"Ball of Fire" separated pre and post-WWII eras in U.S.

The movie "Ball of Fire" came out in the days before Pearl Harbor. "America First" with Charles Lindbergh held forth in an influential way. Surely we wanted to avoid war. Did the U.S. lay back and "dare" the Japanese to attack us? Was there a sense of inevitability about it? 

"Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck shows the U.S. at peace when the world was on a precipice. The conflict was already well established. We see "Ball of Fire" and wonder how the America of that time compared to the post-WWII America. Did WWII really pull us out of the Great Depression, as has been suggested in so many places? Maybe it's myth promoted by political conservatives who don't want to give credit to FDR and his "New Deal." 

FDR was upper-crust in his own background and had to try to persuade his fellow upper-crusters that if something like the New Deal was not launched, the pillars of our society might crumble. About half of his crowd went along with this, only, showing how stubborn this element of society can be. 

Today's hard right commentator Mark Levin gives no credit to FDR's programs. He sniffs at the suggestions. I'll assert the CCC program was so essential in lifting up young men, at least giving them a sense of hope, not to mention a big nutritious breakfast in the morning! 

"Ball of Fire" is a delight to view today. Perhaps there's an illusion, though, of greater contentedness than what really existed. Life was hardscrabble for the common folk. The lanky Cooper is at his "befuddled" best. He comes under the trance, Hollywood romance style, of Barbara Stanwyck. But for me, seeing Gene Krupa with his big band in a nightclub is the highlight. I am biased because I have played such music myself. I am humbled seeing the premier quality of the performance in the movie. It is a classic scene of the time: classy young adults, men in suits and ties, assembled at tables in a nightclub with a dance floor available, and the band really "cookin' ." Oh my, "cook" it does. 

  

Music to accompany the war

The showcase tune in the movie is "Drum Boogie." I became familiar with this tune in the 1970s from an 8-track tape collection of big band hits. The heyday of that genre of music coincided with World War 2. A morale-builder? Well, Glenn Miller was allowed to re-form his band overseas for morale purposes. He ended up deceased under circumstances that remain not completely clear. The plane he was on was destroyed by Allied planes passing overhead jettisoning bombs? That's a popular theory.  

The Miller band was perhaps too tight and over-rehearsed. Certainly it made a splash.

The first time Krupa as drummer appeared on our TV screen at home, my father gave me a heads-up on how Krupa had a wild-eyed or dazed appearance. I'll give the drummer the benefit of the doubt that he was just "into" his music. Let us not assume anything about drugs. Yes, Krupa hit a bump in the road in 1943: an arrest on drug-related charges in San Francisco. He was convicted on two counts but it turned out he was framed by federal narcotics agents. He was exonerated/acquitted of all charges. We learn today "Krupa was never a drug addict and rarely used pot." 

We wonder how much pop music stars really indulge in drugs - is it exaggerated because the stars find their appeal is enhanced by a little notoriety? We wonder about the Beatles. Because, it's really hard to be at the top of this profession, so one would think you'd really have to take care of yourself. 

"Ball of Fire" is described as a "screwball comedy." I have to wonder what kind of mind would conceive of the plot. We see a group of professors working to compile an encyclopedia. The profs live together in a New York City brownstone. Their encyclopedia will cover "all human knowledge?" We have that today with the Internet. Cooper is "Bertram Potts," a grammarian who is researching U.S. slang. The profs have an impatient financial backer. 

Slang puts Potts in contact with sort of a lowlife element. Stanwyck plays "Sugarpuss O'Shea" whose boyfriend is a mob boss, "Joe Lilac." Police seek info from her so she takes refuge with the professors. She becomes attracted to Potts. Love builds between the two. Despite that, she ties the knot with Lilac because she senses Potts might be threatened by the mob. The profs act to "rescue" Sugarpuss from her crowd. She feels inferior around the academics, but the dashing Cooper applies an irresistible kiss. Hollywood at its zenith, right? (My father called it "Hollywood hash.") 

I could not weave a plot like this. It has been compared to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Still, the movie has a particular entrancing quality. An acquired taste? As a vehicle for presenting Krupa and his band, I salute it. 

  

Young adults defined pop culture

I observe the nightclub scene and it makes me realize this was truly an adult world, in the sense of: "where are the teenagers?" We just don't see them in movies from that time. They were stuck at home and without discretionary money. So it was the young adults who set the pace in popular culture. The teens just observed, bored probably. We started hearing much more from the teens in the 1950s. But in the '40s? Seen but not heard. 

Except that the draft board knew who the guys were. 

Krupa was a historic drummer: he was the first musician to use a full drum set on records. He gained prominence in the mid-1930s with Benny Goodman's big band. The band was on the cutting edge. So impressive was Krupa in the Carnegie Hall concert by the Goodman band, some friction may have developed between the two. The discord led to Krupa forming his own band. "Drum Boogie" did a lot to establish Krupa but the best was yet to come with Roy Eldridge and Anita O'Day joining the band. 

The war years were an apex time for Krupa and his band. My 8-track tape also included "Let Me Off Uptown." 

"Ball of Fire" was one of several movies where Krupa appeared and built his celebrity. His arrest on trumped-up charges hurt him. But in the fall of '43 he had an emotional reunion with Goodman. Goodman helped get the drummer rehabilitated in terms of professional stature, happily. 

Krupa like Lawrence Welk was thrilled with finally being able to hire strings! Anita O'Day came back in '45 and delivered the No. 1 hit "Star Eyes." Swing big bands generally did not welcome bebop jazz as an element, but Krupa was an exception. His band broke up in 1951. The heyday of the big bands had waned. 

Hollywood gave us "The Gene Krupa Story" in 1959 starring Sal Mineo. Krupa started having health problems in the 1960s but there is a fantastic video from 1971 showing him at his best on the big band standard "Sing Sing Sing." He died in 1973. 

  

Stanwyck had staying power

People my age might associate Barbara Stanwyck with the 1960s TV series "The Big Valley." You're a fan of the movie "Airplane?" You're familiar with the oddball character "Johnny." Did you catch the connection to "The Big Valley" series? "Nick, Heath, Jerrod, there's a fire in the barn!" I caught a few episodes of "The Big Valley" years later on a cable TV channel and found it to be a garden variety western - there were so many. And then they died off suddenly as TV executives went urban with themes. 

Stanwyck's acting on TV was top-notch as always. And, it's impressive that she was fully happy playing an older character! Gene Hackman does not want to play old men. I'm impressed by Stanwyck's personal theme: "Know your lines and be on time." She was the consummate professional. 

Barbara Stanwyck

"Ball of Fire" was directed by Howard Hawks. The movie was released just five days before the Japanese dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor. America was turned upside-down by the horrific news. My father heard a radio bulletin. Young men dropped what they were doing and "saw the world" with service commitments, and of course many did not survive. Women pitched in with war industries. Lives everywhere changed dramatically. And in the aftermath we got the great U.S. "middle class," or so the folklore goes. 

What if there had been no WWII? Or, what if there had been no FDR "New Deal?"  Today we wonder "what if a standard politician had been elected president rather than Donald Trump?" How will history judge all this 20, 30 years from now? Is there any way Trump can come out of this looking like a good and heroic person? Rhetorical question, I confess. 

  

"What we were fighting for"

A review of "Ball of Fire" described the "flood of slang" coming at us, as "a reminder of what we were fighting for." 

A footnote: Singing was not Stanwyck's stock in trade, so she lip-synched for "Drum Boogie." Let's credit Martha Tilton as the singer. We see the terrific African-American musician Roy Eldridge on trumpet with his scream-style notes. All in all, a treat to watch, more than once. But where were all the teenagers? It was a young adults' world, early and mid-20s. Suits and ties in a nightclub. 

A better world? Probably not. Go outside the Hollywood studios and you'd see lots of struggling. Many houses had no central heating system.

We hear speeches on Memorial Day about the sacrifices of war, framed heroically. But, what would those deceased souls tell us about war? Heroic? 

Oh, Lucille Ball almost got the role of "Sugarpuss." Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard turned down the role. The movie did well at the box office. There was only one Gene Krupa! There is a "Gene Krupa Drive" in Yonkers NY.

If you like this movie, you'll like "Hollywood Canteen" too! You'll see Jimmy Dorsey and his band at their best.

  

More on my podcast

It's fun reflecting on Gene Krupa's career, so I do more of this on my podcast post for today. My podcast is "Morris Mojo." I invite you to click on the permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Gene-Krupa--drummer-ek78os 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com