Word: sousa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Stars and Stripes Forever (20th Century-Fox) is a brassy movie based on the life of the late bandmaster and march king, John Philip Sousa. Inspired by Sousa's autobiography, Marching Along, the picture is a sketchy cinemusical rather than a fully orchestrated biography. Between booming Sousa marches, the movie depicts Sousa as a frustrated ballad writer who conducted the U.S. Marine Corps band (which he led under five Presidents -from Rutherford Hayes to Benjamin Harrison). In 1892 he formed his own band, which successfully toured the world. For musical variety, there are snatches from some of Sousa...
Decked out in beard and spectacles, Clifton Webb plays Sousa as a wry, rather pixyish personality. But the role gives ex-Dancer Webb an opportunity to do the two-step, which was introduced in 1890 to the strains of Sousa's Washington Post march. Stars and Stripes Forever hits a few sour notes in its long-winded dialogue stretches, but when it strikes up the band and plays the stuffing out of such rousing Sousa marches as Semper Fidelis and the title tune, it is a spirited show...
...consciousness style, come whimsical variations hinting at everything from Stravinsky to Gershwin to Bach. When he comes to his solo part, Brubeck picks a random theme and toys with it, reflectively trying it first on the white keys, then on the black, allowing traces of Mozart or John Philip Sousa to creep in. Then his eyes close, his head weaves, and the music settles into a firm idea and starts prancing up the keyboard...
...start, few of his big, set speeches were ever as effective as his short whistle-stop talks. Here Ike was in his element: half the town gathered at the depot, high-school bands playing John Philip Sousa, the kids excused from school excitedly scrambling over freight cars and station buildings for a better look. These talks were far from polished; Ike's grammar could be hair-raising. The correspondents on his campaign train gleefully kept score of his cliches; but Eisenhower somehow can get away with cliches. When he says "I love this land...
...question & answer column, the Paris newspaper France Soir was asked: "Would you tell me what the American national anthem is and by whom composed and at what epoch?" The paper's answer: "The American national anthem was composed at the end of the last century, by John Philip Sousa . . . was called The Stars and Stripes Forever...