Sunday, October 9th, 2011
KHCD-ST007 (MONO) – Eleven Against The Ice – Soundtrack from the 1957 NBC-TV Special – Music by Kenyon Hopkins – “Eleven Against the Ice” was an NBC-TV Color Special documentary broadcast in September 1957. The show followed 11 men who trailed the 640 mile safe route across the Antarctic to build the original Byrd Station. Operation Deep Freeze was an annual mission from 1956 to 1969 for geophysical scientists and topographic personnel of the National Science Foundation in Antarctica in remote areas of the South Pole.The soundtrack for the show was scored by Kenyon Hopkins (1912-1983) and released as a mono LP on RCA LPM-1618 in 1958. Some of the score is variations on a song, “Ballad of the Cowboy-Sailor” with lyrics by Robert Emmett Ginna (sung by Jimmy Simmons). Kenyon Hopkins remains one of the most unrepresented score composers on CD, and his mostly jazz influenced scores remain prized collectibles. An excellent-condition LP was used for this transcription, and was produced by customer request.
I am currently working on 3 more Kenyon Hopkins scores; “East Side-West Side”, from the classic 1964 TV series with George C. Scott (on a Columbia stereo LP); “The Yellow Canary”, from the 1963 20th Century/Fox movie starring Pat Boone and Barbara Eden (on a mono Verve LP); and “The Strange One”, from the 1957 Columbia Pictures movie starring Ben Gazzara (on a mono Coral LP, a challenge to restore!)
More coming – Cheers – Curt Timmons
and “The Strange One”