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When we think of the great depression of the 1930s, the images which may spring to mind – The Grapes of Wrath, the dustbowl songs of Woody Guthrie – are generally from the 1940s. Popular entertainment of the thirties leaned not on realism, but on escapism. This is the golden age, not only of Hollywood musicals, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers, Busby Berkley routines and screwball comedy, but also of horror movies. So who better to guide us into this mix of Halloween music than Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula from 1931, released the same year as Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and James Whale’s Frankenstein, and a year before the first appearance of The Mummy. Aside from the film clips, we naturally have plenty of novelty recordings, original sound effect records, hot jazz, and to close a suite of particularly morbid blues records.
Track listing
00:00 Bela Lugosi – Clip from Dracula (1931)
00:02 Gennett Sound Effects – Rainfall and Thunder (1936)
(Clip from Frankenstein – 1931)
00:44 Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski – Toccata and Fugue in D minor (1927)
01:26 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra – Nightmare (1938)
(Clip from Dracula – 1931)
04:20 Borrah Minnevitch – The Ghost Walk (1933)
06:40 Manny Gould and Ben Harrison – Scrappy’s Ghost Story (1935)
07:51 Five Jones Boys – Mr Ghost Goes To Town (1936)
10:43 Putney Dandridge – Skeleton In The Closet (1936)
(Clip from Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf)
13:19 Prairie Ramblers – Ghost in the Graveyard (1938)
(HMV Weather Effects – Wind – 1935)
15:59 New Mayfair Dance Orchestra – The Haunted House (1931)
(Clip from The Shadow – Circle of Death – 1937)
19:32 Raymond Scott – War Dance For Wooden Indians (1937)
(Clip from The Mummy – 1932)
21:59 Truett & George – Ghost Dance (1927)
(Clip from Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 1931)
(Clip from Mediale Musik – The Speech Of Ancient Egypt, 18th Dynasty – 1938)
24:55 Washboard Rhythm Kings – Call Of The Freaks (1931)
(Clip from Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 1931)
27:50 Victor Arden, Phil Ohman, & their Orchestra – Dancing the Devil Away (1930)
(Clip from Reverend Johnny Blakey – Warming By The Devil’s Fire – 1928)
31:07 Fletcher Henderson – Hotter Than ‘ell (1934)
(Clip from Island of Lost Souls – 1932)
34:01 Rev. A.W. Nix – Black Diamond Express to Hell (1927)
34:41 Cab Calloway – The Nightmare (1931)
(Clip from Murders in the Zoo – 1933)
(Clip from Tomatoes Another Day – 1930)
37:27 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra – Here Comes The Bogey Man (1932)
(Clip from The Old Dark House – 1932)
40:39 Bertha Idaho – Graveyard Love (1928)
(Clip from Vampyr – 1932)
44:02 Skip James – Devil Got My Woman (1931)
(Clip from Bride of Frankenstein – 1935)
47:08 Victoria Spivey – Blood Thirsty Blues (1928)
(Clip from Gennett Sound Effects – Night Noises – 1936)
(Clip from The Shadow – Circle of Death – 1937)
50:30 Josh White – Blood Red River (1933)
(Clip from The Old Dark House – 1932)
53:46 Joe Mccoy – Evil Devil Woman Blues (1934)
(HMV Weather Effects – Wind – 1935)
(Clip from The Shadow – Circle of Death – 1937)
56:59 Walter Page – Blue Devil Blues (1930)
(Clip from Gennett Sound Effects – Rainfall and Thunder – 1936)
(Clip from King Kong – 1933)
