Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 April 18

= April 18 =

Gummo Marx
Are any video recordings of Gummo Marx known to exist? I know he was never in any movies, but did he ever get recorded doing comedy on video at all? If not, are there any known audio recordings of his voice? If there are no recordings of him at all, are there any sources available that can be used to get an idea of his comedic style?--99.251.239.89 (talk) 02:12, 18 April 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't think so, because his involvement in show business as a performer went no further than the Broadway stage, and obviously there would be no video or audio recordings of Broadway performances in the 1920s. Well, not that many if there were any. 24.189.90.68 (talk) 02:48, 18 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Gummo was on NBC's Monitor on October 5, 1963, and an audio of that survives. You can listen to it here. Gummo speaks briefly somewhere about 25 minutes in. On February 18, 1957, Gummo was interviewed, probably by Jack Lescoulie, on Tonight! America After Dark. However, I ran across nothing indicating any kinescope of that exists. Pepso2 (talk) 15:09, 18 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Excellent. The clip begins with "Happy Birthday". Don't let WB hear about this! It's followed by "Alone", from A Night at the Opera, in case anyone wonders. Zeppo tells Groucho "Happy Birthday" at about 22:30, Gummo at about 22:50, and at about 23:00 Harpo plays "Happy Birthday" on the harp (Look out! Here comes WB again!) Chico had died in 1961. At that point in time Gummo has a fairly deep voice and sounds a lot like Groucho. The narrator is Jim Lowe. Don't recognize the name, but the voice sounds vaguely familiar. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:57, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know why you've got a such a bee in your bonnet about the happy birthday song. Why wouldn't you assume that NBC payed the appropriate royalties? Paying royalties for songs performed on a broadcast is a perfectly normal and routine thing to do. APL (talk) 14:47, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Father of the Concert Overture
Who was the father of the concert overture? This was a question in a practice exam, but I can't seem to find it on the internet and there are no answers.

Thanks in advance, 110.174.151.109 (talk) 10:15, 18 April 2010 (UTC)


 * A practice exam without answers seems rather useless. StuRat (talk) 13:39, 18 April 2010 (UTC)


 * If you check concert overture, you'll read that Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture is generally considered the first concert overture, even though Carl Maria von Weber had written a couple of them earlier than that. Go figure.
 * As for the "father of the concert overture", I've never heard of such a title and, as you say, Google knows it not either, so you can take your pick. --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   19:47, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * If this is a practice exam, is it safe to assume that there is a text that the exam is based on? If so, I would consult the text to see who the author(s) feel is the father of concert overture.  Dismas |(talk) 23:58, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Joseph Haydn is known as the father of the symphony and father of the string quartet, well by the kind of people who say that kind of thing. Neither List of persons considered father or mother of a field, List of persons considered a founder in a Humanities field or Honorific nicknames in popular music mention the concert overture. A quick search names Giuseppe Torelli, Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi as fathers of the concerto.  meltBanana  01:01, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

It was a question in Dulcie Holland's Practice your Theory book, and I asked it because I did think it was Mendelssohn but my theory teacher says it possibly was Beethoven (she didn't know the answer either) as he gave a few separate concerts of his overtures. 110.174.151.109 (talk) 09:30, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Beethoven did write some concert overtures before either Weber or Mendelssohn, and I'm not even sure he was the first. Even Bach wrote works he called "overtures" that weren't associated with any opera or play, but they weren't the same types of things we call 'concert overtures'.  Still, I'm really wondering quite seriously now at the veracity of that statement about Mendelssohn and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   12:17, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * It may be that there really is no definitive answer, and the exam setters know this, but want you to display your knowledge of the field by either presenting an informed argument for a candidate of your choice, or saying that there is no definitive answer and explaining why. The exam paper should make it clear if the answer is intended to be short (merely a name) or an essay. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 12:41, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This discussion reminds me of Peter Ustinov's anecdote of how a test he was given as a schoolboy asked him to name a famous Russian composer. He answered "Shostakovitch", but 'the correct answer was "Tchaikovsky"'. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 09:00, 20 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Slight correction of detail: ... he took a test as a child which asked him to name a Russian composer; he wrote "Rimsky-Korsakov" but was marked down, told the correct answer was "Tchaikovsky" since they had been studying him in class, and told to stop showing off. --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   21:11, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Early Family Guy
Why are the first four episodes of Family Guy named after something death-related (eg, "Death Has a Shadow", "I Never Met the Dead Man") when they have absolutely nothing to do with death, or for that matter Death (the character)?  2D Backfire Master  ballroom blitz 13:07, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Your answer is right in the third section of the article Family Guy:
 * "'In interviews and on the DVD commentary of season one, MacFarlane explained that he is a fan of 1930s and 1940s radio programs, particularly the radio thriller anthology 'Suspense', which led him to give early episodes ominous titles pertaining to death and murder like 'Death Has a Shadow' and 'Mind Over Murder'. MacFarlane later explained that the team dropped the naming convention after individual episodes became hard to identify and the novelty wore off.'"
 * In the future, please Google or try to find the relevant article before asking a question. Xenon54 / talk / 13:26, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This advice can apply to every question, and is posted at the top of the page. Let's give our OP the benefit of the doubt and assume they tried that unsuccessfully.  Not everyone is good at using search engines effectively. Aaronite (talk) 17:22, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It's a bit more diplomatic to ask them if they've tried such-and-such than to lecture them about what they "should have done". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:31, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
 * There was no lecture, simply a request. The first editor to mention what others "should have done" was you, Bugs.  --  202.142.129.66 (talk) 22:58, 20 April 2010 (UTC)