a recording of the theme you should digitize part of it and post it. Theme music generally lasted only 30 seconds or less and if there was enough theme music to provide a cut on an LP there must be much more to the theme than just the 30 or so seconds we heard on the air.
Other hard-to-recall TV shows of the time include 'Klondike', 'Yancy Derringer' and a dectective show whose title I cannot recall but it was about an actor-turned-PI. Its theme song was 'Lullaby of Broadway' and it was on late Friday nights (or maybe Saturday). Anyway, I usually fell asleep during this program waiting for the late-night weekly monster movie. Those weekly monster movies showed those classic (but generally pretty bad) 1950s B&W movies that eventually wound up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The local TV stations which showed such movies usually had a 'host' of some sort, a macabre individual, ala Vampira. The monster movie host of my childhood was Christopher Coffin, the Guardian of the Ghouls.
This was during a time when Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster or Bela Lugosi's Dracula was enough to terrify a lad like me into sleeplessness. It has been a long, long time since a movie was made that relied more on acting and atmosphere to generate chills and less on splatter. The last really good and really scary movie I can recall is 'The Haunting' from ca 1962.
Hi asimov13647,
You wrote:
Other hard-to-recall TV shows of the time include 'Klondike', 'Yancy Derringer' and a dectective show whose title I cannot recall but it was about an actor-turned-PI. Its theme song was 'Lullaby of Broadway' and it was on late Friday nights (or maybe Saturday).
The show you're thinking of was the short-lived TV series "Mr. Broadway", starring Craig Stevens, which premiered in September 1961, and lasted about half a season before being cancelled. The Imdb lists this show as being released in 1964, but that is not correct. It went into syndication in 1964, but it premiered on one of the 3 networks in 1961, after a successful pilot episode was shown during the summer.
Craig Stevens, famous for being private eye Peter Gunn, did this series right after the final 1960-61 season of Peter Gunn.
Dejael
The show you're thinking of was the short-lived TV series "Mr. Broadway", starring Craig Stevens, which premiered in September 1961, and lasted about half a season before being cancelled . . .Actually, I believe the show in question is 1960's Johnny Midnight, which starred Edmond O'Brien in the title role.
Hi Bluegreen,
Nice to see your message about The Roaring 20's album and TV show. There were two albums that came out fairly close together in time. The first was entitled The Roaring 20's, the second was The Vamp of the Roaring 20's -- both terrific. (She also had a Gay 90's record with Big Tiny Little called Oh You Kid! --also lots of fun). The TV show included brief segments of Dorothy Provine performing 20's tunes. Her character name was Pinky Pinkham, I believe. At this point, the TV show seems to be lost to obscurity. But, with the DVD boom, one never knows what will show up.
In case anyone is interested, here are most of the lyrics to the theme song, as I remember them. Of course, since I was about 8 at the time, I may have misunderstood some of them; and I cannot recall two lines. If anyone can fill in or correct, please feel free.
How d'ya do? I'm takin' you
To the Roaring 20s
For a true birdseye view
Of the Roaring 20s.
Come with me to the melody
Of the trumpet and jazz.
Yessiree, I'll have ya dancin' with flappers,
Finger-snappers.
****************************
**************************** (forgotten lines)
See them all: racketeers
And their gun molls, fun molls.
Prohibition and bathtub gin;
If Benny sent ya, you walk right in
To a speak-easy, speak-easy.
Come along to the song
Of the Roaring 20s,
That wild and reckless,
Never boring,
Rousing, Roaring 20s.
Hey seeker00018; I'm so glad you remembered the lines to the theme song of "The Roaring Twenties"! I can picture snazzy looking Dorothy Provine kicking her heals on the chorus line... with a cute white beaded skull cap (for a lack of a better term) a white clingy beaded dress and long string pearls! I remembered the first two lines and forgotten the rest until now! No, I can't recall the 'forgotten lines'! I was 8 years old and I loved my TV shows, especially those mentioned early on of this thread. Thanks for a happy visit down memory lane. You did great!
shareI always felt that Dorothy Provine role Pinky and the whole show was
inspired by the popularity of 1959 movie SOME LIKE IT HOT with Marilyn Monroe
in the role Of Sugar Kane Kowalcyk. I loved the sound of the 1920s song that
were featured on the show, and I hope they release it on DVD and Cds.
Eight long years have passed but the forgotten lines for you are-
"What a ball, Broadway playboys and play dolls, gay dolls...."
and
"Of the Charleston and Jazz" - not trumpet.
I used to watch this show as a kid.
Here are both the opening and ending themes -
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Roaring_Twenties_-_Theme_%28The%29.html
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Roaring_Twenties_-_Ending_%28The%29.html
And the ending theme has an extension on it - they repeat the words, "Speak easy, speak easy" and then sing
"Super duper frizzle frazzle
Hoop-de-doop and razzle dazzle"
Happy listening!
Don't Bring Lulu was on the Roaring 20's album I have. I don't have the "Vamp of the Roaring 20's," I have the first one, and the theme song is on it, just as the lyrics are above. Anybody know if there's a CD of it out yet? Or a DVD of this little series? I would so love to see it again!
[radiant][laugh2]
I am so glad I just ran a search on the Roaring 20's records - because I found out you can download both records here:
http://movies.aol.com/celebrity/dorothy-provine/57955/discography
How cool is that?
Bluegreen5555
[radiant][laugh2]
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I loved it as a kid, but I don't remember it that well, except for one episode -- "The Prairie Flower" -- in which Pat Crowley is a chorus girl determined to be a star; she kills bitchy star Patrice Wymore and is sent on to do her number, but the giveaway is in the number when the star's nail polish has clearly come off onto her murderer. The women's performances totally made it. Dorothy Provine was fantastic on the show, and she was really the breakout star from it. Big things were predicted for her, and she did have a movie career, but she never blew up the way she was expected to.
Health reform passed. Is your grandmother dead yet?
That's the episode I remember by the grisly murder, a bathtub drowning very graphic for the day.
share[deleted]