Terrific Journal issue as usual!
However, I have a question about Rich Finegan's Stooge music article.
Finegan refers to a song used repeatedly in the Stooge shorts as "Fredric March". Is it actually spelled that way? The reason I ask is because Fredric March was a famous actor from that era. Is the song spelled the same way as the actor's first name, or is it actually spelled Frederick? I recall having seen the song referred to as the Frederick March in this forum. Which is correct?
Hello!
Glad someone is reading my stuff closely.
The proper spelling of the title of this march is confusing. In fact, it looks like I got confused myself while writing the Journal 137 article and spelled it "Fredric".
The spelling on the official Columbia Music Cue Sheets that were logged to legally document composers' credits and royalties, etc. was Frederic (although occasionally there were what I assume are misspelling as "Frederick".)
I assume (and it would certainly would be nice to think) that the composers were inspired to name their march after actor Fredric March but when the title was submitted for official publication they or some secretary must have misspelled Fredric as Frederic or Frederick.
As I mentioned in earlier articles, I have logged 29 different Columbia films (so far) in which "Frederic March" is used, and only in Columbia films (that is to say, never in any other studios' films, on records, old radio shows or anywhere else). Fans of actor Fredric March know that he made three movies for Columbia Pictures in his career, so (if you're like me) you may wonder if the actor and the music named after him ever appeared in the same film. Well, no, the march was not used in any of actor March's three Columbia movies.