Anyone familiar with Hal Roach's "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) and Laurel
& Hardy films of the 1930s will welcome this new Wurlitzer 165 band
organ release.

When producer Hal Roach first introduced "talkies" to his previously
successful silent Our Gang (Little Rascals) and Laurel & Hardy films
in 1929, he turned to composer Leroy Shield to write themes or "cues"
that would play in the background to accompany the action, and also to
play over the opening and closing credits.  These cues are instantly
familiar and recognizable to anyone who ever watched these films.  Done
in the orchestrated "dance band" style of the late 1920's and evolving
through the 1930's, these conveyed the mood of the screen action.

Most of this music was not preserved on sheet music, and had never
been recorded or published.  In the 1990's, the Amsterdam-based "Beau
Hunks" band spent months watching, listening, recording, and carefully
reconstructing these tunes for band arrangements exactly as originally
written by Shield and recorded on the films.  Additionally, they
researched and reconstructed the names that were originally assigned by
the Roach studios to these musical cues.  The result was a release of
complete band arrangements faithful to the original arrangements and
orchestration.

Rich Olsen has taken 14 of the most popular and recognizable cues
and arranged them for the Wurlitzer 165 band organ, faithful to the
original music but with typical Style 165 registration, for a unique
band organ experience.  Even band organ buffs who are unfamiliar with
this music will enjoy this roll.  Since most of the cues were shorter
than typical tunes and of varying length, there are more than the usual
10 tunes on this roll, but the overall roll length is normal.

I commissioned this roll and carefully chose the most popular cues.
Rich Olsen and I worked together to be sure the arrangements were true
to the original film scores.  The result is an outstanding roll that
will make any organ playing Style 165 band organ rolls sound true to
these magnificent films of the early 30's.

The roll has been assigned number 6846 and cut by Play-Rite Music
Rolls with the consistent quality of all Wurlitzer recuts for decades.
The tune list is available from Matthew Caulfield's on-line catalog
at http://www.wurlitzer-rolls.com/ 

The roll can be ordered from Andy Adams, Gold Leaf Galleries, at
http://www.wurlitzerrolls.com/ 

Glenn Thomas
Princeton, New Jersey
wurlitzer165@comcast.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]