Happy Birthday Phil Scheib

[HorseFeathers]

Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of longtime Terrytoons musical director Phil Scheib.

Of course, if Phil were alive today, he'd be really, really old (he passed away in 1969).

[Thad]

Happy birthday, Phil. What would the Terrytoons be without your third-grade recital scores?

Oh yeah. Better.

[J Lee]

I'll always cut Phil a little slack, because of Paul Terry's legendary cheapness and whatever reason there was that, with all the musicals 20th Century Fox did in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Scheib was never allowed to use one single song, the way Stalling, Bradley, Calker, Timberg, Sharples and others had access to the music released by their parent studios. Sheesh, at least you'd think he could have gotten "On the Good Ship Lollipop," or "Diamonds are a Girls' Best Friend" for free.

(I also still have a guilty fondeness for Phil's final work at Terrytoons, the Deputy Dawg scores. Mimamalist, since Bill Weiss waseven cheaper than Paul Terry, but effective as stock 60s background music for the series.)

[Thad]

I'll always cut Phil a little slack, because of Paul Terry's legendary cheapness and whatever reason there was that, with all the musicals 20th Century Fox did in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Scheib was never allowed to use one single song, the way Stalling, Bradley, Calker, Timberg, Sharples and others had access to the music released by their parent studios. Sheesh, at least you'd think he could have gotten "On the Good Ship Lollipop," or "Diamonds are a Girls' Best Friend" for free.

Yikes, now I'm picturing standard Terry mice dressed up like Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe in those musical Mighty Mouse cartoons.

[Ray Pointer]

I'll always cut Phil a little slack, because of Paul Terry's legendary cheapness and whatever reason there was that, with all the musicals 20th Century Fox did in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Scheib was never allowed to use one single song, the way Stalling, Bradley, Calker, Timberg, Sharples and others had access to the music released by their parent studios. Sheesh, at least you'd think he could have gotten "On the Good Ship Lollipop," or "Diamonds are a Girls' Best Friend" for free.

(I also still have a guilty fondeness for Phil's final work at Terrytoons, the Deputy Dawg scores. Mimamalist, since Bill Weiss waseven cheaper than Paul Terry, but effective as stock 60s background music for the series.)

The Scheib scores all sounded the same for 25 years, using clarinets and saxophones when such arrangements were old fashioned by the late 1940s and early 50s. You can't attribute it to "cheapness" if a full orchestra was still being used. Interestingly, when Gene Deitch modernized TERRYTOONS in the mid 1950s, he said that Scheib had no trouble adapting to modern music.

It wasn't so much a matter of cheapness under the Bill Weiss period as relevant style for the time. The music was still good, and it worked well, giving TERRYTOONS a new identity. If it were a consciouness of being cheap,
Weiss would have had them use licenced library music in the way Hanna-Barbera did in their first two years of operation.:mighty:

[Leviathan]

Happy birthday, Phil. What would the Terrytoons be without your third-grade recital scores?

Oh yeah. Better.

That was funny. I have to admit.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U9EK3HTH

[Ray Pointer]

Happy birthday, Phil. What would the Terrytoons be without your third-grade recital scores?

Oh yeah. Better.

How many third graders do you know of that can play at that level and on key?

[Thad]

How many third graders do you know of that can play at that level and on key?

Many.

[J Lee]

The Scheib scores all sounded the same for 25 years, using clarinets and saxophones when such arrangements were old fashioned by the late 1940s and early 50s. You can't attribute it to "cheapness" if a full orchestra was still being used. Interestingly, when Gene Deitch modernized TERRYTOONS in the mid 1950s, he said that Scheib had no trouble adapting to modern music.

It wasn't so much a matter of cheapness under the Bill Weiss period as relevant style for the time. The music was still good, and it worked well, giving TERRYTOONS a new identity. If it were a consciouness of being cheap,
Weiss would have had them use licenced library music in the way Hanna-Barbera did in their first two years of operation.:mighty:

Cheapness as a complete reason in this case may be a little off, but it's still interesting that none of the Fox Fanfare music library was made available to Terrytoons, the way Paramount, Warners, Universal and MGM allowed their cartoon studios free use of their copyrighted music (of couse, Terrytoons were also the only cartoons that didn't open up with the parent studios corporate logo, as with the WB shield, MGM lion, Paramount mountain, etc. So Fox and Paul Terry had a very arms-length relationship, to say the least, and the 3,000 mile distance between New York and Hollywood couldnt be the entire reason, since Paramount never was as aloof about sharing corporate musical or other assets with the Fleischers and Famous Studios).

[J Lee]

Yikes, now I'm picturing standard Terry mice dressed up like Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe in those musical Mighty Mouse cartoons.

Would have been fun to see Carlo Vinci animate a Marilyn Monroe mouse's dance routine in a 1950s Terrytoon before he left for California ... or see Jim Tyer handle the animation on the Jane Russell mouse in an animated "Diamonds" number (CinemaScope would have bee a must here. ;) )

[Ray Pointer]

Cheapness as a complete reason in this case may be a little off, but it's still interesting that none of the Fox Fanfare music library was made available to Terrytoons, the way Paramount, Warners, Universal and MGM allowed their cartoon studios free use of their copyrighted music (of couse, Terrytoons were also the only cartoons that didn't open up with the parent studios corporate logo, as with the WB shield, MGM lion, Paramount mountain, etc. So Fox and Paul Terry had a very arms-length relationship, to say the least, and the 3,000 mile distance between New York and Hollywood couldnt be the entire reason, since Paramount never was as aloof about sharing corporate musical or other assets with the Fleischers and Famous Studios).

By default it was a blessing that this didn't happen since there are so many complications associated with the ownership of the music that can control the availability of the cartoons. This is part of the holdup on some of the Fleischer cartoons, and in more recent years, QUICK DRAW MCGRAW, which used library music.

[larriva9/11]

The Scheib scores all sounded the same for 25 years, using clarinets and saxophones when such arrangements were old fashioned by the late 1940s and early 50s. You can't attribute it to "cheapness" if a full orchestra was still being used. Interestingly, when Gene Deitch modernized TERRYTOONS in the mid 1950s, he said that Scheib had no trouble adapting to modern music.

It wasn't so much a matter of cheapness under the Bill Weiss period as relevant style for the time. The music was still good, and it worked well, giving TERRYTOONS a new identity. If it were a consciouness of being cheap,
Weiss would have had them use licenced library music in the way Hanna-Barbera did in their first two years of operation.:mighty:

One must also admit that by the 60s, Weiss's "old fashioned" scores might, together with the primitive animation, have bluffed into a "retro" appeal--that is, appealing to a popular taste for old Chaplin or L&H in a way that H-B's thoroughly contemporary productions didn't...

[Geezil]

Happy birthday, Phil. What would the Terrytoons be without your third-grade recital scores?

Oh yeah. Better.

Oh, behave! ;)

And say what you will, no one else could use a drum like Phil Scheib.

((((((((((BWOOOOOM!))))))))))

[doctoon]

Although much of Scheib's music sounded the same, I give him credit for trying different styles, like the blues/country scores for "Deputy Dawg" and the Japanese stylings in "Hashimoto."