Photo
Images665 l to r - John Wayne, Troy Cory, Troy Cory
Jr., Troy and Rene Hall at Record Session, Troy,
Sylvester Levay, Ambros Seelos, Josie Cory, Troy
and Melvin Belli. Permission to use for News Media
and PR purposes) Feature
Story /
Excerpts
from Troy Cory Interview, about his early days in
Hollywood as a recording artist, and song
writer.
•
•
During my
Celebrity Scene Disney cover story interview with
TVI iPublisher / entertainer, Troy Cory . . . he
had a lot to say about . . . and then some,
regarding the historical aspects of Walt Disney's
contributions to telecommunications and the career
push Disney had given the Sherman Brothers that
helped launch their talent to Hollywood Musical
stardom. My first question to Troy was: What got
you started in Hollywood? TVInews
- SPECIATY RECORDS - HISTORY •
•
•
• "Of
course it was my father and mother, Oliver and
Priscilla Alden", stated Troy. The show biz stories
my mother told me about her life as a Kansas City
show girl, were truly intriguing. But the best of
them all, was the sad story about my grandfather,
Nathan B. Stubblefield, the inventor and patent
holder of the wireless telephone, that brought me
galloping to SHOW BIZ, says Troy, it was a story
that had a beginning, but no
ending."
•
• First of
all, I am truly grateful that I have been able for
four decades to participate in this fantastic
industry, to work with exciting and distinguished
men and women in the recording, television, stage,
and movie business. I loved mixing my Long Beach
high school and Pepperdine University studies with
record sessions and writing songs with the best of
them, like Jimmy Messina, (of Login & Messina
Fame), -- and "You've Got To Come Back." I loved
performing at Safeway store openings and doing 11
A.M. TV-shows with Chef Milani shows at ABC, while
collaborating with Sonny Bono and Larry Williams,
putting lyrics together for songs like: "Short Fat
Fanny, she got what Uncle John needs, oh . . .
baby!" and "Lost Balls in High Weeds."
•
• A decade
working in Hollywood and doing my night act with
Tip Tobin was punctuated as much by the birth of my
three sons and daughter with Dorothy Swafford, as
it was the birth of the song - "Little Pink Toe",
she co-authored with Bob Roberts. I loved working
with Sonny Bono and Art Rupe, the owner of
Specialty Records, which brought me galloping into
and loving the record business as I worked for and
partnered with songwriter/publisher, Bob
Roberts.
•
• And of
course, continued Troy, the most gratifying
experience in my life has been my 31 years working
with my wife, Josie Sigl-Cory -- to establish the
Vine Street Video Center, Video Record Albums of
America, VRA TelePlay Pictures, ChinaExpo and the
SMART-DAAF-NBS100 foundation. These companies are
now part of the greatest www.group of English and
non-English speaking people in the world. "We call
them our network of "living to work, xingTV
Internet crowd." The culture developed by each of
the companies can be defined within each name, now
existing on the land-line Wi-Fi established way
back when, in 1908.
• •
"But before entering the
1908 era," said Troy, "I better explain a little
bit about my early song writing days in Hollywood.
I first met hit song writers/record producers, Bob
Roberts, and Bob and Dick Sherman, of Disney Studio
fame, with "Mary Poppins", and their hit singles:
"Tall Paul",
"There's No
Fool Like A Young Fool" and "Jo-Jo The Dog Faced
Boy."
•
• "At
that time," continued Troy, "I was a recording
artist with Art Rupe's Specialty Records, and
collaborating with my comedy team partner, song
writer, Tip Tobin, Sonny Bono, and Dorothy Swafford
in the production of my next record album.
•
• The
day I met Bob Roberts was at a recording studio on
Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood. I was working with
Sonny and my arranger, trying to perfect a singing
style with my voice that would go along with the
rock-a-billy band, Sonny had hired to back me up.
•
• After
a few takes, our team hopelessly conceded, that the
sound would not fit my Crosby stylings into the
Fabian, Ricky Nelson sound Sonny was attempting to
get.
•
•
During the
break, Sonny introduced me to song writer Bob
Roberts, who said he had just the song I needed to
give me the hit sound we were reaching for, and to
postpone the session. Handing me the address of his
music publisher-partner Bob Sherman's office, he
left saying, "see ya later."
•
•
Cancelling
the record session, we walked across the street to
meet the two Bobs, Bob Roberts and Bob Sherman at
the Sherman Publishing office, located on the 2nd
or 3rd floor of the Sunset and Gower Building. "The
rest is history," said Troy, "Bob and Dick Sherman
explain as to what happened after that in their
book, "Walt's Time", 1954-1958, on pages 126
through 131, pictured
above."
•
• I was
on my own," writes Robert. . . these were the salad
days. With our college years behind us and Dick off
in the Army, we quite naturally went our separate
ways . . . but most of all, I did a lot of song
writing, with a talented fellow named Bob Roberts .
. . It was an exciting road to travel, filled with
twists and turns -- one of which, fortuitously,
would at last reunite me with my brother Dick . . .
so early in 1958, (we) set up a publishing house in
a little hole-in-the-wall office . . . (we) --
planned to publish anything commercial he or other
writers came up with.
•
• As
Dick, states, "in the late 1950s, many pop hits
were boys singing about girls of all shapes and
sizes, from "Skinny Minnie" to "Short Fat Fanny" to
"Long Tall Sally." Dick was thinking it might be
fun to turn the fad on its head and write a song a
girl could sing about a boy . . . thus it was Dick
-- who came up with the song title. "Tall
Paul."
•
• "This
is where I must have come in," says Troy, "I must
have arrived at Sherman's office about the same
time Dick did. I found Richard, and the man I just
met at the studio, Bob Roberts working on a song
called "Chalk On The Sidewalk." Dick was mentioning
his idea for "Tall Paul." We were all talking about
gimmick catchy titles, especially the ones Sonny
and Larry Williams had just written, recorded and
produced for Specialty Records, "You Bug Me Baby",
"Skinny Minnie" and "Short Fat Fanny". This was the
real thing, they were hashing out lyrics and tunes,
in the Roberts style, meaning, sing lyrics as fast
as the words were fed to them. By December of 1958,
"Tall Paul" hit the charts with the 15-year-old
Mouseketeer, Annette
Funicello.
•
•
"Taking the
cliche from the Shermans' book," 'it was a true
case of serendipity,' "Tall Paul" became the first
smash hit out of the Sunset-Gower office," says
Troy -- and the first of 36 songs written for
Annette. "It was the little ditty gimmick titles -
that came out of that office, that did it," says
Troy.
•
• "As
for 'Tall Paul,' -- and 'Chalk on the sidewalk'
combo," says Troy, "as the story goes, before 'Tall
Paul" became a hit by the Disney Mouseketeer, Bob
Roberts, became discouraged with the three-way
partnership and walked
out.
•
•
"After the
break-up," says Troy, "I worked very close with the
three former partners, as well as with Ralph Freed,
collaborating with them on: "There's No Fool Like A
Young Fool", "Torture", Rinky Roo Rah", "Little
Pink Toe", "Tender Are The Ties", "Suzy McGregor
for Warner Bros., Bingo, Mercury Records and Cinema
Prize."
•
•
During this
same period of time, some of the Sherman/Roberts
hit tunes include: "Money Mad Man", Three Hundred
and Sixty-Five Days", "Jo-Jo The Dog Faced Boy" and
"Beach Time."
•
•
Richard
Sherman, on stage at a recent October, Magic Castle
celebrity event remarked, that Troy was still
around during the time our Johnny Burnett hit,
"You're Sixteen" -- became number
one.
•
•
Several
years later, after being part of the Sunset/Gower
song writer / recording artist scenario laid out by
Bob Roberts, I saw the Shermans rise to fame and
fortune with Disney, and was always part of the Bob
Roberts musical scenario with his wife Sharon. Bob
died with a song in his
heart.
•
• It was
Bob Roberts who first hinted to me at Rosemont, in
Pasadena that; "the rulers
are forgotten unless they have had the forethought
to surround themselves with singers and agents,
poets and thinkers. The arts make the longest reach
toward permanence, create the most enduring
monuments, project the farthest, widest, deepest
influence of which human prescience and effort are
capable."
•
• It was
just recently that I discovered the quote that came
from Maxwell Anderson piece called "Whatever Hope
We Have." He wrote, "What hope there is for us lies
in our nascent arts, for if we are to be remembered
as more than a mass of people who lived and fought
wars and died, it is for our arts that we will be
remembered."
•
• "As you can see
Pete," before ending this subject matter, I must
remind you that the people I have been honored to
work with, have brought to me, an art form that has
undeniable produced works that will likely to last
for the ages, if we start to talk about it on the
Internet through our Smart90 portals."
•
• This is something in
which I can take great pride as an entertainer, and
as member of the scholarly academics I was trained
for, the legal and medical professions. And, we
should both soberly keep in mind that physicist,
Albert Einstein's mathematical formula for Energy,
E=mc2, could be the mathematical formula to explain
entertainment business fads. Entertainment = Money
and Cash times 2.
•
• But getting back to
TVI's person of the week, Walt Disney, and the
Sherman Brothers, the art form they have created in
the past, was at one time - just "a concept", now
the concept is a finished product, a content with
so much value, that the names, "Mickey Mouse", and
"Mary Poppins" -- have in themselves, become works
of value.
Part
3. Editor's Note /
According To IDMb
data base for ROBERT
B. SHERMAN, Composer - filmography -
The
pop song written in the 1960s and 1970 with Bob
Roberts/Troy Cory Record Sessions are mentioned in
Editor's
Byline.
•
•
(2000s) (1990s) (1980s) (1970s) (1960s)
(1950s)
•
•
1. Bewitched (2005) (song
"'Bout
Time")
•
•
2. War of the Worlds (2005)
(song "Hushabye Mountain" from film "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang") (as Richard
Sherman)
•
•
3. Disneyland: The First 50
Magical Years (2005)
(uncredited)
•
•
4. Pooh's Heffalump Movie
(2005) (song "Winnie the
Pooh")
•
•
5. Around the World in 80
Days (2004) (song "It's A Small
World")
•
•
6. Piglet's Big Movie (2003)
(song "Winnie the
Pooh")
•
•
7. Kingdom Hearts (2002)
(VG) (song "Winnie the Pooh") (uncredited) -- aka
Kingudamu hâtsu
(Japan)
•
•
8. The Tigger Movie (2000)
(songs) -- aka Tigger: The
Movie
•
•
9. Winnie the Pooh: Seasons
of Giving (1999) (V) (songs) -- aka Disney's Winnie
the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (USA: complete
title)
•
•
10. Michelle Kwan Skates to
Disney's Greatest Hits (1999) (TV)
(songs)
•
•
11. The Mighty Kong (1998)
(V)
(songs)
•
•
12. My Interactive Pooh
(1998) (VG) (songs)
Robert
Sherman Filmography as: Composer,
Miscellaneous Crew,
Writer, Actor, Producer, Himself
Miscellaneous Crew - filmography •
•(1980s) (1970s)
(1960s) •
•
1. Winnie the Pooh and a Day
for Eeyore (1983) (lyricist)
-- aka A Day for Eeyore
(USA: short
title)
•
•
2. The Many Adventures of
Winnie the Pooh (1977)
(lyricist)
•
•
3. Snoopy Come Home (1972)
(lyricist)
•
•
4. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
(1971) (lyricist) --
aka Bedknobs and
Broomsticks: 25th Anniversary Special Edition (USA:
longer
version)
•
•
5. A Boy Called Nuthin'
(1967) (TV)
(lyricist)
•
•
6. Mary Poppins (1964)
(lyricist)
We Preserve The
Moment Yes90
tviNews S90
•
TVInews
- 1107 - Celebrity Scene with Pete Allman.
Excerpts from Troy Cory Interview, about
his early days in Hollywood as a recording
artist, and song
writer.
•
Photo
Images665 Casey Kasem, Troy Cory, Tip
Tobin, Sonny Bono, Rene Hall, Jerry
Wallace, Bob Roberts, Josie Cory.
/
Television
International Magazine's Person Of The
Week POWeek •
432005
- /
NEWS
Convergence - 43rd Week of 2005
/
Feature
Story 4. Bylines / Troy Cory - Pete Allman
Interview
•
107TroyCoryShermans.htm
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•
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