My Little Margie (sitcom, starring Gale Storm and Charles
Farrell)
(CBS, Jun-Sept 1952;
NBC, Oct-Nov 1952;
CBS, Jun-July 1953;
NBC, Sept 1953 - Aug 1955;
Syndicated)
[This cheery little series began as a summer replacement for
"I Love Lucy" -- a situation that would traditionally mean the
kiss of death. The critics universally thought it had no chance
to last. But the public responded quite favorably, despite its
history of jumping around between CBS and NBC.
The series featured the irrepressible Gale Storm in the role of
Margie Albright, a young woman living in a high-rise apartment,
whose widowed father -- played by Charles Farrell -- was a
financial advisor by day, and a sort of bon vivant by night;
Daughter Margie always seemed to get herself mixed up in some
adventure that ended up quite messy, initiated by a kindly
elderly neighbor lady across the apartment hallway; The neighbor
character was named Mrs. Odetts, and was played on television
by character actress Gertrude W. Hoffman; Gale Storm said in
an interview for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
that the actress who played Mrs. Odetts was in reality a very
cultured lady "who didn't understand the jazzy phrases" that
writers gave her in the script. When Gale would explain their
true meaning, the actress would take such delight in learning
them that it gave her performance a twinkle "like an ingenue."
This fit in perfectly with her naive character which was often
trying to break out of her sheltered life, and have a little
bit of fun that would invariably get them both into big trouble.
According to actress Gale Storm, the character of Margie was
someone who always tried perhaps too hard to help -- to fix
things even if they didn't need fixing. And when Margie found
herself at the point of no return in some plot with Mrs. Odetts,
Margie would make a guttural sound to indicate big trouble. The
cast nicknamed this sound "the Margie gurgle";
This evolved when actress Gale Storm instinctively added it to her
performance one time, and everyone on the set laughed. So the
writers added "the Margie gurgle" to all the episodes after that.
Usually Margie's dad played by Charlie Farrell had to explain
away the messy circumstances in which Margie found herself to his
stuffy boss, Mr. Honeywell, played by Clarence Kolb. But every
episode resolved things by the end. And the closing scene of
every episode was a two-person portrait in a desk picture frame.
The portrait of Margie's dad would "come to life" and look
into the camera and say with a shrug, "Well, that's 'My Little
Margie'" and then his face would freeze-frame into the picture
frame portrait with his daughter looking fondly up at him.
This Roland Reed Production was produced at Hal Roach Studios.
When the TV series became successful, CBS asked for the show
to be added to its radio network. This was unusual -- usually a
series moved from radio to television, not the other way around.
The lead actors Gale Storm and Charles Farrell acted in the
radio production, which they performed on Sundays; but for
some reason, CBS hired different supporting players than on
the TV series.]
Theme: Little M. Fanfares, and "Bows and
Strings..." from the "Structural Music" library
[aka: "My Little Margie Theme";
aka: "Bows and Strings In Teasing";
aka: "Ballerina's Caprice";
Originally the main melody was a secondary theme in a Cue called
"Bows and Strings In Teasing" from the 1946 Republic Studios
motion picture, "The French Key". It is thought that fact that
English was Laszlo's second language is the reason for this
rather stilted title.
This same melody was recycled as part of Alexander Laszlo's
"Structural Music" library, in which he recycled his cues from
films for use on television, and the motif was expanded in
several related cues which appear in the library...
This original cue as used in the film, also made an appearance
in another Laszlo library called "Guild-Universal Production
Aids" distributed by the Armed Forces Radio Service, where the
cue was named "Ballerina's Caprice"...
Cues related musically in the Structural Music library:
"Endless Melody", Volume 3, #351 -- harmonically related
"Jocose Bridge", Volume 3, #352 -- stylistically related
"Bows and Strings In Teas'g", Volume 6, #15x07;
-- the original cue -- 7th cue in the 15th movie
which Laszlo scored, "The French Key" --
"Little M. Fanfare A", Volume 24, #577-A;
"Little M. Fanfare B", Volume 24, #577-B;
"Bows - Strings M. T." (Main Title), Volume 24, #578;
"Bows - Strings Freeze (first version)", Volume 24, #579;
"Bows - Strings Freeze (second version)", Volume 24, #580;
"Bows - Strings Freeze (third version)", Volume 24, #581;
"Little M. Tail End A", Volume 24, #582-A;
"Little M. Tail End B", Volume 24, #582-B;
"Little M. Tail End C", Volume 24, #582-C;
"Bows - Strings Credit Big Finish", Volume 24, #583;
"Bows - Strings End Credit" w/"Coda Version A", Volume 24, #584-A;
"Bows - Strings End Credit" w/"Coda Version B", Volume 24, #584-B;
"Bows - Strings End Credit" w/"Coda Version C", Volume 24, #584-C;
"Bows - Strings Act End", Volume 26, #648]
Composer: Alexander Laszlo (ASCAP)
[professional name of Sandor Totis]
Original Publisher: Guild Publications of Calif., Inc. (ASCAP)
of Los Angeles, CA
Later Publisher of cues: Alexander Publications (ASCAP)
o/b/o The Regents of the University of California
of Oakland, CA
Copyright Date(s): Volume 6 -- May 23, 1951, on photocopy of
sketch/score of "Bows & Strings In Teasing",
"My Little Margie Theme"; EP 55 026.
Volume 24 -- Dec. 30, 1953; EP 77 259.
Volume 26 -- April 23, 1954; EP 79 806.
Renewal Date:
Recordings:
[original version with the melody only heard briefly
as a secondary theme, as in the film...]
From the "Guild-Universal Production Aids" library
of 78-rpm records...
Side PA-66/Cut 2: "Ballerina's Caprice"
CD - "Television's Greatest Hits (Vol. 4):
Black and White Classics" (1996)
TVT Records TVT 1600-2
[Unfortunately TVT Records attempt to recreate
this theme falls woefully short -- the melody
was not even accurately transcribed...]
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