Behind The Scenes At ABC

Just won this still on eBay, and thought I'd post it here. What intrigued me about this image is that it's a rehearsal shot, showing Ernie in director mode with Steve Blauner, getting ready for a dry run of the "Dinner Symphony". This was for the Kovacs ABC spec #2. The music was something of a mystery for a while. Irwin Chusid had wanted to include it on the Ernie Kovacs Record Collection CD, but no one was able to identify it. Some months after the CD's release, the piece was ID'ed as having been written by a lesser-known Hungarian composer named Kara Karajev.

Below is the info from the ABC photo dept attached to the still. It's still been real...

Ben Model - http://www.erniekovacs.info/

Some Kovacsian Fun

Good morning my fellow Kovacsians. This week's post will be a quick one, sans pictures, because yours truly has a very busy day today.

The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 437 friends this week, an increase of 15 from last week. We thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us. We're quite grateful that almost every request we get is legitimate, which believe me, is a big deal on MySpace!!

Our good friend Ben Model, the webmaster of erniekovacs.info and a contributing writer to this blog, added a great post last Saturday which is a stream of the Ernie novelty tune (actually, all tunes Ernie recorded were novelties) "Hey Taxi!" Its goofy and a great deal of fun. For some reason this track was left off "The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection," but as Ben explains on his site its the B-Side of track 20 which is a remake of Ernie's Theme (also known as "The Oriental Blues") by "Leroy Holmes and his Tug Boat Eight." This track was taken from the original 45 rpm record; you can even hear the crackle of the phonograph player when you listen! Click the "Hey Taxi!" link above to do so. Thanks Ben!

And now, some interesting Kovacsian articles from the blogosphere:

Jett's 4–Wheel Drive Lounge Wrote A Nice Post About Ernie's Brilliance

Apocalypse Later: A Cinematic Travelogue Wrote This Post About "Our Man In Havana"

Until next week, "Its Been Real!!"

The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection

I get emails at http://www.erniekovacs.net/ and comments posted here regarding "The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection," which was released on July 15, 1997 on the Varese Sarabande label. Most of the comments have to do with the fact that its difficult to find.

Unfortunately this title is out of print. Varese Sarabande, a company that largely deals in motion picture and television soundtracks, doesn't even have it in their database anymore.

My suggestion is to visit this link at Amazon where you can find copies from dealers (though they are all very expensive). I'd also check online auction sites such as EBAY to try and find a copy. You'll most likely get it there for much cheaper.

The CD is probably out of print because of the fact that it appeals to a very niche market that loves Ernie's work and didn't sell very well. I love it, but that's me. You get the "Oriental Blues," also known as "Ernie's Tune," which was his theme song. You can listen with joy to "Medley: Jalousie (Jealousy)/Sentimental Journey" which was the arrangement he used for the bit with the dancing office furniture. There's "Moritatensanger (Mack The Knife)" from the Three Penny Opera by Bertold Brecht, which was used as the background music for all the oscilloscope gags. In all you get 20 tracks on the CD and can listen to sound samples by visiting the Amazon link I provided above. You also get "Song Of The Nairobi Trio ("Solfeggio)" which is a classic.

Speaking of which, congrats to "Devilbabytales" who guessed that "Solfeggio" is the correct title of "The Nairobi Trio" music. Devil couldn't get the other two parts of the question however, so its up to you fans to go back to the post and see if you can. I'm still waiting for answers to my "Whom Dunnit?" trivia question by the way.

In other EK news, I've found some articles which you ought to go check out on other blogs. They are either about Ernie or mention him:

Paul ("The Comedy Tornado") Venier's Top Ten Favorite TV Shows

The Passionate Moviegoer's Article, "Lemon, Kovacs And Quine". It talks about Jack Lemon and Ernie Kovacs working on Richard Quine's films together. It's a great piece.

I also found an interesting post about "The Song Of The Nairobi Trio" which talks about the song under another title besides "Solfeggio," which was something I had not been aware of. (ED. NOTE 7/29/2010-THIS LINK NO LONGER WORKS)

That's all for today. Its been real folks.

ED. NOTE, DEC. 26TH, 2009:

The Museum Of Broadcast Communications in Chicago has their archives listed online so you can view the list. Some of these listings have a digital file accompanying them for viewing and ⁄ or listening.

"The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection"" is one of these. The file streams as the entire CD, one song played after the other. It is approximately 48 minutes in length.

To hear the file:

1. Visit this link and sign up. It’s free.
   
   
2. Once you login choose the "Radio" link, put Ernie Kovacs in "Keywords" and check the box at the bottom that says "Digital File Available". Then click submit. The archive listing along with a link to the file will then come up.

Most people who visit my EK sites know I don't usually promote online files because most of the time the person uploading them does not have permission to do so. Many times I'm sent emails with links to EK file downloads which I ignore and delete; this CD is no exception. My assumption here is that a broadcast museum is not just putting up clips without permission.