The new Wurlitzer 165 roll, number 6846, "Music of Little Rascals,
Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy" which was arranged by Rich Olsen for
Glenn Thomas, is a very accurate presentation of the music composed by
Minnesota native Leroy Shield for the films of the Hal Roach Studios in
the early 1930s.

This roll is an absolute must for anyone who loves the tunes from those
classic comedies.  The titles may not be familiar to the average
listener, but the tunes will instantly recall images of the antics of
Stan and Ollie, Spanky and Our Gang, Charley Chase, and all the Hal
Roach comedies.

As Glenn Thomas said in his posting of September 8, most of the music
was not preserved on sheet music and was never recorded or published,
other than for its use in the Roach comedies.  Rich Olsen's arrangements
of the Our Gang themes "Good Old Days," "Little Dancing Girl," (which
was nearly always used in the films when a little girl was depicted),
"Dash and Dot," and "Beautiful Lady," (which was used when a winsome
woman was shown on screen, and inversely, when an ugly woman was seen),
are particularly good, but all thirteen tunes arranged for the roll are
very true to the original sound tracks of the films.  (The 14th, finale
tune is a reprise of the 1st tune, "Good Old Days.")

Just as Rich Olsen transcribed the music from the recordings of the
Dutch band "Beau Hunks," the band transcribed their arrangements from
reconstructions of tunes from the original film sound tracks, often
piecing the music together from multiple film sources.  The earliest
comedies scored by Leroy Shield had compositions written for specific
scenes and situations, with titles that reflected the screen action.

Shields' output of the lilting, infectious music was so prolific that
he soon found himself out of a job.  The Roach Studios editors could
merely add the appropriate music cues from the large library of material
composed and recorded by Shield. These recordings were made on 35 mm
film.  None of the original recordings exist except as part of the
comedy film sound tracks.

Leroy Shield was born on October 2, 1893, in Waseca, Minnesota, a small
town southwest of the Saint Paul and Minneapolis.  His hometown began
recognizing their native son in 2007 with the "Leroy Shield Festival."
This year's 4th anniversary event is scheduled for Friday, October 8th.
Local band organ owner Ralph Schultz will present the roll on his
165-playing Stinson 47 which is sure to delight the crowd gathered to
honor their hometown hero.  Several of Leroy Shields' nieces and
nephews are expected to be in attendance.  Leroy Shield had no children
of his own.

It's great to see Leroy Shield finally getting the recognition he
so richly deserves.  I've written about the events for the Sons of
the Desert news magazine (the international Laurel and Hardy club),
and have been a guest speaker at the event.  One of the concepts
I stressed about Leroy Shield was the fact that his anonymity as a
composer of film music puts him in good company, since most filmgoers
have no idea who wrote the scores for such great films as "Gone With
The Wind", "King Kong" or "The Wizard of Oz".  Shields' music is
certainly as recognizable as anything from those films, perhaps even
more so!

I urge anyone who owns an organ playing Style 165 music rolls and who
loves the jaunty music of the Hal Roach comedies to purchase the new
roll.  It may be ordered from Andy Adams of Gold Leaf Galleries at
http://www.wurlitzerrolls.com/  Strong sales of the roll may result in
its eventual availability in the Style 150 format, which will further
spread the joy of the Leroy Shield tunes to comedy and music lovers
everywhere!

For your information, I am the "Grand Sheik" (president) of the
Block-Heads tent, the Saint Paul-Minneapolis chapter of the
international Laurel and Hardy club, Sons of the Desert.  I have
a personal quest to find the music of Leroy Shield in any format
available, and have been greatly thrilled at the fairly recent release
of the Beau Hunks CDs (now, sadly, unavailable), player piano rolls,
and now the excellent Wurlitzer 165 roll!

Tracy Tolzmann
tolzmann@juno.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]