Reel Beach: As Oscar night approaches, movies wouldn’t be the same without music

By BERNIE FLETCHER

“If music be the food of love play on.”
                                — Twelfth Night.

The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 10, and here’s hoping the late Robbie Robertson will win Best Original Score for Killers of the Flower Moon.

A film score helps elevate the mood of a scene and stirs emotions.

What would the movies be like without music? Imagine Jaws without the ominous tuba or Psycho without the screeching violins. Chariots of Fire almost inspired me to run along the beach.

There’s a new musical version of Mean Girls. It’s been 20 years since the original filmed on Balsam Road and at Malvern Collegiate (gym and talent show scenes). Instead of trying to make “fetch” happen, students have made music happen.

Music has always been a vital part of life at Malvern Collegiate, continuing a long tradition of excellence with “note-worthy” students such as piano prodigy Glenn Gould, opera star Teresa Stratas and jazz trombonist Russ Little, as well as director Norman Jewison.

The daughter of immigrants from Crete, Teresa Stratas grew up singing Greek songs in her parents’ restaurant. While Teresa was at Malvern in the 1950s the family lived on Main Street near Danforth Avenue, then on Brookside Drive.

The Malvern Collegiate yearbook entry for Teresa Stratas who attended the local high school in the 1950s.

Stratas made her first film at 22 in The Canadians (1961) where she sang This is Canada. She made other movies, including winning a Gemini Award for Under the Piano (1996), but her true love was opera.

Stratas had her professional opera debut in La Boheme in 1958 and was the lead soprano for the New York Metropolitan Opera for 36 years. She also starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s film La Traviata in 1982. She is now retired in Florida.

Russ Little lived on Glenmount Park Road not far from Stratas. He learned trombone and life lessons from Malvern’s head of music, the legendary Mr. George McRae.

Little became the musical director of television shows such as SCTV along with a renowned career with jazz band The Boss Brass.

Music plays a key role in Jewison’s films. La Boheme sets the theme in Moonstruck (1987, three Oscars) with scenes at “the Met.”

The late film director made two famous musicals, Fiddler on the Roof (1971, three Oscars) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).

Robbie Robertson isn’t the only Scarborough musician to venture into film and television. The Weeknd (West Hill Collegiate and Birchmount Park Collegiate) has one Oscar nomination for Original Song.

The Barenaked Ladies sang the theme for The Big Bang Theory and their songs such as One Week can be heard in a number of movies.

Jazz musician Jimmy Dale grew up near Pharmacy Avenue and the Danforth and became musical director of the Emmy-winning Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. His son, producer J. Miles Dale, won an Oscar for The Shape of Water (2017).

Even going back to the silent film era, movies usually had a musical accompaniment.

Percy Faith (1908-1976) got his start playing piano in the theatres along the Danforth. He went on to fame with huge hits such as The Theme from A Summer Place and has one Oscar nomination for Love Me or Leave Me (1955).

If Robertson wins the Academy Award, he will join Toronto composer Howard Shore who has three Oscars for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was Shore who suggested the name The Blues Brothers one night at Dan Aykroyd’s after-hours club on Queen Street East.

Robbie Roberston grew up in the Midland Avenue and Kingston Road area of southwest Scarborough.

Martin Scorsese collaborated closely with Robertson for 47 years ever since The Band’s farewell 1976 performance in The Last Waltz (1978), the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The famed director has dedicated Killers of the Flower Moon to his friend: “Robbie’s cultural heritage became more and more important to him the older he got…The score was a real cinematic experience.”

Scorsese told Variety, “I just miss Robbie, period, the friendship, the work, the tales he told, all of it. He lived his music. I lived my movies.”

Robertson’s music lives on… “You can find me somewhere down the crazy river.”