AND WHAT A DREAM IT IS
As part of its 2025 Season, “Make Some Noise: Music and Stories of American Defiance and Hope,” MUSE/IQUE presented Welcome to the Dream Factory, centering on the golden days of Hollywood where dreams were built on sound stages by composers, actors, and directors who lit up the world on the silver screen that transformed Hollywood into a beacon of opportunity for everyone willing to do the work – and do it well.
The evening’s entertainment centered around immigrant artists, including many talented Jewish composers who fled oppressive rule across Europe and landed in Los Angeles, bringing with them new influences and perspectives that changed major Hollywood studios to believe that nothing is impossible.
MUSE/IQUE’s Artistic and Music Rachael Worby hosted the evening, brilliantly tying the music and stories together, conducting the orchestra, and sharing historical background on the world from which these composers escaped and then created within The Dream Factory of Hollywood. Twelve selections performed with the MUSE/IQUE orchestra and guest artists Anne Akiko Meyers on violin and singer Sy Smith, the featured composers proved that even in the darkest of times, fantasy and creativity can build hope for the future.
Worby tied the music and stories together perfectly, highlighted by video projections of the life each composer left and the world into which their dreams came to life, sharing twelve songs used in film scores. Along with the MUSE/IQUE orchestra, guest soul singer extraordinaire Sy Smith contributed belt-filled vocals to most of the evening’s songs, while Grammy Award-winning violinist Anne Akiko offered a look the music from Eastern Europe as well as Hollywood.
The concert opened with “Hooray For Hollywood” from the 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel, with Worby sharing information on 1860 flip books which lead to the birth of motion pictures, to Thomas Edison creating the first motion pictures to be seen by many in newly-created movie theaters. Especially interesting was showing a clip of Buster Keaton, first without a music score and then with, highlighting how important the right music increases the emotional-impact of scenes.
“City Lights” from Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times for which composer Allen Steingberger, who went on to create film scores for 50 years, mastered the skill of adding music to motion pictures, featuring 120 orchestra musicians. Chaplin went on to work with composer Alfred Newman, who inspired future film score composers Goldsmith and John Williams.
“Smile” from The Blue Angel featured the violin wizardry of Akiko, which lead into Worby discussing the birth of the Golden Age of German Cinema. Another well-known song from the film score is “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” – the English language name for a 1930 German song composed by Friedrich Hollaender – which launched the Hollywood career of German immigrant Marlene Dietrich who appeared in top hat atop a grand piano warbling the song in the film.
Worby then described Dietrich’s life of Hollywood glamour while living on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills, where her famous party guests included Max Steiner, an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of Hollywood’s greatest musical composers. Dietrich hired him to orchestrate her live show when she left the movies to tour as a singer, working together their entire lives.
Steiner went on to score the film King Kong whose stop-action photography set a new standard for film, earning him the title of the “Father of Film Music Cinematography.” Steiner wrote 300 film scores, including the captivating “Tara’s Theme” from Gone with the Wind, which Worby shared with projections from the film.
Polish born, Austrian composer and conductor Erich Wolfgang Korngold grew up watching American movies, especially Westerns in which the good guy always won. His theme song from the score of Captain Blood, featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, sealed his fate as a major Hollywood film composer.
Laura, the 1944 American film noir and one of the greatest mystery films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, was produced and directed by Otto Preminger, who hired David Raksin to score the film. For the title song, immigrant Alfred Newman, music director for Fox, convinced Preminger to give Raksin a weekend to compose the original song “Laura” for the film, for which Johnny Mercer later wrote the lyrics. It eventually became a jazz standard recorded by more than 400 artists, performed by Worby more like a lullaby.
The 1945 film Spellbound directed by Alfred Hitchcock features a groundbreaking score composed by Miklós Rózsa, notable for its use of the Theremin to evoke the film’s themes of paranoia and the inner workings of the human mind. Rózsa also crafted a prominent love theme for the characters, as requested by Hitchcock. The score is considered a milestone in film music history, shared by Akiko on violin.
Released in 1950, the original film score for Sunset Boulevard was composed by immigrant Franz Waxman which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won three, including Best Film Score. It features three distinctive themes for the main characters, including Joe’s jazzy theme, Norma’s minimalist theme, and Max’s rhythmic theme, as demonstrated by Akiko on violin.
The award-winning and much-loved 1942 film Casablanca centers around immigrants fleeing the Nazi regime in Eastern Europe. It features the torch song “As Time Goes By” which was originally written as a jazz song by immigrant Herman Hupfeld in 1931. Used in the film score by Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams, performed by black entertainer Dooley Wilson as Sam, it featured an all-immigrant orchestra, as well as many refugees who played themselves in the film. Vocals by Sy Smith elevated this one up to the heavens!
Goldsmith and Williams also wrote the score for ET, The Extraterrestrial for immigrant Carl Laemmle who founded Universal Pictures. Along with projections of film scenes, the title song featured violinist Akiko and Michael Valerio on cello. And just like the kids who assisted E.T. in going home, the talent shared by all the evening’s composers could not be held back from being expressed creatively no matter the obstacles faced.
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, is the most famous song from Herbert Stothart’s score for The Wizard of Oz released in 1939, which won the 1940 Academy Award for best original score and song. Worby ended the informative evening’s concert by encouraging everyone to keep their own dreams alive, no matter how far they must travel to achieve them. And that NOW is the perfect time to stand up and MAKE SOME NOISE!
MUSE/IQUE’s 2025 Season, “Make Some Noise: Music and Stories of American Defiance and Hope,” continues with The UnAmericans, an exploration of Hollywood’s blacklisted artists and the fight for freedom of expression on June 10,11,15; Like It Like Harlem on August 8, 9, 10; Made in Memphis on September 12, 13, 14; and Have you Heard of Ella James? on October 14, 15,19. For venue information, reservations, and membership details, visit https://www.muse-ique.com/ call (626) 539-7085, or send email to [email protected].
