The Saturday briefing
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
Q
I was impressed by Loren Allred on Britain’s Got Talent, who sang vocals on The Greatest Showman. How prolific is dubbing in Hollywood?
Julie Booth, Sidmouth, Devon
ALess so now, with better technology around, although trickier notes can be dubbed in. It is Renée Zellweger singing Judy Garland’s songs in Judy, for which she won an Oscar, and Taron Egerton sang Elton John’s hits in Rocketman.
Andrew Garfield, Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman and Bradley Cooper have all sung in films. But actors know their limits. George Clooney, nephew of singer Rosemary, wanted to sing his part in Oh Brother,WhereArt Thou? but admitted he sounded “like a cat caught in the wheel well of a truck driving down the street”, so was dubbed by blues singer Dan Tyminski.
In Show Boat,Ava Gardner worked for months to crack the songs, using Frank Sinatra as her vocal coach, but was later replaced by Annette Warren, which infuriated her.
Famously, not a note of Natalie Wood’s survived inWest Side Story, with Marni Nixon’s vocals replacing hers.
Russ Tamblyn, who played the leader of the Jets, was dubbed by Tucker Smith, who starred as fellow Jet, Ice.The two are “singing” in the same scene for Jet Song.
Even Rita Moreno, who did sing America, was dubbed by Betty Wand for A Boy Like That. Moreno appeared in Spielberg’s adaptation last year
and sang Somewhere live – most musicals are singing to playback, so even if actors are singing, it’s to a record they made earlier. Marni Nixon sang for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, although it’s mostly Hepburn for JustYouWait.When Hepburn heard she was being dubbed, she walked off set, although came back and apologised for her “wicked behaviour”.
Nixon also sang for Deborah Kerr in The King And I, but Hollywood’s most famous ghost singer did eventually get some screen time, playing a nun in The Sound Of Music.
In South Pacific, most people were dubbed, even Juanita Hall, who had performed the role of Bloody Mary, singing Happy Talk hundreds of times on Broadway. She was dubbed by Muriel Smith, who played the part in the West End, and who composer Richard Rodgers preferred. Ghost singers in Hollywood’s Golden Age did not
go public, fearing they would never be cast, but some credits gave a discreet nod, with a “special thanks to”.
Q
I have a certificate headed “Empire Day 1940”, for “helping to provide comfort to soldiers”. Can you enlighten me please?
Jack Kinsella, Ditton,Widnes, Cheshire
AThe certificate was from the Overseas League, a charity set up in 1910 that supported the war effort, providing treats and Christmas gifts for the six million men fighting in dire conditions.
Items such as socks, chocolate and cigarettes were sent to First WorldWar troops in the trenches, while parcels of slippers and plum pudding were put together for soldiers in hospital.
Tobacco was especially in demand, with Edward Ward, director general of Voluntary Organisations, saying in 1917: “Of all the comforts and luxuries which you can offer to a soldier in health or in sickness, the proverbial pipe of tobacco or a cigarette takes its place among the most acceptable.”
During the war, the league raised nearly £400,000 for the Overseas Tobacco Fund to send
cigarettes to soldiers on the frontline, much coming from the children’s pennies scheme, where pupils would bring a penny into school and receive a certificate.
Similar fundraising efforts continued in the SecondWorld War, as your certificate attests. They were issued to tie in with Empire Day, May 24, which had been QueenVictoria’s birthday, when schools would hold parades, sing the national anthem and chant “Remember, Remember Empire Day, the 24th of May”.
The day aimed to stir up patriotic feeling, remind children they formed part of the Empire and encourage people to think of others across the world. It was renamed British Commonwealth Day in the 1950s, then Commonwealth Day, which is marked in March.
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