Monday Moanin’ ~ Moanin’ Low ~ Harry James

I saw “Young Man With A Horn” when I was very very little. My favorite scene was when Kirk Douglas’s Character Rick Martin was a little boy (Orley Lindgren ), and while he’s loading pins at the bowling alley. He hears a band playing. Art Hazzard and his Cotton ? ( Fictitious Band ) . The boy sits atop of a window all night and listens to the music until he gets so tired he falls and the door opens. The Art Hazzard ( Played by Juano Hernandez ) character who plays the trumpet asks the boy what he’s doing and what he wants. Having seeing him up the window all night he already knows. When they get down to it the boy requests a particular song by telling Art Hazzard I don’t know what you call it and starts humming it and tells who starts and comes in where. The song, ” Moanin’ Low ” gets played.

I actually would have loved to find the Movie Version to post, even the scene itself. I’m just glad I found the song at all. Harry James did all the Trumpet playing for the movie Released in 1950. Young Man With A Horn, supposedly is about “Bix” Beiderbecke life story. I remember seeing this movie when I was 6 or 7, and watched it on Channel 9 ( CBC Windsor ) Bill Kennedy’s at the Movies, way before Kennedy went to Channel 50 in Detroit.  His review of the movie was sarcastically remarked that they portrayed all musicians as drunks or dope addicts and it irritated him. LOL … but of course he loved the movies music score as did everyone.

The entire Cast of this movie was outstanding as was the soundtrack. And had some real time Musicians and Singer with Hoagy Carmichael and Doris Day. In fact in New York, on September 15, 1930, Beiderbecke played on the original recording of Hoagy Carmichael’s new song, “Georgia on My Mind”, with Carmichael doing the vocal, Eddie Lang on guitar, Joe Venuti on violin, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto saxophone, Jack Teagarden on trombone, and Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone. The song would go on to become a jazz and popular music standard.

Kirk Douglas: Rick Martin
Lauren Bacall: Amy North
Doris Day: Jo Jordan
Hoagy Carmichael: Willie Willoughby
Juano Hernandez: Art Hazzard
Jerome Cowan: Phil Morrison
Mary Beth Hughes: Marge Martin
Nestor Paiva: Louis Galba
Orley Lindgren: Young Rick
Walter Reed: Jack Chandler

In the Movie Rick Martin Lived. In realty the man he was playing Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke died when he was 28 years old.

Outside of the theme of the Movie entitled Young Man With a Horn, I never could forget about Moanin’ Low. Out of all the music that came out of that movie. “Moanin’ Low” would remain my favorite to this day. And this would also end up being my favorite Kirk Douglas movie.

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I had to laugh. When I was little and watched this for the first time, when Bacall’s character breaks all his records. I said he should of killed her. LOL

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