I’m hoping that there are folks on this board who are familiar with early movie musicals, especially Warner Bros. musicals from the '30s.
Specifically, in one of the early scenes from the 1933 film Footlight Parade, with James Cagney and Joan Blondell, a couple of musical/comedy stage producers named Frazer and Gould take Kent (Cagney) to a movie theater where an “oriental” prologue number follows the feature film.
Can anyone tell me what the music that accompanies this prologue is called? I’ve been all over the web, and everywhere I look people know all about the Warren-Dubin and Fain-Kahal numbers in the picture, but I can’t find one reference to this tune.
In addition to Footlight Parade, it has also been featured in a number of WB cartoons over the years, almost always in a scene that takes place in a Middle Eastern/Arabian setting.
Thanks, but the music I’m referring to is more “Arabian” than “East Asian”. It could easily be a classical piece, or it might be a bit of Hollywood stock music that’s just been embedded in my consciousness my entire life. I’m sure that many people would recognize it immediately upon hearing it, just like the example you gave me, though the tune I’m referring to is longer, and has a couple of different sections. But thanks, anyway.
Since this “Mystery Tune” was in a number of Warner Bros. cartoons, I decided to contact Jerry Beck, the co-author of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, and he was kind enough to get back to me right away.
The “Mystery Tune” is an excerpt from:
“A Vision of Salome”
Written in 1908 by J. Bodewalt Lampe (for Isadora Duncan).