“Wistful Vista”

“Just some old time radio… bet that no one remembers about closet… always over-stuffed with too much stuff”

 

The King’s Men (vocal group)

Led and with musical arrangements by Ken Darby (1909-1992), the King’s Men (tenors Bud Linn and Jon Dodson, baritone Rad Robinson, and Darby singing bass) joined the Fibber show in 1940 to sing mostly novelty numbers and, during the war, patriotic songs. They also backed Jerry Colonna in some of the memorable Disney cartoons based on American folk ballads (“Casey Jones” and “Casey at the Bat”) while Darby was choral arranger and musical director at Disney.

The quartet was formed by Darby in 1928 as The Ramblers, Robinson replacing original baritone Joseph Galkin in 1929. They were renamed the King’s Men during a stint at Hollywood station KFWB and sang at various stations in the area until an offer of stage appearances with Paul Whiteman prompted a move to New York. From there, they were featured on several network programs, including their own NBC show in 1936. They returned to Hollywood in 1938.

The group was heard on the soundtrack of several films, some as early as 1929, and appeared onscreen in several Hopalong Cassidy movies and 1938’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band.

Darby was also a composer, creating the musical arrangement of “The Night Before Christmas” that became an annual Christmas presentation on FM&M and was released as part of a Fibber and Molly 78 rpm album for Capitol. In addition to his Disney work, which lasted from 1941-48, he supervised the music for several films at 20th Century Fox, including Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe films. He also shared three Oscars for scoring films with the legendary Alfred Newman, the fruits of a twenty-three-year association; later in life, he would establish the Alfred Newman Memorial Library at USC and assemble a symphonic cantata (Man of Galilee) from Newman’s scoring of Biblical movies. He also created the sped-up Munchkin voices for The Wizard of Oz, and performed the voice of the Munchkinland Mayor.

“A long time ago… there was a house for sale in Crestwood, Missouri…  with  the same address that was used  for  the  “McGee'” house on their radio show… I looked at it… liked it… and almost bought it…just now  giving  that idea… a second thought… would I have like it or not?”


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