Errol is in the news today in an article about the also immortally great Glenn Miller, both of whom were voted number one male entertainer favorites at Asbury Park High School in 1939 – Miller for music, Flynn for film – assessments I’m sure were true throughout the country. Here’s the article, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra’s superlative version of “Along the Santa Fe Trail”, “intended for but never used for the 1940’s film The Santa Fe Trail.”
forbiddenmusic.org… (Note the reference to Erich Korngold’s famous music-critic father, Julius.)
— Tim
Oh GT that was sweet indeed, I cranked the volume up for that one. Thanks for sharing! Wonder why they ditched using it in the film….one of my EF favorites – between him and Ronnie “Scene Stealing” Reagan, eye candy central!
I don’t know why it was left out, TZ, but my guess is that, as good as it was, it may have been determined by the studio to have too much of a romanticized cowboy/country & western feel, more suited for a Roy Rogers film than a film about John Brown. In fact, to my ears, it has much of the musical feel of that song in Three Amigos where Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short are singing around the campfire in a sort of Sons of the Pioneers style.
Nevertheless, it was used contemporaneously at least once to promote the movie, when Bing Crosby sang it when Errol came on his Kraft Music Hall radio show. Here’s Bing’s version:
P.S. TZ. Did you forget to include Alan Hale and John Brown Massey in your “eye candy” list?!