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Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere release, one of the most sought-after film musicals:
CENTENNIAL SUMMER
Music by Jerome Kern
Lyrics by Leo Robin, Oscar Hammerstein II and E.Y. Harburg
Music Direction by Alfred Newman
In 1944, Meet Me in St. Louis captivated moviegoers the world over. The unbridled nostalgia for a simpler time was very appealing in the turbulent war years. Two years later, Twentieth Century-Fox made its own film to appeal to that same audience – Centennial Summer. With an excellent screenplay by Michael Kanin and elegant and stylish direction by Otto Preminger, Centennial Summer takes a colorful, fun and even touching look at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition and one family’s trials and tribulations and follies and foibles. Like Meet Me in St. Louis, Centennial Summer was a love letter to a bygone era and like Meet Me in St. Louis, Centennial Summer was a musical, with some wonderful musical numbers by the brilliant composer Jerome Kern and lyricists Leo Robin, Oscar Hammerstein and E.Y. Harburg.
Centennial Summer was Jerome Kern’s final score – he died in November of 1945 at sixty years of age, a great loss to the world of musical theatre and film. In Centennial Summer, Kern’s music could not have been in better hands than that of Fox’s music director extraordinaire Alfred Newman, who also adapted Kern’s tunes and created the beautiful underscore for the film. The songs are charmers and several went on to become staples of the Great American Songbook – “Up with the Lark,” “All Through the Day” and “In Love in Vain.” There is also a magical specialty number called “Cinderella Sue” performed by Avon Long that is one of the highlights of the movie. And Alfred Newman’s underscore for the film is classic Newman. The film received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Song and one for Best Score.
This is the official world premiere release of the complete Centennial Summer, transferred from the 1/4” archival elements in the Twentieth Century-Fox vaults and lovingly restored by Mike Matessino. It just doesn’t get better than Jerome Kern, Leo Robin, Oscar Hammerstein, E.Y. Harburg and, of course, Alfred Newman. It is a thrill to bring this under-appreciated musical to CD and we hope you enjoy this delightful, tuneful and beautiful score, sounding incredible over sixty years later.
Centennial Summer is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.
CDs will ship by the first week of September, but we’ve been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.
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Fantastic, Bruce! What a wonderful thing to get this original soundtrack recording, WITH NEWMAN UNDERSCORE!
Well done!
Well, the Newman underscore is major and he was nominated for it for Best Score. However, you can see by the number of posts that you are kind of alone in the wilderness here, although I know Manderley will be thrilled 
Thankfully, our show buyers are snapping this up really quickly.
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Should anyone have even a minor interest in getting this, I suggest you buy it ASAP.
This release will cross over into the world of Broadway enthusiasts, who have been discussing for some time the planned release, then cancellation, of Twilight Time's Blu-Ray.
As soon as they know this is available, they will pounce, and those 1000 copies will disappear like snow in the sunshine...
A word to the wise.
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Should anyone have even a minor interest in getting this, I suggest you buy it ASAP.
This release will cross over into the world of Broadway enthusiasts, who have been discussing for some time the planned release, then cancellation, of Twilight Time's Blu-Ray.
As soon as they know this is available, they will pounce, and those 1000 copies will disappear like snow in the sunshine...
A word to the wise.
Nick put it on the Twilight Time Facebook page and I have cross posted to all the musical theater groups on Facebook. It is moving very well. Anyone who loves Golden Age and Alfred Newman should get this - listen to the samples. It's mostly orchestral but the occasional songs are so wonderful - Kern was one of the greatest melodists ever.
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Should anyone have even a minor interest in getting this, I suggest you buy it ASAP.
This release will cross over into the world of Broadway enthusiasts, who have been discussing for some time the planned release, then cancellation, of Twilight Time's Blu-Ray.
As soon as they know this is available, they will pounce, and those 1000 copies will disappear like snow in the sunshine...
A word to the wise.
Nick put it on the Twilight Time Facebook page and I have cross posted to all the musical theater groups on Facebook. It is moving very well. Anyone who loves Golden Age and Alfred Newman should get this - listen to the samples. It's mostly orchestral but the occasional songs are so wonderful - Kern was one of the greatest melodists ever.
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Posted: |
Jul 21, 2014 - 4:09 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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Fantastic, Bruce! What a wonderful thing to get this original soundtrack recording, WITH NEWMAN UNDERSCORE!
Well done!
Well, the Newman underscore is major and he was nominated for it for Best Score. However, you can see by the number of posts that you are kind of alone in the wilderness here, although I know Manderley will be thrilled
Thankfully, our show buyers are snapping this up really quickly.
Manderley IS thrilled!
Finished up my morning chores and then ordered it---and decided to order the Hefti, too. (Who can resist a score for a film which includes Virginia Mayo, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Dorothy Lamour in its cast?!!!)
The sound quality of CENTENNIAL is phenomenal---and for a film that's not 60, but 68 years old! (.....and the tracks were probably recorded in 1945 so that makes the recordings 69 years old!!!)
As a sidelight, I also am thrilled that we finally have a good recording of one of Avon Long's iconic film moments in his "Cinderella Sue" number from the film. For years I've had an acetate of the 15-minute radio preview of CENTENNIAL SUMMER and I used to play the Long performance over-and-over. (It also reminds one how sad it is that his filmed appearance in ZIEGFELD FOLLIES---with Lena Horne---was deleted from the film before its release. However, at least we are fortunate to have the recording of that, too.)
I have always thought that there was an important crossover audience among the show fans for these old recordings of musicals---a crossover audience that most of the soundtrack labels with the exception of Kritzerland (and the very infrequent FSM) have never recognized. It's not a huge audience anymore---just like the Golden Age soundtracks audience is not big anymore---but it's there, ready to be tapped for the right project.
Thanks, Bruce, for taking a chance on this. I hope it sells out for you and you can giggle (and dance a jig) all the way to the bank!
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I must say I'm very proud of this one. It's too bad about the movie getting delayed but hopefully that will eventually be worked out with Twilight Time and we can have the isolated score as planned. I need to give a shout out to Neil Bulk who did a superb job figuring out all the correct takes and lining up the vocals, choruses, and overlays. The tracks needed some restoration but they responded very well and sounded wonderful after they were mixed and mastered.
Thank goodness all the optical tracks on hundreds of classic titles were transferred to 1/4" in the 1980s and paperwork was saved, and thanks to Nick Redman we've had a well-oiled machine at Fox for 20 years and the golden age just keeps on giving!
Mike
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I must say I'm very proud of this one. It's too bad about the movie getting delayed but hopefully that will eventually be worked out with Twilight Time and we can have the isolated score as planned. I need to give a shout out to Neil Bulk who did a superb job figuring out all the correct takes and lining up the vocals, choruses, and overlays. The tracks needed some restoration but they responded very well and sounded wonderful after they were mixed and mastered.
Thank goodness all the optical tracks on hundreds of classic titles were transferred to 1/4" in the 1980s and paperwork was saved, and thanks to Nick Redman we've had a well-oiled machine at Fox for 20 years and the golden age just keeps on giving!
Mike
I was shocked at how good it sounded - just wonderful work from everyone concerned.
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We have a LOT of Fox projects coming - but they don't come quickly - each release takes a lot of time in everyone's already insane schedule. I wish it could move more quickly but it can't.
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One can never thank Mssrs. Matessino, Redman and Kimmel enough for their sterling efforts. Kudos for another extraordinary accomplishment!
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