365 Days #66 - Ramon Novarro - Long Ago in Alcala (mp3s)

MP3:
Ramon Novarro - Long Ago in Alcala (2:52)

For those of you who thought celebrity recordings originated with the (excellent) Golden Throats recordings, you are sadly mistaken. Vanity recordings go back, WAY back, to even the stars of the silent era! Rudolph Valentino, Joan Crawford, and yes, Gloria Swanson tried their best at singing, most with very middling results.

But this is a great exception, the somewhat-forgotten-today silent star Ramon Novarro (he competed with Valentino for parts) only put 4 songs to record, this song, "Long Ago In Alcala" is probably the most amazing, here, the star of the first Ben-Hur belts out a song about a sailor and his love, I think, because this song just goes a million miles an hour, with Navarro leading like the pro that he is.

- Contributed by: Bill Taylor

Comments

[Grant]

When I read that this song was about a sailor and his love, it reminded me that Novarro, as an older, faded actor, used to have young men up to his home, ending with him being beaten to death with a dildo.

[Andre]

Actually, there was no dildo. That was an invented (and quite nasty) story.

"Long Ago in Alcala" was supposed to have been used in a 1930 MGM variety musical called "The March of Time." With musicals out of fashion at that time -- the market had been (temporarily) saturated -- production was halted. Novarro's number never surfaced (on film) in the U.S., but it was included in a 1931 German-language MGM production named "Wir Schalten um auf Hollywood."

Ah, Novarro and Valentino never competed for parts (though Valentino was producer/scenarist June Mathis's initial choice for "Ben-Hur"). Novarro was a Metro (later MGM) star. By the time Novarro arrived on the scene, Valentino had left Metro and was working for -- when not fighting with -- Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount.