Video: "Hooray for Hollywood" on YouTube

[Lauren Benjamin]

Folks ~ Above is the new movie I made with Doris photos and Doris singing "Hooray for Hollywood."

After an absence from making movies for a couple of years, it took a long time for me to remember all the tricks. So now that I have my feet wet, I hope to make many more.

No one is as good as making Doris movies as Bryan - that clever man - but I'll give it a try. I would like for Doris to be very well represented on YouTube so that especially the younger crowd might know that she sang something with more depth than "Bushel and a Peck" - an embarrassment.

Lauren

[doris-day-fan]

Lauren,
You did it! WOW, what a nice movie tribute to our dear Doris....loved the photos and the way you placed them...you've got what it takes...encore, encore!!!!
Thanks for posting this movie.

Mary Anne

[sunnygail]

Very nice Lauren, thank you very much for sharing this with us. BILL

[littlepinetree]

LOVE IT!! Thanks for posting this!
ooooooo! That last picture of Doris wearing black with the big black hat! AMAZING picture!!!

[Lauren Benjamin]

Thanks! I want everyone to see that photo of Doris in the little movies that I make because I think it's a gorgeous, up-to-date photo of Doris that I want people to see. That's why I say at the end, "Black Hat Productions."
It's just an excuse to feature that picture.

Unfortunately, most "movie makers" are forced to use very old, not very flattering photos of Doris in their movies. The only way around it is to put an episode from the Doris Day Show in some software and take pictures of Doris from those episodes and use those. At least the photos are somewhat up to date.

Lauren

[webmaster]

Nice one, Lauren.

Slightly surprised as I had my 'Hooray for Hollywood' video removed from YouTube because they said the music was copyright! That's YouTube, some get through, some don't. But nice effort.

(I changed the settings to 'play on here' - instead of making an external link, highlight the url and click youtube button above.)

[Lauren Benjamin]

Bryan~

You, my friend, are the master. I have learned from you as you were always generously helpful in teaching me some movie-making tricks. I've seen some of your latest DD movies and they are professional looking and fun.
That probably caught the eye of the peeps at YouTube.

If one does a search on Bing.com for Doris Day videos, there are 50 pages of returns!!! Bryan's movies are some of the best - if not *the* best of all.

Meanwhile, I'm still stuck with Windows Movie Maker but that will have to do for now. I think I have one or two more of my older movies to post and then I'll start in on some new ones. It's all for Doris.

Thanks for doing the link on the forum.

Lauren

[littlepinetree]

Is there a picture of Doris someplace with the black dress and the big floppy black hat? I would love to have that picture!

[Lauren Benjamin]

Pinetree~

Here is the link to the black hat photo. Anyone can download it. Double click on it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lbenjamin.2 ... directlink

Lauren

[jmichael]

This is really well done.

Not sure if it was intentional or not, but I like the way you switched to shots of her dancing just as the tempo in the song got faster. The moment the song gets faster, you shifted to a series of high energy tap dance scenes. This really added to the viewing experience. Very clever.

Michael H

[littlepinetree]

Thank you Lauren for the picture! That picture is so classy!

[joe]

Hi Lauren,

You said, ""Bushel and a Peck" - an embarrassment"

I must disagree!

The new Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie, "Julie and Julia", uses Doris's recording of "A Bushel and a Peck" in the soundtrack near the end of the movie (which is really good IMHO - Streep is terrific as Julia Child). I don't believe that Nora Ephron, the movie's director, would have chosen that song were it "an embarrassment".

It's a Frank Loesser composition from the great Broadway musical, "Guys And Dolls" and was a big commercial hit as a duet for Perry Como and Betty Hutton in 1950. It may sound silly and similar to several of the inane songs Columbia Records had Doris record early in her association with them. But, as ever, Doris delivers the song appropriately for the material. Her own version of this song charted according to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bushel_and_a_Peck" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But I do appreciate your choosing Doris "Hooray For Hollywood" for your video which is very well done. Thanks for that. If I had my arm twisted to make a "Favorite 10 Songs by D. Day", that would be one of the recordings I would choose.

[Lauren Benjamin]

Hi Joe~
Thanks for the compliment about "Hooray." Glad you enjoyed it.

We'll have to agree to disagree about "Bushel." For those who remember Doris and who may remember breadth and depth of her work, they may see "Bushel" as just what it was - a little novelty song with corny lyrics that Doris' jazz singing in the 40s, her musicals and pop music of the 50s and exquisite ballads through the decades would put in its place.

However, I'm always amazed (and I hear from other Day fans also) at how many people don't even know who Doris Day is. And so that song is the only piece of her broad musical agenda that they will know. It' s not the end of the world, I know. But I'd rather audiences hear a sophisticated, up-to-date song like "Perhaps" right smack dab in the middle of a movie such as "Burn After Reading" (which I love) than "Bushel" in something like "Julia" -- Bet your purdy neck I do.

Lauren

p.s.
Here is a review of the soundtrack of "Julia" from the folks at ReelSoundTrack:
http://is.gd/3cMpj

The soundtrack to Julie & Julia features 8 songs, including music from the Talking Heads, Charles Azvanour, Django Reinhardt and Doris Day. To be honest, minus Psycho Killer, I didn’t find the soundtrack to be that appetizing. Maybe I am not enough of a francophone, because I found the soundtrack to be a bit uninspired, kind of like a recipe that forgets a couple spices and therefore comes out tasting a bit like cardboard.

[Ania]

Wonderful video and song Doris has the most beautiful voice in the world How can emit sounds so perfect? Vibrato divine This amazing voice, beautiful color, and the magic Doris should be a model for today's singers Perfect technique Lauren Benjamin thank you for so much emotion

Ps:I have all the soundtracki with Meryl Streep movies and with "Julia&Julie" also