Fibber McGee & Molly theme music change

[Espee]

The familiar theme music is replaced in the fall of '46-- then it comes back after a couple months. Were they just trying to freshen things up, or was there one of those broadcast music-rights disputes going on at the time?
The replacement music strikes me as a rather tuneless tune...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The 1941-46 theme was a piece composed by Billy Mills, with the military-themed title of "Wing to Wing." Possibly with the war over it was felt that the time for military themes was past -- but when the replacement didn't pan out, they decided to go back to it anyway.

The original theme for Fibber and Molly was a popular tune from 1925 called "Save Your Sorrows," which had to be dropped during the ASCAP contract dispute in 1941, but there was no such dispute going on in 1946. Mills was himself an ASCAP composer, and when he wrote the replacement theme, he couldn't copyright it until the dispute was over. He didn't get around to doing so until two years after the dispute ended, and "Wing to Wing," with military-themed lyrics added, became a minor success as a pop tune in 1943.

 

[emigran]

Ms Maine... You kill me... how on earth do you get all this stuff...????:eusa_clap

 

[Espee]

I read a statement that "Billy Mills is probably best-remembered as the wise-cracking orchestra leader on 'Fibber McGee & Molly'"... but I don't remember ever hearing him speak. I'm sure many of their shows I've heard, had been re-edited.
I've heard plenty of comedy-star-and-bandleader banter on other shows. In what years would I be most likely to hear Billy Mills wisecracks?

 

[LizzieMaine]

He was frequently used on air around 1941-42. For some reason, he called Fibber "Skimp."

 

[Espee]

Perhaps if I hadn't heard that theme associated with our funny friends, Fibber and Molly, a couple hundred times over the last forty years, I might be able to get a "patriotic" feeling from it.
Then again...

 

[Espee]

And during what years did Gale Gordon portray "Foggy" Williams, the weatherman?

 

[Espee]

I heard a couple Fibber shows from 1939-40 last week, so I tried to absorb "Save Your Sorrow (for Tomorrow.)" Then I listened to a few versions of the song on Youtube.
The next time I listened to a 1946 show, I realized that they played what LizzieMaine told us is "Wing to Wing" leading into the performer intros-- and a little bit of "Save Your Sorrow" immediately after that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

From the start of the show in 1935 up until about 1940, they'd also use a fragment of "Riding Around in the Rain" to segue from the first band number and Wilcox's opening commerical into the program proper. The original concept of the program was that Fibber and Molly were tourists on a cross-country motor trip, an idea which lasted for the first few months of the series before they settled down in Wistful Vista (Fibber won the house on a raffle ticket). "Riding Around In The Rain" as a secondary theme outlasted the "motor trip" concept by several years.

Foggy Williams was only featured for a brief window during the postwar years. Gale Gordon had just come back from the Coast Guard, and they wanted to give him a break from doing Mayor LaTrivia all the time. The character didn't particularly work out though because all he had was one good catchphrase: "Good day -- probably."

Here's the most obscure piece of Fibber memorablia you'll ever find -- Jim Jordan does a TV public service announcement for the AARP:

[video=youtube;lcD3AN2BcYM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcD3AN2BcYM[/video]

 

[Espee]

Ah well, the stuff finished falling from the closet much quicker than it ever did on radio...
I had the chance to attend Jim Jordan's day at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But I was not used to visiting Hollywood by then (although it's only 25 miles away) and it happened to be in December (so I pictured "huge crowds of shoppers... traffic.... parking problems...")
I was surprised to hear he was getting one-- even then, it seemed like there wasn't much chance at a star on the Walk for anyone who didn't have "something coming out that same week" and therefore, a company willing to spring for the fee-- for the publicity value.

 

[Espee]

The New Year's Eve 1946 show has Fred Waring and his Orchestra subbing for Fibber and Molly. Some lyrics are supplied for the "tuneless tune" which had temporarily become the McGee's theme:
We're gonna ride ride ride ride ride
We're gonna ride ride ride ride ride
We're gonna ride ride ride ride ride
We're gonna ride, ride, ride

 

[KayEn78]

I could not understand why the theme song changed for the Fall, 1946 broadcasts and then went back to Wing to Wing after the New Year 1947.

I read (I think it might've been in the Heavenly Days book that Gale Gordon played "Foggy" Williams the weatherman for a year because Mayor LaGuardia had recently passed away. Mayor LaTrivia's namesake was somewhat based on Mayor LaGuardia's name. Out of respect for the deceased New York mayor, Mayor LaTrivia "left" Wistful Vista for a year and in moves newcomer, "Foggy" Williams" the town weatherman.

It's fascinating to find out that what eventually became a radio program's "theme song", was in actuality a real song from the distant past. I did not know of the ASCAP dispute of the early '40s--so that's why the theme changed to the newly arranged and composed by Billy Mills, Wing to Wing.

Billy Mills made appearances in several FM&M episodes, especially before and during the war years. He called Fibber, Skimp, because of Fibber's short height, I think. For awhile there, I thought he called Fibber, Skip.

On another note, I wrote an article for the Nostalgia Digest Magazine about the life of Harlow Wilcox. While it has been accepted, I still do not know which issue it will be featured in. It may be awhile until I hear anything due to the limited space the magazine has as well as only coming up four times each year. It was fun doing all of the research for it and I found some interesting and valuable information.

I love listening to FM&M--it's one of my all-time favorite radio programs, aside from Dragnet and The Great Gildersleeve.

-Kristi