Secret Voices of Hollywood

0:00:02 > 0:00:06Hollywood musicals have been loved by generations.

0:00:06 > 0:00:11To be able to see those wonderful pictures and wonderful performers...

0:00:11 > 0:00:15Magic. That's what the business is about - magic.

0:00:16 > 0:00:19In the great musicals, you're so swept up in the story, that

0:00:19 > 0:00:25takes you into a kind of a playful, joyous, carefree, poignant place.

0:00:26 > 0:00:28But many songs in the most famous musicals

0:00:28 > 0:00:31were not sung by the stars themselves.

0:00:32 > 0:00:36Their voices were secretly replaced.

0:00:36 > 0:00:39She could dance, she could act. It would take something away to say,

0:00:39 > 0:00:43"Oh, by the way, she can't sing. We put somebody else's voice in there."

0:00:43 > 0:00:47The studios wanted you to believe that Rita Hayworth could sing.

0:00:47 > 0:00:51This is the way you made movie musicals - you dubbed.

0:00:52 > 0:00:56Some stars were not told that their voices would be removed.

0:00:58 > 0:01:01I was even told that she went to the premiere thinking that

0:01:01 > 0:01:04she was going to hear her voice, and didn't.

0:01:04 > 0:01:07Ultimately, Natalie Wood was furious.

0:01:08 > 0:01:12A number of big stars have never forgiven the film studios.

0:01:14 > 0:01:16You have to get over stuff like that.

0:01:16 > 0:01:18I don't know that I ever really have!

0:01:18 > 0:01:22The secret singers were not allowed to go public.

0:01:22 > 0:01:24I was scared to death because

0:01:24 > 0:01:28I was sure that if I did that, they would never use me again.

0:01:31 > 0:01:35For decades, this was the hidden secret behind many

0:01:35 > 0:01:38of Hollywood's best-known musicals.

0:01:38 > 0:01:41There were seven Von Trapp children in the film

0:01:41 > 0:01:45but there were 11 of us in front of the recording mic.

0:01:45 > 0:01:49You could say that audiences were cheated or you could

0:01:49 > 0:01:52say they got the best of both worlds.

0:01:52 > 0:01:54Now the stories of the stars

0:01:54 > 0:01:56and their secret singers can be told in full.

0:01:58 > 0:02:02# Shall we dance?

0:02:02 > 0:02:05# On a bright cloud of music

0:02:05 > 0:02:07# Shall we fly? #

0:02:07 > 0:02:09It's all... It's all me.

0:02:20 > 0:02:22In the late 1920s,

0:02:22 > 0:02:26a technological breakthrough revolutionised Hollywood.

0:02:28 > 0:02:32October 6th, 1927.

0:02:32 > 0:02:35The Warner Brothers bring sound to the movies.

0:02:35 > 0:02:40They release The Jazz Singer, starring Broadway idol Al Jolson.

0:02:40 > 0:02:42The picture is a sensation,

0:02:42 > 0:02:46and Jolson becomes Hollywood's first great musical star.

0:02:46 > 0:02:51# ..When you're in love... #

0:02:51 > 0:02:55The era of the silent movie was over.

0:02:55 > 0:02:58Tinseltown had begun to talk.

0:02:58 > 0:03:00It changed everything.

0:03:00 > 0:03:03You could now for the first time have movies that sang

0:03:03 > 0:03:06and danced and told jokes in a way you never could.

0:03:07 > 0:03:11And it took a while for Hollywood to figure out how to do it properly,

0:03:11 > 0:03:14but the Hollywood myth-making factory

0:03:14 > 0:03:17took the American musical theatre up to another level and of course was

0:03:17 > 0:03:20able to send it all around the world.

0:03:20 > 0:03:25The plot of an all-time classic movie musical released in 1952

0:03:25 > 0:03:29pays homage to how the talkies paved the way for ghost singing.

0:03:30 > 0:03:32# Singin' in the rain

0:03:32 > 0:03:34# Just singin' in the rain

0:03:34 > 0:03:36# What a glorious feeling

0:03:36 > 0:03:38# We're happy again... #

0:03:38 > 0:03:43Singin' In The Rain is an absolutely fascinating musical

0:03:43 > 0:03:46because it's a film about making films.

0:03:46 > 0:03:51It's a film about sort of the birth of the sound industry

0:03:51 > 0:03:54that's recreating this mythology

0:03:54 > 0:03:57of the way in which the musical film was born.

0:03:57 > 0:03:59Hold it, Dexter!

0:03:59 > 0:04:01Mr Simpson, we're nearly rolling.

0:04:01 > 0:04:03- Yeah, well, you can stop rolling at once.- Huh?!- Don, Lina...

0:04:03 > 0:04:05- HE SHOUTS:- All right, everybody, save it!

0:04:05 > 0:04:09The studio in this story makes silent movies.

0:04:09 > 0:04:13The boss is sent into a panic by the success of The Jazz Singer.

0:04:13 > 0:04:14Yeah, what's the matter, RF?

0:04:14 > 0:04:17The Jazz Singer, that's what's the matter. The Jazz Singer.

0:04:17 > 0:04:19# Oh, my darling little mammy Down in Alabamy... #

0:04:19 > 0:04:21No, this is no joke, Cosmo, it's a sensation.

0:04:21 > 0:04:25- The public is screaming for more. - More what?- Talking pictures...

0:04:25 > 0:04:28So their latest film is reinvented as a musical.

0:04:28 > 0:04:30I told you talking pictures were a menace

0:04:30 > 0:04:32but no-one would listen to me.

0:04:32 > 0:04:34Don, we're going to put our best feet forward.

0:04:34 > 0:04:37We're going to make The Duelling Cavalier into a talking picture!

0:04:37 > 0:04:42The musicals' male star is Don Lockwood, played by Gene Kelly.

0:04:42 > 0:04:45But Lockwood's glamorous co-star Lina Lamont -

0:04:45 > 0:04:50played by Jean Hagen - has a voice that would strip wallpaper.

0:04:50 > 0:04:54So Lamont is sent for an elocution lesson.

0:04:54 > 0:04:59She comes into this scene with Kathleen Freeman, who says to her,

0:04:59 > 0:05:03"All right, dear, you know, let's...let's get started."

0:05:03 > 0:05:07Tah-tay-tee-toe-too.

0:05:08 > 0:05:12HIGH-PITCHED: Tah-tay-tee-toe-too.

0:05:12 > 0:05:18And I remember very clearly the assistant director saying,

0:05:18 > 0:05:21"All right, everybody, we're going to shoot this now.

0:05:21 > 0:05:24"Now, this is a very funny scene and I don't want anybody laughing!"

0:05:25 > 0:05:27Can't.

0:05:27 > 0:05:29Cah-n't.

0:05:29 > 0:05:31Ca-a-an't.

0:05:31 > 0:05:32Cah-n't!

0:05:32 > 0:05:36The general public thought it would be wonderful if they could

0:05:36 > 0:05:40hear their stars, their favourite silent film stars, speak, but

0:05:40 > 0:05:43it would be absolutely magnificent if they could hear them sing.

0:05:43 > 0:05:44Well, not all of them could speak

0:05:44 > 0:05:47and certainly many of them couldn't sing.

0:05:50 > 0:05:53In the late '20s, the ever-inventive dream factory developed

0:05:53 > 0:05:57a technology that could be used to replace the songs

0:05:57 > 0:06:00of vocally challenged stars.

0:06:00 > 0:06:03It was called playback.

0:06:03 > 0:06:07It's very, very hard to get a legible recording of someone

0:06:07 > 0:06:12singing live with a musical accompaniment, particularly while

0:06:12 > 0:06:16they're dancing, moving around a set, shifting between shots.

0:06:16 > 0:06:21So it's technologically necessary to record the music beforehand and

0:06:21 > 0:06:25have the actors sort of mould their bodies to that existing soundtrack.

0:06:27 > 0:06:32Then the studios realised they could replace one voice with another.

0:06:32 > 0:06:36Technically, you could, because of sound, dub in voices.

0:06:36 > 0:06:37You could ghost voices.

0:06:40 > 0:06:44Ghost singing becomes part of Singin' In The Rain's plot.

0:06:45 > 0:06:49The studio decide that Lina Lamont will be ghosted by a singer

0:06:49 > 0:06:52called Kathy, played by Debbie Reynolds.

0:06:52 > 0:06:56But there were issues with Reynolds' voice.

0:06:56 > 0:07:00The teenage actress could not manage all the songs.

0:07:00 > 0:07:04# ..My lucky charms

0:07:04 > 0:07:08# I'm lucky... #

0:07:08 > 0:07:10Debbie Reynolds could sing, there was no question,

0:07:10 > 0:07:14and casting her made sense, but one song called "Would You?" was

0:07:14 > 0:07:19an operetta song - extremely high, not at all in her range.

0:07:19 > 0:07:24This is Debbie Reynolds' audio recording of "Would You?"

0:07:24 > 0:07:28# They met as you and I

0:07:28 > 0:07:34# And they were only friends... #

0:07:34 > 0:07:36Debbie Reynolds, bless her,

0:07:36 > 0:07:39has a thin, kind of, reedy voice, which is not

0:07:39 > 0:07:44the kind of voice that would make Jean Hagen's image sound romantic.

0:07:46 > 0:07:50So Debbie Reynolds, who was playing a ghost singer in the movie,

0:07:50 > 0:07:54eventually had her own voice ghosted by this singer, Betty Noyes.

0:07:54 > 0:07:58They called in several other singers, nobody got it right.

0:07:58 > 0:08:04They finally, finally got around to calling her. She went in

0:08:04 > 0:08:07and just aced it, did it perfectly.

0:08:07 > 0:08:11# He holds her in his arms

0:08:11 > 0:08:14# Would you?

0:08:14 > 0:08:16# Would you? #

0:08:16 > 0:08:21That particular song really had to be the highest standard,

0:08:21 > 0:08:26and my mother was just more mature and was able to pull it off.

0:08:26 > 0:08:29And I hope Debbie Reynolds was happy with it.

0:08:29 > 0:08:33# They met as you and I

0:08:33 > 0:08:38# And they were only friends... #

0:08:38 > 0:08:42What you have is Betty Noyes dubbing for Debbie Reynolds,

0:08:42 > 0:08:44who is dubbing for Jean Hagen.

0:08:44 > 0:08:47This gets so convoluted that it's almost surreal,

0:08:47 > 0:08:51and on the set, it must have seemed the strangest thing.

0:08:51 > 0:08:54The irony was so delicious.

0:08:54 > 0:08:57It was... Oh, God, I love that movie.

0:08:57 > 0:09:00# I'm singin' in the rain

0:09:00 > 0:09:03# Just singin' in the rain... #

0:09:03 > 0:09:06Singin' In The Rain has become one of the most successful

0:09:06 > 0:09:09and popular musicals in Hollywood history.

0:09:09 > 0:09:11# Good mornin'

0:09:11 > 0:09:13# We've talked the whole night through

0:09:13 > 0:09:17# Good mornin' Good mornin' to you. #

0:09:17 > 0:09:20There was a tremendous feeling on the set of Singin' In The Rain

0:09:20 > 0:09:22that it was going to be a winner.

0:09:22 > 0:09:24It was just...magic.

0:09:24 > 0:09:29That's what the business is about - magic.

0:09:29 > 0:09:35But Betty Noyes' moment of magic was kept secret for decades.

0:09:35 > 0:09:39My mother didn't get a credit. Nobody got credits in those days.

0:09:39 > 0:09:44I know my mother just felt honoured to be the voice of some big stars.

0:09:44 > 0:09:48In the finale to Singin' In The Rain, Debbie Reynolds' character

0:09:48 > 0:09:52Kathy achieves recognition for her singing.

0:09:52 > 0:09:56The whole narrative of the film is about restoring credit where

0:09:56 > 0:10:02credit is due, about exposing the ways in which labour is

0:10:02 > 0:10:07exploited, culminating in this kind of climactic, cathartic moment

0:10:07 > 0:10:09when the curtain is pulled back.

0:10:09 > 0:10:11# Everyone from the place

0:10:11 > 0:10:13# Come on with the rain... #

0:10:13 > 0:10:18Debbie Reynolds is behind the curtain doing the actual singing

0:10:18 > 0:10:20and then of course they pull the curtain apart

0:10:20 > 0:10:23and you see that it's Debbie Reynolds singing.

0:10:25 > 0:10:27AUDIENCE LAUGH

0:10:27 > 0:10:28# I'm singin' in the rain

0:10:28 > 0:10:31# Just singin' in the rain

0:10:31 > 0:10:33# What a glorious feeling... #

0:10:33 > 0:10:36So every time I hear "Would You?",

0:10:36 > 0:10:42in my mind, I see another curtain behind Debbie Reynolds,

0:10:42 > 0:10:47and I'd love to pull that one apart and let people see it was my mother.

0:10:47 > 0:10:54# Would you? #

0:10:57 > 0:11:02Ever since 1929, movie musicals have been made using playback.

0:11:04 > 0:11:10And ghost singing swiftly became one of Tinseltown's best-kept secrets.

0:11:10 > 0:11:16I think of that story about "why does a dog lick its private parts?"

0:11:16 > 0:11:20and the answer is "because he can", and I think that's

0:11:20 > 0:11:24a lot of what early sound technology was like. They had the ability

0:11:24 > 0:11:27for the first time to transpose voices over images,

0:11:27 > 0:11:29so why not do it?

0:11:31 > 0:11:36The sort of quest for a perfect fake that's so central to Western

0:11:36 > 0:11:40and especially, I think, American culture, that we want to create

0:11:40 > 0:11:46the sort of hyperreal world that's only attainable through fabrication.

0:11:47 > 0:11:52What we see on screen is inherently a false fabrication,

0:11:52 > 0:11:57a Frankensteinian monster linked together between an image recorded

0:11:57 > 0:12:00in one moment and a voice often recorded at a different space and time.

0:12:02 > 0:12:06The sort of manipulation of that image becomes one of these

0:12:06 > 0:12:10kind of hyperreal creations that kind of shimmers on screen.

0:12:13 > 0:12:17It's a false image but one that's entirely satisfying as well.

0:12:23 > 0:12:25For decades,

0:12:25 > 0:12:29stars and singers were sworn to silence about ghost singing.

0:12:29 > 0:12:33I began to call singers in Hollywood and they would tell me things.

0:12:33 > 0:12:36And Ken Darby, who was the great vocal arranger who kept winning

0:12:36 > 0:12:39Academy Awards every 20 minutes for vocal arrangement,

0:12:39 > 0:12:41opened up his address book,

0:12:41 > 0:12:45and he'd been working with singers in Hollywood since 1929.

0:12:45 > 0:12:48The singers themselves would help me

0:12:48 > 0:12:50and give me other names of their friends and colleagues.

0:12:50 > 0:12:57And so I spoke with 175 different people

0:12:57 > 0:13:02who dubbed - sometimes only once - back to 1929.

0:13:04 > 0:13:08It was the heyday of the Hollywood star machine.

0:13:08 > 0:13:12The great studios such as Paramount and Fox

0:13:12 > 0:13:15kept their stars on long-term contracts.

0:13:15 > 0:13:20The bosses protected the careers and reputations of their proteges

0:13:20 > 0:13:25and in return the stars did what they were told.

0:13:25 > 0:13:28There's nothing you can do. They have the call, it's their picture,

0:13:28 > 0:13:31they can do what they want to do with it.

0:13:31 > 0:13:35Consider the fact Hollywood didn't like your hair - change the colour.

0:13:35 > 0:13:38They didn't like your eyebrows? They'd move them.

0:13:38 > 0:13:41They didn't like your teeth? They can fix it.

0:13:41 > 0:13:44They'd do all of these things, so wouldn't it make sense

0:13:44 > 0:13:48that they would also say, "You can't sing? Don't worry, we'll dub it."

0:13:52 > 0:13:56Rita Hayworth was one of the 1940s screen idols whose singing

0:13:56 > 0:13:59was deemed substandard.

0:13:59 > 0:14:01Rita Hayworth, on LIFE Magazine,

0:14:01 > 0:14:04was billed as "the Love Goddess of America".

0:14:04 > 0:14:07Well, the Love Goddess ought to be able to carry a tune,

0:14:07 > 0:14:11but unfortunately the Love Goddess couldn't really carry a tune.

0:14:13 > 0:14:17'So it took a whole array of different singers.'

0:14:17 > 0:14:22# When they had the earthquake in San Francisco

0:14:22 > 0:14:25# Back in 1906... #

0:14:25 > 0:14:30'Anita Ellis was the voice of Gilda, so she sang Put The Blame On Mame.'

0:14:30 > 0:14:32# ..Up to her old tricks... #

0:14:34 > 0:14:39Rita Hayworth was worshipped, and everyone assumed that was her voice,

0:14:39 > 0:14:41even though it sounded slightly different in different movies.

0:14:41 > 0:14:44# I don't think so... #

0:14:44 > 0:14:48Just how different they sounded can be heard in these three

0:14:48 > 0:14:49Hayworth performances.

0:14:49 > 0:14:51# There's no mistake

0:14:51 > 0:14:55# He's very fond of me. #

0:14:55 > 0:14:59# I'm old-fashioned

0:14:59 > 0:15:03# I love the moonlight. #

0:15:03 > 0:15:08# You'd better be going while the going is good. #

0:15:10 > 0:15:12The question that fascinates me

0:15:12 > 0:15:19is why we didn't hear a different voice every time Rita Hayworth sang,

0:15:19 > 0:15:24and I think it's because the eye is more powerful than the ear.

0:15:24 > 0:15:29We see that same lovely girl, we know she can dance like a dream,

0:15:29 > 0:15:33and so somehow our ear is being tricked.

0:15:40 > 0:15:43America had fallen in love with the movie musical.

0:15:45 > 0:15:49Singing and dancing were welcome relief from the Great Depression

0:15:49 > 0:15:52in the 1930s and world war in the '40s.

0:15:55 > 0:15:57At the zenith of the Hollywood musical,

0:15:57 > 0:16:01roughly half the movies made featured ghost singing.

0:16:02 > 0:16:06It was so prevalent that it was expected.

0:16:06 > 0:16:09This is the way you made movie musicals - you dubbed.

0:16:10 > 0:16:14By the early 1950s, the dream factory was adapting

0:16:14 > 0:16:17already successful Broadway musicals.

0:16:19 > 0:16:24But the studios demanded screen stars, not well-known stage

0:16:24 > 0:16:27performers, in films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

0:16:29 > 0:16:33An example of a Broadway star being totally passed over for the

0:16:33 > 0:16:36film version would be Carol Channing in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

0:16:36 > 0:16:41She had become a star playing this role, she triumphed in it,

0:16:41 > 0:16:44she was ideal for it, she was the right age for it,

0:16:44 > 0:16:47she was not considered at all for the film.

0:16:50 > 0:16:53The casting of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes provided an opportunity

0:16:53 > 0:16:56for singer Marni Nixon.

0:16:58 > 0:17:02Trained as an opera singer, Nixon sweetened - sang the high notes -

0:17:02 > 0:17:06on a number by one of Tinseltown's sexiest-ever stars.

0:17:08 > 0:17:09No!

0:17:09 > 0:17:13I think there was a pitch problem. When she recorded it, she probably

0:17:13 > 0:17:16just wasn't right directly on the pitch.

0:17:16 > 0:17:19# No

0:17:19 > 0:17:22# No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! #

0:17:22 > 0:17:26Where she says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

0:17:26 > 0:17:30and then, "Are a girl's best friend," right in there, yeah.

0:17:30 > 0:17:33# But diamonds

0:17:33 > 0:17:36# Are a girl's best...

0:17:39 > 0:17:42# Best friend. #

0:17:47 > 0:17:50So it was just a matter of me imitating her exact sound,

0:17:50 > 0:17:55not to try to differ from that, but just try to be like her.

0:17:57 > 0:18:02In 1955, Marni Nixon secretly sang on one of the most popular

0:18:02 > 0:18:05movie musicals ever made.

0:18:05 > 0:18:07A show penned by the legendary duo

0:18:07 > 0:18:11Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein - The King And I.

0:18:13 > 0:18:15The King And I was a marvellous picture.

0:18:15 > 0:18:17I was on the set of that quite a bit.

0:18:17 > 0:18:21Great talents, great musicians, great score

0:18:21 > 0:18:25all make it happen to put it on a frame that big.

0:18:25 > 0:18:30It had glamour, it had exotic locales, it had a titanic

0:18:30 > 0:18:34performer in Yul Brynner, it had wonderful costumes,

0:18:34 > 0:18:36great dances by Jerome Robbins,

0:18:36 > 0:18:41and it had a full-fledged movie star in Deborah Kerr.

0:18:41 > 0:18:44Deborah Kerr - perfect for the leading lady.

0:18:44 > 0:18:47Everything about Deborah Kerr is that character.

0:18:47 > 0:18:50Deborah Kerr does not sing - "No problem, we'll dub her."

0:18:54 > 0:18:57Marni Nixon was brought in to ghost sing for Kerr.

0:18:57 > 0:19:01The results, as in the timeless song Getting To Know You,

0:19:01 > 0:19:06are so seamless, that generations of viewers have been fooled.

0:19:06 > 0:19:13So before that song starts, there's a verse which is spoken by Deborah.

0:19:13 > 0:19:17"It's a very ancient saying but a sure and honest thought,

0:19:17 > 0:19:21"that if you become a teacher, by a teacher you will be taught."

0:19:21 > 0:19:27# It's a very ancient saying but a true and honest thought

0:19:27 > 0:19:30# That if you become a teacher

0:19:30 > 0:19:32# By your pupils you'll be taught. #

0:19:32 > 0:19:34Then it's me.

0:19:34 > 0:19:36# As a teacher, I've been learning

0:19:36 > 0:19:38# You'll forgive me if I boast... #

0:19:38 > 0:19:42# As a teacher, I've been learning

0:19:42 > 0:19:46# You'll forgive me if I boast... #

0:19:47 > 0:19:51The meld, the blend, was unbelievable.

0:19:51 > 0:19:54# ..Subject I like most... #

0:19:54 > 0:19:55'Then she says...'

0:19:55 > 0:19:57# Getting to know you... #

0:19:57 > 0:20:01That's her voice. And then the rest of the song is my voice.

0:20:01 > 0:20:05# Getting to know you... # It's all my voice the rest of the way.

0:20:05 > 0:20:09# Getting to know all about you

0:20:09 > 0:20:11# Getting to like you... #

0:20:11 > 0:20:15When you listen to Deborah Kerr, you imagine,

0:20:15 > 0:20:19"What would this woman sound like when she started to sing?"

0:20:19 > 0:20:23and I think Marni Nixon's voice is pretty close.

0:20:23 > 0:20:27Deborah Kerr has a very crisp, clean way of speaking. She doesn't

0:20:27 > 0:20:32mumble and Marni Nixon's voice of course is also crystal clear.

0:20:32 > 0:20:36I think that transition from one voice to the other works very well.

0:20:38 > 0:20:42A performance this perfect required the closest of collaborations

0:20:42 > 0:20:44between star and singer.

0:20:44 > 0:20:49Nixon and Kerr spent six weeks recording six songs.

0:20:50 > 0:20:54She was in the recording studio with me at the same time.

0:20:54 > 0:20:55She would just point to me when it was me

0:20:55 > 0:21:00and I would point to her, and we would do the job that way.

0:21:00 > 0:21:02Then she would go out and sit on a stool and we would both sit

0:21:02 > 0:21:07there and listen, and we're wondering whether this was going to

0:21:07 > 0:21:10be right or not, and then she'd say, "Yes, that's right."

0:21:10 > 0:21:12In The King And I, the climactic number that everyone had been

0:21:12 > 0:21:14waiting for is the "Shall We Dance?" number.

0:21:14 > 0:21:17- # Shall we dance? - One, two, three, and...

0:21:17 > 0:21:20# On a bright cloud of music shall we fly?

0:21:20 > 0:21:22# One, two, three... #

0:21:22 > 0:21:24'They don't really have to sing,

0:21:24 > 0:21:28'and that is accomplished by the artful voice-dubbing of Marni Nixon,

0:21:28 > 0:21:33'who shadowed her in that sequence and followed her around.'

0:21:33 > 0:21:36Marni Nixon got to see Deborah Kerr act and see her gestures

0:21:36 > 0:21:40and see her inflections, so when that voice came out, it was organic

0:21:40 > 0:21:42to what Deborah Kerr was doing.

0:21:42 > 0:21:46# On the clear understanding that this kind of thing can happen

0:21:46 > 0:21:50# Shall we dance? Shall we dance? Shall we dance? #

0:21:50 > 0:21:53- Now!- One, two, three...

0:21:53 > 0:21:57I would stand next to her side-by-side like a ghost image

0:21:57 > 0:22:02and I would watch her and watch the conformation of her mouth, how

0:22:02 > 0:22:08her lips moved, and I would imagine what she was trying to do

0:22:08 > 0:22:14acting-wise, and I always made a joke, like, I would slice open

0:22:14 > 0:22:18the top of her head and take all the contents out and look at that

0:22:18 > 0:22:19while she was singing.

0:22:19 > 0:22:22And I'm going, "Oh, that's what she's trying to do!"

0:22:22 > 0:22:25And that's kind of an art form in and of itself.

0:22:25 > 0:22:28I mean, you don't want Deborah Kerr to open her mouth in a screen

0:22:28 > 0:22:31that's, you know, 40 feet wide and not sound like Deborah Kerr.

0:22:33 > 0:22:36Marni Nixon's ghost singing was supposed to be a secret.

0:22:38 > 0:22:40But the studio hadn't taken into account Deborah Kerr's

0:22:40 > 0:22:42unusual candour.

0:22:42 > 0:22:46I loved especially working with Deborah.

0:22:46 > 0:22:50You know, everyone thinks that English actresses are so proper

0:22:50 > 0:22:53and so this and so that.

0:22:53 > 0:22:55Bullshit.

0:22:55 > 0:22:59Um, I would like to state most emphatically that Mrs Anna is

0:22:59 > 0:23:02not a stuffy, dull, prissy woman.

0:23:02 > 0:23:04What sort of a woman is she, then?

0:23:04 > 0:23:08She's a very wonderful, witty, warm, humorous, courageous woman,

0:23:08 > 0:23:10and that sounds good, doesn't it?

0:23:12 > 0:23:16Every now and then, she'd be in her dressing room with the door open,

0:23:16 > 0:23:22and would call me into her dressing room. "Rita, come here!"

0:23:22 > 0:23:26And I thought, "Oh, here we go, we're going to do a panty show."

0:23:26 > 0:23:30Sure enough, she'd have a panty with some kind of saying on it,

0:23:30 > 0:23:33and she says, "Isn't this wonderful?"

0:23:33 > 0:23:38And usually it was something like "heavens above" or "heavens below".

0:23:38 > 0:23:42She just loved them and I LOVED that about her.

0:23:42 > 0:23:46This seemingly very proper lady who was not proper at all, at all.

0:23:48 > 0:23:51Unlike other stars of the era,

0:23:51 > 0:23:54Kerr refused to keep quiet about being ghosted.

0:23:54 > 0:23:58Some of the songs in The King And I were really too difficult.

0:23:58 > 0:24:00I was taking singing lessons

0:24:00 > 0:24:02and hoping I'd be able to do the whole thing.

0:24:02 > 0:24:05Well, no, it's not enough time.

0:24:05 > 0:24:10You've got to have started when you were four, and I certainly hadn't.

0:24:10 > 0:24:14But I had enough to be able to do some of the lead-ins,

0:24:14 > 0:24:18and then we found this wonderful singer, Marni Nixon.

0:24:19 > 0:24:23Kerr first came clean shortly after The King And I's release.

0:24:23 > 0:24:27The studio was furious.

0:24:27 > 0:24:34They had warned me that if any news ever got out that any part of

0:24:34 > 0:24:37Deborah Kerr's voice had been dubbed,

0:24:37 > 0:24:39they would see to it that I wouldn't work in town again.

0:24:41 > 0:24:47And so then when it did, it was... You know, I was scared.

0:24:50 > 0:24:53They wanted their stars to be perfect and they wanted their...

0:24:53 > 0:24:57the audiences to believe they were as perfect as they appeared to be.

0:24:57 > 0:25:01The studio is never going to let its audience find out, for example,

0:25:01 > 0:25:05that Alan Ladd is so short that he's got to stand on a box every

0:25:05 > 0:25:07time he talks to a woman.

0:25:07 > 0:25:09This is not part of the mystique of the star,

0:25:09 > 0:25:12so why would they tell them about the singing?

0:25:15 > 0:25:20The King And I was the huge hit 20th Century Fox needed.

0:25:20 > 0:25:22In the early '50s a new medium

0:25:22 > 0:25:25was decimating movie theatre attendance -

0:25:25 > 0:25:27television.

0:25:27 > 0:25:29Because of this threat of television,

0:25:29 > 0:25:33Hollywood was desperate to do things on the screen

0:25:33 > 0:25:37that you could not see at home on your 12-inch black-and-white screen.

0:25:37 > 0:25:42Therefore we had widescreen, we had Cinerama, we had 3-D -

0:25:42 > 0:25:43anything to compete -

0:25:43 > 0:25:47and musicals, they lend themselves to all of these things.

0:25:49 > 0:25:53I think the magic of it, the sheen of it, the glory of it

0:25:53 > 0:25:57probably allowed for a little bit more voice doubling

0:25:57 > 0:26:00than you might have had in some of the earlier pictures in the '30s

0:26:00 > 0:26:04because everything was just amped up to a higher level.

0:26:04 > 0:26:08They were filtered through the genius of the studio system back then

0:26:08 > 0:26:11so every trick and every technology was used

0:26:11 > 0:26:14to make them absolutely perfect,

0:26:14 > 0:26:17and there was millions of dollars riding on each of these movies.

0:26:20 > 0:26:23The King And I had a budget of 4.5 million

0:26:23 > 0:26:26and took 21 million at the box office.

0:26:28 > 0:26:30Marni Nixon was paid a fee of 10,000.

0:26:33 > 0:26:37Ghost singers mostly received only a standard studio singer rate of pay.

0:26:38 > 0:26:44When I did the dubbing we were paid weekly.

0:26:44 > 0:26:46Very weakly!

0:26:54 > 0:26:58India Adams sang the songs for two other screen sirens of the 1940s and 1950s.

0:27:01 > 0:27:05# That's entertainment... #

0:27:05 > 0:27:08One was sex symbol Cyd Charisse.

0:27:08 > 0:27:13Adams ghosted for her on the 1953 movie musical Band Wagon.

0:27:13 > 0:27:15I'll never forget

0:27:15 > 0:27:19the first time I was in a room with the MGM orchestra.

0:27:19 > 0:27:23It was like, "Oh, God," I was filled with music.

0:27:23 > 0:27:28It was just the most exciting, thrilling, incredible feeling.

0:27:28 > 0:27:30It was just wonderful.

0:27:30 > 0:27:34'Get aboard the Band Wagon for a grand, happy feeling.'

0:27:34 > 0:27:37One of the songs was one called Two-Faced Woman.

0:27:37 > 0:27:42'Assuming I can remember it, this is the way the verse goes.'

0:27:42 > 0:27:48# Someday I will wake up Find out what is wrong

0:27:48 > 0:27:51# With my jewel make-up

0:27:51 > 0:27:56# I don't belong

0:27:56 > 0:27:59# I can't help being a two-faced woman

0:27:59 > 0:28:02# A little bit of boldness A little bit of sweetness

0:28:02 > 0:28:04# A little bit of coldness A little bit of heatness

0:28:04 > 0:28:08# You can't have...something The two-faced woman

0:28:08 > 0:28:11# Because I've given you a warning I'll leave you in the morning

0:28:11 > 0:28:14# Got another lover undercover

0:28:14 > 0:28:21# I'm like a weather vane that goes with the breeze

0:28:22 > 0:28:24# A little bit of goodness

0:28:24 > 0:28:27# A little bit of badness

0:28:27 > 0:28:30# A little bit of right and wrong! #

0:28:30 > 0:28:33Hoo-hoo!

0:28:33 > 0:28:35Oh, dear.

0:28:35 > 0:28:43# You won't forget me... #

0:28:43 > 0:28:47Two-Faced Woman was eventually dropped from Band Wagon

0:28:47 > 0:28:50but it was used in another musical released that same year.

0:28:50 > 0:28:54In Torch Song, Adams provided all the vocals

0:28:54 > 0:28:57for screen siren Joan Crawford.

0:28:57 > 0:29:03The difference in the presentation is absolutely amazing.

0:29:03 > 0:29:08Cyd's was, like, pastel and balletic,

0:29:08 > 0:29:11and soft and beautiful.

0:29:11 > 0:29:14And the way they did it for Joan,

0:29:14 > 0:29:17it was hard, and bright, and coloured.

0:29:17 > 0:29:21In fact, they had her in what they called "tropical make-up",

0:29:21 > 0:29:23which people have questioned ever since.

0:29:27 > 0:29:29# They call me... #

0:29:29 > 0:29:32'It's the only time in motion picture history'

0:29:32 > 0:29:36that two different actresses have lip-synched to the very same vocal track.

0:29:42 > 0:29:48In 1958, another adaptation of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was released,

0:29:48 > 0:29:52featuring many of the era's leading ghost singers - South Pacific.

0:29:55 > 0:30:00There are certain movies in which the number of people being dubbed

0:30:00 > 0:30:03so outnumbered the people who are doing their own singing

0:30:03 > 0:30:06that now we look back and it almost seems ludicrous.

0:30:06 > 0:30:12# When the sky is a bright canary yellow

0:30:12 > 0:30:16# I forget every cloud I've ever seen... #

0:30:16 > 0:30:19'Mitzi Gaynor sings for herself'

0:30:19 > 0:30:22because she has stage and nightclub experience.

0:30:22 > 0:30:26Everyone else in that movie is dubbed.

0:30:26 > 0:30:31Star and sex symbol John Kerr was the male lead.

0:30:31 > 0:30:34He is convincing in the role of Lieutenant Cable

0:30:34 > 0:30:36in the film of South Pacific,

0:30:36 > 0:30:39but John was not a singer. He couldn't sing anything.

0:30:41 > 0:30:47The studio held open auditions for a singer to ghost for Kerr.

0:30:47 > 0:30:51As I was going into the audition process, there's Bill Lee.

0:30:51 > 0:30:55Bill Lee was getting everything when it came to voice-dubbing.

0:30:55 > 0:30:58Just as Marni Nixon was getting the gal's parts,

0:30:58 > 0:31:01Bill was getting the guy's part.

0:31:01 > 0:31:05John Kerr was dubbed by Bill Lee for Younger Than Springtime

0:31:05 > 0:31:08and You've Got To Be Carefully Taught,

0:31:08 > 0:31:12and that's kind of the way it worked back then.

0:31:12 > 0:31:14It's the boat all right.

0:31:15 > 0:31:18Oh, let them wait.

0:31:18 > 0:31:25# I touch your hand and my arms grow strong

0:31:27 > 0:31:35# Like a pair of birds that burst with song... #

0:31:35 > 0:31:41It was fun the first time I saw it in the theatre because I could hear,

0:31:41 > 0:31:42I was a teenage girl at that time

0:31:42 > 0:31:46and I could hear other teenage girls just kind of going,

0:31:46 > 0:31:49"Oh," when they heard Younger Than Springtime.

0:31:49 > 0:31:53So I was always so proud of that because I had a little secret,

0:31:53 > 0:31:56you know, with the, "Hey, that's my dad really singing there."

0:31:56 > 0:32:00# Younger than springtime

0:32:00 > 0:32:04# Am I gayer than laughter?

0:32:04 > 0:32:10# Am I angel and lover, heaven and earth?

0:32:10 > 0:32:20# Am I with you? #

0:32:20 > 0:32:23You could say that audiences were cheated

0:32:23 > 0:32:26or you could say they got the best of both worlds -

0:32:26 > 0:32:30they got John Kerr's finely chiselled features and passionate delivery,

0:32:30 > 0:32:34and they got Bill Lee's vocal technique.

0:32:34 > 0:32:38# Just be patient now The sun is sure to shine

0:32:38 > 0:32:41# And drive away the gloomy clouds that fill the sky. #

0:32:41 > 0:32:45Bill Lee was part of a quartet called The Mellomen

0:32:45 > 0:32:51and he sang solo for the stars in 13 movies between 1953 and 1967.

0:32:53 > 0:32:57'They were the first-choice singers that people would go to'

0:32:57 > 0:33:01and Bill Lee is one of those singers.

0:33:01 > 0:33:03He had a beautiful, beautiful voice -

0:33:03 > 0:33:08clean and sweet, and quite powerful when necessary.

0:33:08 > 0:33:12The Mellomen did all kinds of voices.

0:33:12 > 0:33:14They were always at the Disney studio.

0:33:14 > 0:33:17MEN HOWLING TO THE TUNE OF THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

0:33:21 > 0:33:25They were the howling dogs in Lady And The Tramp,

0:33:25 > 0:33:26and they just turned them loose,

0:33:26 > 0:33:30and said, "Have a good time with it. Be the hams that you are!"

0:33:31 > 0:33:34'In that clip he has a blue checked shirt on.'

0:33:37 > 0:33:40'The big tall man with the moustache is named Thurl Ravenscroft.

0:33:40 > 0:33:43'He is an extraordinary talent as well.'

0:33:47 > 0:33:51Thurl Ravenscroft was a bass

0:33:51 > 0:33:58and when anybody needed a voice that is...so low

0:33:58 > 0:34:00that the human ear can barely hear it,

0:34:00 > 0:34:03they would hire Thurl Ravenscroft.

0:34:03 > 0:34:07# Nothing in the world... #

0:34:07 > 0:34:12In South Pacific, Ravenscroft provided the very distinctive voice

0:34:12 > 0:34:13of Stewpot.

0:34:14 > 0:34:20# There is absolutely nothing

0:34:20 > 0:34:29# Like the frame of a dame. #

0:34:29 > 0:34:34His is a very recognisable voice because it's so deep.

0:34:34 > 0:34:39You know, he just really... He was the bass, bass, bass.

0:34:40 > 0:34:45Betty Wand ghosted in 15 movies between 1948 and 1972.

0:34:45 > 0:34:49In South Pacific she sang for young male actor Warren Hsieh.

0:34:49 > 0:34:53I think she did the plantation owner's son...

0:34:53 > 0:34:55- Attend, Papa.- Attend, Papa.

0:34:55 > 0:34:58..and that is the Dites-Moi song.

0:34:58 > 0:35:00# Dites-moi

0:35:00 > 0:35:02# Pourquoi

0:35:02 > 0:35:05# La vie est belle... #

0:35:05 > 0:35:08'Even today, the kids are watching different things'

0:35:08 > 0:35:11and all of a sudden I'll hear my mum's voice, and I'll think,

0:35:11 > 0:35:12"Boy, I didn't know she did that."

0:35:14 > 0:35:17Rodgers and Hammerstein were musical perfectionists

0:35:17 > 0:35:20and ensured they had the final say on South Pacific.

0:35:22 > 0:35:27The irony was that both Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

0:35:27 > 0:35:30separately and respectively loathed Hollywood

0:35:30 > 0:35:35because Hollywood had a long tradition of buying titles of Broadway shows

0:35:35 > 0:35:37and completely eviscerating them.

0:35:37 > 0:35:40They demanded some kind of executive control.

0:35:41 > 0:35:47The duo made a controversial decision about the casting of islander Bloody Mary.

0:35:47 > 0:35:51Even Juanita Hall, who created the role on Broadway,

0:35:51 > 0:35:53is dubbed by Muriel Smith -

0:35:53 > 0:35:56who played the same role in the London production.

0:35:56 > 0:35:59# Oh

0:35:59 > 0:36:04# Happy talk, keep talking happy talk

0:36:04 > 0:36:08# Talk about things you like to do... #

0:36:08 > 0:36:12It makes no sense at all and I can tell you Juanita Hall,

0:36:12 > 0:36:14whom I knew, was not happy at all about it.

0:36:14 > 0:36:18Rodgers was very particular about how things sounded,

0:36:18 > 0:36:20especially for posterity.

0:36:20 > 0:36:24So he may have thought that Muriel Smith's voice worked better, more fully.

0:36:24 > 0:36:27She was a better singer than Juanita Hall in the surroundings

0:36:27 > 0:36:30and in the context of the film of South Pacific.

0:36:33 > 0:36:38Rodgers and Hammerstein developed doubts about Rossano Brazzi,

0:36:38 > 0:36:41cast to act and sing the other lead male role.

0:36:45 > 0:36:48Maybe the most popular, most influential song

0:36:48 > 0:36:51Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote, among dozens,

0:36:51 > 0:36:53was Some Enchanted Evening.

0:36:53 > 0:36:55So in the film version of Some Enchanted Evening,

0:36:55 > 0:36:58even though the character of Emile de Becque

0:36:58 > 0:37:02was played by Rossano Brazzi, a very attractive Italian film actor,

0:37:02 > 0:37:05he didn't have the vocal heft to perform it.

0:37:05 > 0:37:09And that is the way things happen sometimes. Isn't it, Nellie?

0:37:09 > 0:37:11Yes, it is, Emile.

0:37:11 > 0:37:17# Some enchanted evening

0:37:17 > 0:37:22# You may see a stranger

0:37:22 > 0:37:29# You may see a stranger across a crowded room... #

0:37:29 > 0:37:33Brazzi was ghosted by an operatic bass called Giorgio Tozzi,

0:37:33 > 0:37:37known in opera circles as "hotzi Tozzi".

0:37:38 > 0:37:40I think it's a good match.

0:37:40 > 0:37:43The speaking voice of Rossano Brazzi seems to lend itself

0:37:43 > 0:37:45to the singing voice of Tozzi

0:37:45 > 0:37:48and I think that is a good example of dubbing.

0:37:50 > 0:37:52But Brazzi was not pleased.

0:37:54 > 0:37:58He said, "I cannot do it, I cannot sing to that goddamn shit voice!,"

0:37:58 > 0:38:02and, like, dug his heels in, and refused to do playback,

0:38:02 > 0:38:04and Josh Logan took him quietly aside,

0:38:04 > 0:38:09and said, "A, you're wasting a lot of people's time and we're on location in Hawaii,

0:38:09 > 0:38:14"and, B, you and I both know you can't sing the vocal demands of that score

0:38:14 > 0:38:17"so why don't you behave yourself and go back onto the set?"

0:38:17 > 0:38:21And Rossano Brazzi dignifiedly did.

0:38:25 > 0:38:28By the mid-1950s ghost singing was an established

0:38:28 > 0:38:31but undercover Hollywood industry.

0:38:32 > 0:38:36The key players were professional singers

0:38:36 > 0:38:39who would sometimes provide voices for the stars.

0:38:40 > 0:38:45Many of the ghosts knew each other, worked and socialised together.

0:38:45 > 0:38:47My mother used to love to entertain.

0:38:47 > 0:38:49She loved to have a good time

0:38:49 > 0:38:52and she would have a lot of the singers, these professional singers,

0:38:52 > 0:38:54over to the house for these parties.

0:38:54 > 0:38:56Bill Lee I think was there, Marni Nixon,

0:38:56 > 0:38:58and that's really when the egos come

0:38:58 > 0:39:00because one is now in competition of the other.

0:39:00 > 0:39:04"Well, let me show you what I did in this movie," and, "I'll show you how to do it better."

0:39:04 > 0:39:07"No, I can do it better than that, they should've hired me."

0:39:16 > 0:39:21By the dawn of the '60s, the power of the studios was waning.

0:39:21 > 0:39:24Many stars were no longer under contract.

0:39:24 > 0:39:26They chose their own projects.

0:39:26 > 0:39:32So movie-makers sometimes needed covert tactics to get their own way.

0:39:32 > 0:39:38West Side Story, in 1961, featured Richard Beymer as Tony.

0:39:39 > 0:39:42# Tonight, tonight

0:39:42 > 0:39:44# I'll see my love tonight... #

0:39:44 > 0:39:49Novice ghost singer Jimmy Bryant provided the vocals.

0:39:49 > 0:39:53Yeah, it is a little strange to see somebody singing

0:39:53 > 0:39:55and your voice coming out of the silver screen.

0:39:55 > 0:39:58You know, it's a little... a little strange.

0:40:00 > 0:40:05The lead female role was played by an already successful star, Natalie Wood.

0:40:07 > 0:40:11'Natalie was thrilled with getting that role'

0:40:11 > 0:40:17and she was, you know, very anxious...to do her own...

0:40:17 > 0:40:22The possibility of doing her own vocals and she was quite good,

0:40:22 > 0:40:24the tracks were wonderful.

0:40:26 > 0:40:30But the associate producer Saul Chaplin and director Robert Wise

0:40:30 > 0:40:34decided Wood's vocals were not up to scratch.

0:40:34 > 0:40:39The one person that Robert Wise said yes to almost immediately,

0:40:39 > 0:40:43unless somebody was going to say there was a problem, was Marni Nixon.

0:40:43 > 0:40:46# I feel pretty, oh, so pretty... #

0:40:46 > 0:40:49Nixon and Wood recorded separate versions of the songs,

0:40:49 > 0:40:51one after the other.

0:40:51 > 0:40:54This is Natalie Wood singing I Feel Pretty.

0:40:56 > 0:40:59# I feel charming, oh, so charming

0:40:59 > 0:41:02# It's alarming how charming I feel... #

0:41:02 > 0:41:07It wasn't a terrible voice - it was reedy and thin,

0:41:07 > 0:41:10and she was this tiny little person,

0:41:10 > 0:41:12and her voice was a tiny little voice

0:41:12 > 0:41:15that really didn't have any singing chops.

0:41:18 > 0:41:21# See the pretty girl in that mirror there

0:41:21 > 0:41:24# Who could that attractive girl be? #

0:41:24 > 0:41:27You know, Natalie was not bad.

0:41:27 > 0:41:30I mean, if it had been popular music she could have probably gotten away with it

0:41:30 > 0:41:34but this was very difficult, demanding music.

0:41:34 > 0:41:39She recorded the whole songs with the orchestra.

0:41:39 > 0:41:45All of my friends from the Los Angeles Philharmonic,

0:41:45 > 0:41:47who were very naughty,

0:41:47 > 0:41:50they would saw away,

0:41:50 > 0:41:53and then when I would get up and record the same song,

0:41:53 > 0:41:57they would all sit and play like crazy because they were on my side.

0:41:57 > 0:41:58It was very embarrassing.

0:41:58 > 0:42:01# I feel pretty, oh, so pretty... #

0:42:01 > 0:42:06In the final film, Nixon's recordings replaced all of Wood's.

0:42:06 > 0:42:08# ..Any girl who isn't me today

0:42:10 > 0:42:13# I feel charming, oh, so charming

0:42:13 > 0:42:16# It's alarming how charming I feel

0:42:16 > 0:42:17# And so pretty... #

0:42:17 > 0:42:22I Feel Pretty, of course, has to be done with the...

0:42:22 > 0:42:26her version of the Puerto Rican accent,

0:42:26 > 0:42:31and I had to know exactly when to trip the R's.

0:42:31 > 0:42:35# I feel pretty, oh, so pretty... #

0:42:35 > 0:42:38# That the city should give me its key... #

0:42:38 > 0:42:39You have to be very specific

0:42:39 > 0:42:45and it drove me crazy because in the original score it's written...

0:42:45 > 0:42:49# Ba, ba ba-da, ba, ba ba-da. #

0:42:49 > 0:42:50..which is different than...

0:42:50 > 0:42:53# Da-ba, ba da-a-a Ba-ba, ba ba-a-a. #

0:42:53 > 0:42:54..like a waltz, it's...

0:42:54 > 0:42:56# Da ba ba-da, da ba da... #

0:42:56 > 0:42:58..which gives it that little kick.

0:42:58 > 0:43:02# ..And so pretty Miss America can just resign... #

0:43:02 > 0:43:05'I wanted to make it more musically correct.'

0:43:05 > 0:43:07# See the pretty girl in that mirror there

0:43:07 > 0:43:08# What mirror, where...? #

0:43:08 > 0:43:14Natalie Wood had signed a contract giving the studio the option to replace her singing

0:43:14 > 0:43:19but she was assured that Nixon would only be "sweetening" her high notes.

0:43:19 > 0:43:25All the time they would record her learning the songs

0:43:25 > 0:43:27without letting her know,

0:43:27 > 0:43:30and then sneak me a recording

0:43:30 > 0:43:33so that I could get used to the timbre of her voice.

0:43:35 > 0:43:39'I don't think they were as forthright as they could have been.'

0:43:40 > 0:43:44Hey, you know, it's not her choice.

0:43:44 > 0:43:46They decided to go into a different direction,

0:43:46 > 0:43:47there's nothing you can do.

0:43:47 > 0:43:49You can't go in and fight for it

0:43:49 > 0:43:51because they've already made their decision.

0:43:51 > 0:43:53I think she wouldn't have stood for it,

0:43:53 > 0:43:55I think she would have walked away

0:43:55 > 0:43:58if she had known that they were going to replace her voice.

0:43:58 > 0:44:00She was...

0:44:02 > 0:44:04..disappointed, you know, obviously.

0:44:04 > 0:44:07I mean, you work that hard and you...

0:44:07 > 0:44:10She wanted that but it didn't happen.

0:44:13 > 0:44:17I think that they knew from the beginning that they wouldn't use anything that she did.

0:44:17 > 0:44:20I was even told that she went to the premiere

0:44:20 > 0:44:23thinking that she was going to hear her voice, and didn't.

0:44:23 > 0:44:26'At the Hollywood premiere famous star

0:44:26 > 0:44:29'and celebrity turn out at the famous Chinese Theatre.'

0:44:32 > 0:44:36Rita Moreno was cast as the fierce and feisty Anita

0:44:36 > 0:44:38in West Side Story.

0:44:38 > 0:44:42Moreno was that rare thing in Hollywood, a triple threat -

0:44:42 > 0:44:46she could act, sing and dance professionally.

0:44:46 > 0:44:51But composer Leonard Bernstein's score is notoriously difficult

0:44:51 > 0:44:54and one song proved especially challenging.

0:44:54 > 0:44:58I could not for the life of me - and, boy, let me tell you I tried -

0:44:58 > 0:45:02reach the low notes in the song called A Boy Like That.

0:45:02 > 0:45:07So they decided that they would use Betty Wand's voice

0:45:07 > 0:45:10and keep Rita Moreno as a backup.

0:45:11 > 0:45:17A Boy Like That was an unhappy experience for singer and star.

0:45:17 > 0:45:20'I know as a fact that that almost blew out her throat.

0:45:20 > 0:45:23'She had nodes on her throat and almost had to go in for surgery.'

0:45:23 > 0:45:25I think it was A Boy Like That, that almost did it for her.

0:45:25 > 0:45:27It's a tough, tough song.

0:45:28 > 0:45:31# A boy like that would kill your brother

0:45:31 > 0:45:33# Forget that boy and find another

0:45:33 > 0:45:37# One of your own kind Stick to your own kind

0:45:41 > 0:45:43# A boy like that... #

0:45:43 > 0:45:47It really hurts me to listen to it every time because it's not hard,

0:45:47 > 0:45:52it's not emotional enough, it's not guttural enough, it's not the way...

0:45:52 > 0:45:58If you see my face, it was depicting what I should have sounded like.

0:45:58 > 0:46:00# A boy who kills cannot love

0:46:00 > 0:46:03# A boy who kills has no heart

0:46:03 > 0:46:07# And he's the boy who gets your love and gets your heart!

0:46:07 > 0:46:12# There is much, Maria There is much! #

0:46:12 > 0:46:14'Here's the interesting thing,'

0:46:14 > 0:46:18which is why I say don't fault Betty Wand for not "getting it right",

0:46:18 > 0:46:20as I tend to think of it.

0:46:22 > 0:46:26She was a singer, she was not an actress.

0:46:26 > 0:46:29# A boy like that wants one thing only

0:46:29 > 0:46:32# And when it's done he'll leave you lonely

0:46:32 > 0:46:34# He'll murder your love He murdered mine... #

0:46:34 > 0:46:37'If you're brought on to ghost-voice something'

0:46:37 > 0:46:41I suppose you're brought on in the pursuit of musical perfection.

0:46:41 > 0:46:43You may not even be with the actor who created the role

0:46:43 > 0:46:46and I suppose you do run the risk that it...

0:46:46 > 0:46:49that it ends up being musically perfect

0:46:49 > 0:46:55but not capturing the history of the character.

0:46:56 > 0:46:58You know, a true professional will always look at it like,

0:46:58 > 0:47:01"I could have tweaked that a little bit,

0:47:01 > 0:47:04"I could have added more accent, I could have done this, I could have done that."

0:47:04 > 0:47:06So, yeah, she's always critiquing her own work

0:47:06 > 0:47:11and looking for a better way but the movie producers and...

0:47:11 > 0:47:13and production people are very satisfied with it,

0:47:13 > 0:47:15so I guess that's all that matters.

0:47:17 > 0:47:20Soundtrack albums to the great Hollywood musicals

0:47:20 > 0:47:22were bestsellers

0:47:22 > 0:47:24but the royalties from record sales

0:47:24 > 0:47:27were not being shared by the performers.

0:47:27 > 0:47:30The actors often received nothing except a salary.

0:47:33 > 0:47:35No...I never got anything.

0:47:37 > 0:47:41Nope. I think that was probably written in the contract

0:47:41 > 0:47:44and I never got royalties, ever.

0:47:46 > 0:47:51And the secret singers were not even credited for their work.

0:47:51 > 0:47:56I think one of the saddest parts about the dilemma of ghost singers

0:47:56 > 0:48:01for movie musicals is the cast albums that were so popular.

0:48:01 > 0:48:06The record, and they were records then, the record of West Side Story,

0:48:06 > 0:48:12the record of The King And I sold millions and millions of copies.

0:48:12 > 0:48:16Nowhere on those records, in the smallest print possible,

0:48:16 > 0:48:18does it mention Marni Nixon's name.

0:48:18 > 0:48:21She is singing roughly half of those records.

0:48:21 > 0:48:25In a way, she's one of the most popular recording stars ever

0:48:25 > 0:48:27and nobody knows who she is.

0:48:31 > 0:48:36Nixon had received a fee of 420 for the King And I soundtrack.

0:48:36 > 0:48:39On West Side Story, she asked for royalties.

0:48:39 > 0:48:41Marni Nixon had put a lot of work in that -

0:48:41 > 0:48:46her voice was going to be very much a part not only of the film,

0:48:46 > 0:48:48but of subsequent recordings and so forth,

0:48:48 > 0:48:52so she felt that she should have some of the royalties.

0:48:54 > 0:48:55Robert Wise said no.

0:48:55 > 0:48:59I think Don Williams, Andy's brother,

0:48:59 > 0:49:02told her that she really should get an agent,

0:49:02 > 0:49:07and he told me I should get an agent, but she did, I didn't!

0:49:07 > 0:49:09And so I hired a lawyer.

0:49:12 > 0:49:15I hadn't signed a contract - I had them over a barrel.

0:49:15 > 0:49:20He said, "Well, if they want to use any iota of your voice,

0:49:20 > 0:49:23"you tell them you will not do it without credit."

0:49:23 > 0:49:25They did some investigating

0:49:25 > 0:49:30and found out that they had signed away all the royalties

0:49:30 > 0:49:32and there were no more royalties to be given.

0:49:33 > 0:49:37Nixon was an accomplished concert singer.

0:49:37 > 0:49:40She had performed with the New York Philharmonic

0:49:40 > 0:49:44under West Side Story's composer Leonard Bernstein.

0:49:44 > 0:49:47He agreed to give her a very, very small percentage

0:49:47 > 0:49:51of his record royalties and it was a huge hit, you know.

0:49:51 > 0:49:54So I think she made some money off of that...and I didn't.

0:50:01 > 0:50:05Leonard Bernstein gave up a quarter percentage of his royalties

0:50:05 > 0:50:09so that I could get a quarter percent of a royalty

0:50:09 > 0:50:12on the picture, which established a precedent.

0:50:12 > 0:50:16That's what I got when I did dubbing from that time on.

0:50:17 > 0:50:21This precedent inspired other ghost singers negotiating contracts.

0:50:23 > 0:50:27Marni Nixon was a fabulous singer and blazed the way,

0:50:27 > 0:50:31she fought for her rights.

0:50:31 > 0:50:34Marni was truly a whistle-blower and she made the point that

0:50:34 > 0:50:38the dubbers should be acknowledged and should be paid

0:50:38 > 0:50:43for their soundtrack albums, and she did something very heroic.

0:50:48 > 0:50:53By the early '60s, the dream factory had very definite views

0:50:53 > 0:50:54about the ideal voice.

0:50:56 > 0:51:02This is the voice of a movie star in a musical - the Marni Nixon voice.

0:51:02 > 0:51:05And for the men, Bill Lee,

0:51:05 > 0:51:08this is the voice people wanted to hear, or at least the studios

0:51:08 > 0:51:10believed they wanted to hear.

0:51:10 > 0:51:15And many critics criticised, "Why are all the leads in musicals

0:51:15 > 0:51:18"sounding the same?"

0:51:18 > 0:51:20And if Nixon and Lee weren't available

0:51:20 > 0:51:24the studios hired ghost singers who sounded the same.

0:51:24 > 0:51:29There's also, I believe, financial considerations in terms of

0:51:29 > 0:51:32thinking about the box office and thinking about what kinds of voices

0:51:32 > 0:51:35are going to please a general audience and this was certainly

0:51:35 > 0:51:38a concern during the classical studio era.

0:51:38 > 0:51:41Producers were very worried about finding voices

0:51:41 > 0:51:44that were palatable and accessible.

0:51:45 > 0:51:48Some performers found a way to beat the system.

0:51:48 > 0:51:51One was Rex Harrison.

0:51:51 > 0:51:55In 1956, Harrison conquered Broadway in the Alan Jay Lerner

0:51:55 > 0:51:58and Frederick Loewe triumph My Fair Lady.

0:51:59 > 0:52:01From the top of the next section.

0:52:01 > 0:52:03From the top! From the top! From the top!

0:52:06 > 0:52:09I'm a very gentle man.

0:52:09 > 0:52:13# Even-tempered and good-natured whom you never hear complain... #

0:52:13 > 0:52:16It was perfectly obvious that Rex Harrison couldn't sing

0:52:16 > 0:52:20and he was terrified that he even had to do what little he did.

0:52:20 > 0:52:21I started to think,

0:52:21 > 0:52:24"Well, my Lord, I'd better take some singing lessons."

0:52:24 > 0:52:28Well, this was disastrous because I'd only had about three

0:52:28 > 0:52:31and I realised that I couldn't sing. And then I met a conductor,

0:52:31 > 0:52:34and he taught me the thing of talking on pitch,

0:52:34 > 0:52:38which is really something which I took to like a duck to water

0:52:38 > 0:52:40and found it perfectly simple to do.

0:52:40 > 0:52:42I was using the melody but not singing it.

0:52:44 > 0:52:48In spite of all this, the 1964 movie of My Fair Lady

0:52:48 > 0:52:50brought Harrison's trademark "talk-singing"

0:52:50 > 0:52:52to a worldwide audience.

0:52:53 > 0:52:59- Pickering, why can't a woman be more like a man?- I beg your pardon?

0:52:59 > 0:53:03Yes, why can't a woman be more like a man?

0:53:03 > 0:53:08Men are so honest, so thoroughly square. Eternally noble...

0:53:08 > 0:53:11He did something rather miraculous -

0:53:11 > 0:53:14he spoke in tune.

0:53:14 > 0:53:15Isn't that astonishing?

0:53:15 > 0:53:18He spoke in the key of the song.

0:53:18 > 0:53:22Why does every one do what the others do?

0:53:22 > 0:53:25Can't a woman learn to use her head?

0:53:25 > 0:53:28Why do they do everything their mothers do?

0:53:28 > 0:53:30Why don't they grow up, well, like their father instead?

0:53:30 > 0:53:32Why can't a woman...?

0:53:32 > 0:53:34He said to the producers, "As I'm not a singer,

0:53:34 > 0:53:37"the way to help me is allowing me the freedom to speak-sing it

0:53:37 > 0:53:41"and to be free with the tempo in the live moment."

0:53:41 > 0:53:44And they granted him this sort of special exemption

0:53:44 > 0:53:46to do it with great effect.

0:53:48 > 0:53:51In the Broadway musical, Eliza Doolittle had been played

0:53:51 > 0:53:55by Julie Andrews to huge acclaim.

0:53:55 > 0:53:59But Warner Brothers paid 5 million for the film rights.

0:53:59 > 0:54:03And they wanted a household name.

0:54:03 > 0:54:06When the songs were created they were created for Julie Andrews,

0:54:06 > 0:54:09who sang like an angel. Hardly anyone in the history of Broadway,

0:54:09 > 0:54:12I think, could sing as Julie did,

0:54:12 > 0:54:15and so when the time came to make the film version,

0:54:15 > 0:54:17and Julie Andrews wasn't in the film,

0:54:17 > 0:54:19they had to have someone who could sing as well as she could.

0:54:23 > 0:54:25'This is My Fair Lady.'

0:54:28 > 0:54:31The part was offered to one of the brightest stars

0:54:31 > 0:54:33in the Hollywood firmament - Audrey Hepburn.

0:54:35 > 0:54:40She spent the next few weeks trying to appeal to the executives

0:54:40 > 0:54:43and to the studio to give it to Julie,

0:54:43 > 0:54:46and when she'd exhausted herself, then she accepted the part

0:54:46 > 0:54:48and she accepted the fact that she had the bigger name

0:54:48 > 0:54:51that could support the launch of the film

0:54:51 > 0:54:55and that she was second-best perfect to playing the part.

0:54:55 > 0:54:59Later, when we did finally meet, she said, "Oh, Julie," she said,

0:54:59 > 0:55:01"You should have done it

0:55:01 > 0:55:04"but I didn't have the guts to turn it down."

0:55:04 > 0:55:07# Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait... #

0:55:07 > 0:55:12Hepburn took singing lessons but her vocals survive in only a few songs.

0:55:12 > 0:55:14This is one of them.

0:55:14 > 0:55:15# ..and I'll have money

0:55:15 > 0:55:17# Will I help you, don't be funny!

0:55:17 > 0:55:20# Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait! #

0:55:20 > 0:55:23It's a character song, not a pretty, lyrical ballad.

0:55:23 > 0:55:28It's much more aggressive and I think she does a good job with it.

0:55:28 > 0:55:32The problem is, can you switch the voice from Audrey Hepburn

0:55:32 > 0:55:37in one kind of song into someone else in a different?

0:55:37 > 0:55:40The ever-reliable Marni Nixon

0:55:40 > 0:55:43was brought in to ghost on the other songs, including this one.

0:55:43 > 0:55:48# Why, all at once my heart took flight... #

0:55:48 > 0:55:52But not everyone thinks Nixon's singing worked for Hepburn

0:55:52 > 0:55:54and the character she played.

0:55:54 > 0:55:59If you look at the story you don't expect Eliza's singing

0:55:59 > 0:56:02to exceed operatic quality.

0:56:02 > 0:56:10# Tonight! #

0:56:12 > 0:56:16I think that the gap is unnatural.

0:56:16 > 0:56:19It was hard for me to match her voice

0:56:19 > 0:56:24because she had such a mezzo, mellow sound to her voice.

0:56:24 > 0:56:28And so I would try to kind of just...

0:56:28 > 0:56:31you know, make up

0:56:31 > 0:56:34trying to get my mouth to feel like it was a different shape.

0:56:34 > 0:56:38Audrey Hepburn was so well-known and so loved.

0:56:38 > 0:56:41Everyone knew what Audrey Hepburn sounded like.

0:56:41 > 0:56:43They knew what she looked like.

0:56:43 > 0:56:48This was a movie that changed her looks and gave her another sound.

0:56:48 > 0:56:51It is said that Hepburn asked the producer,

0:56:51 > 0:56:54"If Rex can talk-sing, why can't I?"

0:56:55 > 0:56:59Men could do it, women could not.

0:56:59 > 0:57:01Don't ask me why. It's a...

0:57:01 > 0:57:05It's that whole gender business that always rears its ugly little head

0:57:05 > 0:57:08into all sorts of things that you don't expect them to.

0:57:08 > 0:57:12It was very frustrating for her, especially when she saw Rex Harrison,

0:57:12 > 0:57:15who could not sing a note, getting away with his talk-singing.

0:57:15 > 0:57:20But that show was written with that character doing that.

0:57:20 > 0:57:23It was never written for Eliza to talk-sing.

0:57:28 > 0:57:32Audrey Hepburn was famously gracious and unflappable.

0:57:32 > 0:57:36Audrey would pick me up every morning with her driver.

0:57:36 > 0:57:39We would then drive to the studio.

0:57:39 > 0:57:44And we would be able to just talk, jabber.

0:57:44 > 0:57:47I was a little embarrassed being, you know,

0:57:47 > 0:57:52with such a wonderful famous person.

0:57:52 > 0:57:57And she put everybody at ease this way.

0:57:59 > 0:58:03But one day, Hepburn's feelings about the ghosting showed.

0:58:05 > 0:58:07She walked out of the studio.

0:58:07 > 0:58:09She couldn't say anything.

0:58:09 > 0:58:13Very rare occurrence.

0:58:13 > 0:58:16She must have been under a lot of pressure, frustrated as hell.

0:58:16 > 0:58:19Then she came back into the studio the day afterwards

0:58:19 > 0:58:22and she apologised for her "wicked behaviour".

0:58:22 > 0:58:25She was such a wonderful person.

0:58:25 > 0:58:28I admired her a lot.

0:58:29 > 0:58:33The word "wicked" - probably, yes. It sounds like her, definitely.

0:58:35 > 0:58:39My Fair Lady won eight Academy Awards in 1965.

0:58:39 > 0:58:42Best Actress was not among them.

0:58:42 > 0:58:48I must say, I take my hat off to the marvellous people in Hollywood

0:58:48 > 0:58:54who twiddle all the knobs and who can make one voice out of two.

0:58:54 > 0:58:58It was the start of a public backlash against ghost singing.

0:58:58 > 0:59:02And Hepburn ended up presenting her co-star Rex Harrison

0:59:02 > 0:59:04with the award for Best Male Actor.

0:59:06 > 0:59:08Rex Harrison!

0:59:08 > 0:59:10Rex Harrison, of course, receives his statuette...

0:59:10 > 0:59:12That's what showbusiness is all about -

0:59:12 > 0:59:15you have a smile no matter what's going on.

0:59:15 > 0:59:18And as the Chaplin song puts it so accurately,

0:59:18 > 0:59:21that's why it's such a legendary song, you've got to smile through it.

0:59:25 > 0:59:28Though Julie Andrews was passed over for My Fair Lady,

0:59:28 > 0:59:32the following year she played the part of Maria

0:59:32 > 0:59:35in a musical that became the biggest-grossing of all time -

0:59:35 > 0:59:38The Sound Of Music.

0:59:38 > 0:59:40Andrews did not require any ghosting.

0:59:42 > 0:59:46Christopher Plummer was cast as Captain von Trapp.

0:59:46 > 0:59:49Plummer was good-looking and a successful Broadway star.

0:59:51 > 0:59:53What he did not have, by his own admission,

0:59:53 > 0:59:57was much, if any, experience singing.

0:59:57 > 0:59:59He said, "I didn't even sing in the shower."

0:59:59 > 1:00:02He said he was on the sound stage with Julie Andrews

1:00:02 > 1:00:05and she grabbed his hand and sort of got him through it

1:00:05 > 1:00:10and he was very pleased to be able to do his own singing for Edelweiss.

1:00:12 > 1:00:14# Edelweiss, edelweiss... #

1:00:17 > 1:00:19But this is not Christopher Plummer's voice.

1:00:19 > 1:00:22Plummer was ghosted by the ever-busy Bill Lee

1:00:22 > 1:00:25in the version of the movie the studio released.

1:00:25 > 1:00:28# Small and white

1:00:28 > 1:00:31# Clean and bright

1:00:31 > 1:00:38# You look happy to meet me. #

1:00:38 > 1:00:42What was challenging about matching Christopher Plummer

1:00:42 > 1:00:48was my dad told me he barely opened his mouth on screen.

1:00:48 > 1:00:52It was hard to tell when he was moving from one word to another.

1:00:52 > 1:00:54# Blossom of snow

1:00:54 > 1:00:58# May you bloom and grow...#

1:00:58 > 1:01:02# Bloom and grow forever... #

1:01:02 > 1:01:08It polished the performance. It gave it a sweetness, you know?

1:01:08 > 1:01:10And especially in Edelweiss.

1:01:10 > 1:01:13# Edelweiss

1:01:13 > 1:01:16# Edelweiss... #

1:01:16 > 1:01:21Sound Of Music was always going to go to Bill.

1:01:21 > 1:01:23As I said a few times,

1:01:23 > 1:01:28when you see Bill in the process of auditioning with other singers

1:01:28 > 1:01:32around him, it's like, you know, "OK, Bill's going to get it."

1:01:32 > 1:01:34"We'll find out who came in second."

1:01:34 > 1:01:40# ..Forever. #

1:01:44 > 1:01:47Most people don't know that it wasn't Christopher Plummer,

1:01:47 > 1:01:49which is exactly what they want you to think.

1:01:52 > 1:01:55This is Plummer's own unused vocal for Edelweiss.

1:01:55 > 1:01:57# Edelweiss

1:01:57 > 1:02:00# Edelweiss

1:02:00 > 1:02:08# Bless my homeland forever. #

1:02:08 > 1:02:12I think his pride argued with his common sense

1:02:12 > 1:02:17and he realised that even though he really wanted his own voice

1:02:17 > 1:02:20in the picture, it probably wasn't strong enough.

1:02:21 > 1:02:25# Small and white

1:02:25 > 1:02:28# Clean and bright

1:02:28 > 1:02:33# You look happy to me... #

1:02:33 > 1:02:37Some people say it's one of the reasons he has bad-mouthed

1:02:37 > 1:02:41that movie over the last 40 years he calls it The Sound Of Mucus.

1:02:45 > 1:02:49Back on Broadway in the early '70s, Plummer had the last laugh.

1:02:50 > 1:02:55In 1973, Christopher Plummer played the part of Cyrano de Bergerac -

1:02:55 > 1:02:59incredibly demanding part - in a musical version on Broadway

1:02:59 > 1:03:03where he had to sing eight songs and fight two duels,

1:03:03 > 1:03:06and he won the Tony for Best Actor in a musical.

1:03:06 > 1:03:08Case closed, lock it up, put it away.

1:03:18 > 1:03:22In an era when war raged in Vietnam and the civil rights movement

1:03:22 > 1:03:27convulsed America, the soothing Sound Of Music became a smash hit.

1:03:30 > 1:03:34People were somewhat discomforted by the general aggression

1:03:34 > 1:03:37that would ferment later in the 1960s.

1:03:37 > 1:03:41So a good family film, with some nuns and some singing kids

1:03:41 > 1:03:44and a lady with a guitar seemed to work perfectly.

1:03:44 > 1:03:47In the great musicals you're so swept up in the story.

1:03:47 > 1:03:50In the case of a musical like Sound of Music, that takes you

1:03:50 > 1:03:55into a kind of playful, joyous, carefree, poignant place.

1:03:57 > 1:04:01Christopher Plummer wasn't the only one ghosted in The Sound Of Music.

1:04:01 > 1:04:07The number of children's voices was, if not quite 16 going on 17,

1:04:07 > 1:04:09certainly heading in that direction.

1:04:09 > 1:04:13There were seven Von Trapp children in the film.

1:04:13 > 1:04:17But there were 11 of us in front of the recording mic.

1:04:17 > 1:04:20And that was the seven actors that were playing the role

1:04:20 > 1:04:23and then the four of us professional singers.

1:04:25 > 1:04:29And it wasn't only the Von Trapps who kept the singing in the family.

1:04:29 > 1:04:31Charmian Carr, who played Liesl,

1:04:31 > 1:04:34was 13-year-old Darleen Carr's elder sister.

1:04:34 > 1:04:37We all sang together on mic

1:04:37 > 1:04:43and then they asked me to do certain special parts.

1:04:43 > 1:04:47I sang some of my sister Charmian's high obligato parts

1:04:47 > 1:04:50when they're singing The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

1:04:50 > 1:04:53to Christopher Plummer in the drawing room.

1:04:53 > 1:04:54# ..Through the trees

1:04:54 > 1:04:56# My heart wants to sigh

1:04:56 > 1:04:59# Like a chime that flies

1:04:59 > 1:05:03# From a church on a breeze... #

1:05:03 > 1:05:05She was happy to let me take those high notes

1:05:05 > 1:05:08because, you know, nobody wants to sing something they can't sing

1:05:08 > 1:05:11or that they're struggling to sing.

1:05:11 > 1:05:14There were other sisters in The Sound Of Music

1:05:14 > 1:05:16who were not doing it for themselves.

1:05:17 > 1:05:22The nuns? Yes, the voice of Peggy Wood was ghosted.

1:05:22 > 1:05:26She had been a television actor, so had been very popular,

1:05:26 > 1:05:29and had the right look for the Mother Superior.

1:05:29 > 1:05:34# How do you hold a moonbeam? #

1:05:34 > 1:05:38Marni Nixon finally sang for herself on the silver screen

1:05:38 > 1:05:41in the role of Sister Sophia.

1:05:41 > 1:05:43# When I'm with her I'm confused

1:05:43 > 1:05:45# Out of focus and bemused

1:05:45 > 1:05:48# And I never know exactly where I am... #

1:05:48 > 1:05:52This was entirely Robert Wise, to cast her as this nun,

1:05:52 > 1:05:54because he would have her on hand

1:05:54 > 1:05:59if you did run into a problem with ghosting of voices and so forth.

1:06:02 > 1:06:05The Sound Of Music is known as the movie

1:06:05 > 1:06:08that saved 20th Century Fox from financial meltdown.

1:06:10 > 1:06:1420th Century Fox had put all their chips into a huge blockbuster

1:06:14 > 1:06:18called Cleopatra, which was placed on a barge and sent down the Nile

1:06:18 > 1:06:21and sank, and almost sunk the entire studio with it.

1:06:22 > 1:06:25And of course The Sound Of Music skyrocketed to become,

1:06:25 > 1:06:28in its day, the biggest success in film history.

1:06:30 > 1:06:32After The Sound Of Music,

1:06:32 > 1:06:35there was a stampede to produce more blockbusters.

1:06:35 > 1:06:37Studios turned around overnight and said,

1:06:37 > 1:06:40"We've got to make Broadway musicals into movies!"

1:06:40 > 1:06:43And they made a bunch, and they all flopped.

1:06:43 > 1:06:45The times, they were a'changing.

1:06:45 > 1:06:49For decades, musicals had been popular music.

1:06:49 > 1:06:53People of all ages listened to the same songs.

1:06:53 > 1:06:55Now the music market was fragmenting.

1:07:00 > 1:07:04# It's been a hard day's night... #

1:07:04 > 1:07:08The Beatles were coming in from England to America,

1:07:08 > 1:07:11pop music was taking over everything.

1:07:11 > 1:07:13The Rolling Stones, you know?

1:07:15 > 1:07:18Rock and roll was what was happening and that was the beginning

1:07:18 > 1:07:22of the death of that style of movie-musical-making.

1:07:24 > 1:07:28The curtain was coming down on the musical's golden age.

1:07:28 > 1:07:31One disappointing release was Camelot in 1967.

1:07:33 > 1:07:36Camelot was a disaster on many levels.

1:07:36 > 1:07:39And dubbing was not the reason for it,

1:07:39 > 1:07:44but it became clear dubbing is not going to save a musical.

1:07:44 > 1:07:48# Wait till the sun shines, Nellie... #

1:07:48 > 1:07:53Camelot did provide an opportunity at last for Gene Merlino.

1:07:53 > 1:07:56Merlino was now a member of Bill Lee's group, The Mellomen,

1:07:56 > 1:07:59and embracing the rock and roll revolution.

1:07:59 > 1:08:03We did several movies with Elvis, the four of us, where we kind of

1:08:03 > 1:08:06augmented his background guys, his cronies

1:08:06 > 1:08:08that really couldn't sing too well.

1:08:08 > 1:08:11So they needed some people who could fill in.

1:08:11 > 1:08:13# Swing down chariot

1:08:13 > 1:08:14# Stop and let me ride... #

1:08:14 > 1:08:17The Trouble With Girls, we're on camera with Elvis

1:08:17 > 1:08:19and he was a joy to work with.

1:08:19 > 1:08:23# I've got a home on the other side

1:08:23 > 1:08:26# Mmmmm. #

1:08:28 > 1:08:31Merlino auditioned to ghost-sing for the Italian star

1:08:31 > 1:08:35Franco Nero, cast as Lancelot.

1:08:35 > 1:08:38As I was walking up the stairs to open the door,

1:08:38 > 1:08:42I literally opened the door and out walks Bill Lee.

1:08:42 > 1:08:44And I said, "Oh!" My eyes rolled.

1:08:44 > 1:08:48"Oh, here's another one. Another one I'm going to lose."

1:08:48 > 1:08:52And at that very, very moment Bill says these exact words,

1:08:52 > 1:08:54"Gene, this one's yours."

1:08:59 > 1:09:00So it worked out for me.

1:09:00 > 1:09:02And I felt so blessed.

1:09:05 > 1:09:09Franco, being an Italian, wanted to sing so badly.

1:09:09 > 1:09:13And that's how he sang so bad... It's an old joke, I know.

1:09:13 > 1:09:18I said, "Franco, how is it possible that you, an Italian, can't sing?"

1:09:19 > 1:09:22Merlino sang two of Camelot's songs for Franco.

1:09:23 > 1:09:27One was the vocally-challenging ballad If Ever.

1:09:28 > 1:09:31I had to sing notes literally falsetto.

1:09:31 > 1:09:35# If ever I would leave you It wouldn't be in summer

1:09:35 > 1:09:38# Seeing you in summer I never would go. #

1:09:38 > 1:09:40And I can't do it anymore now.

1:09:40 > 1:09:49# If ever I would leave you It wouldn't be in summer

1:09:49 > 1:09:57# Seeing you in summer I never would go. #

1:09:57 > 1:10:00It was very, very difficult for me.

1:10:00 > 1:10:04I got to tell you, I earned my money on that one.

1:10:04 > 1:10:11# No, never could I leave you

1:10:11 > 1:10:15# At all. #

1:10:16 > 1:10:19Some of the guys in the orchestra knew me,

1:10:19 > 1:10:22but they had no idea that I could do this kind of work

1:10:22 > 1:10:25because they knew me as a pop singer.

1:10:25 > 1:10:29They got up and were applauding, "Hey, Gene, what are you doing?"

1:10:29 > 1:10:32"Oh, you know, you know. I can do all this stuff."

1:10:35 > 1:10:39There were some hit musicals even as the form faded away.

1:10:40 > 1:10:42One is a firm British favourite.

1:10:44 > 1:10:46One of the last quality musicals

1:10:46 > 1:10:48to come out of Hollywood at the end of this age

1:10:48 > 1:10:54was the American and British production of Oliver.

1:10:54 > 1:10:58This 1968 classic has, one could say, a "twist" in the tale.

1:10:59 > 1:11:04Eight-year-old Mark Lester was cast in the lead role of Oliver.

1:11:04 > 1:11:06I must have just looked right.

1:11:06 > 1:11:09I think I just kind of, you know, they thought

1:11:09 > 1:11:12"Well, this kid obviously looks right and he can't do anything,

1:11:12 > 1:11:16"but we'll just put him in front of the camera and see what we can do."

1:11:16 > 1:11:20Lester was almost perfect for the part.

1:11:20 > 1:11:22There was just one problem.

1:11:23 > 1:11:25My voice, I never really had a voice.

1:11:25 > 1:11:28It certainly hasn't improved. In fact it's probably got worse.

1:11:28 > 1:11:31To the point where my kids would tell me to stop singing

1:11:31 > 1:11:35if I would endeavour to try and break into song.

1:11:36 > 1:11:40By spring 1968, production at Shepperton Studios

1:11:40 > 1:11:42was almost finished.

1:11:42 > 1:11:45But the legendary American musical director Johnny Green

1:11:45 > 1:11:49was still struggling to find a voice for Oliver.

1:11:49 > 1:11:52My father went through lots and lots and lots of kids.

1:11:52 > 1:11:55Hundreds, actually. And they wound up with three.

1:11:55 > 1:11:59And each time Columbia Studios, who produced the movie, said,

1:11:59 > 1:12:02"No, we don't like that voice."

1:12:02 > 1:12:06And the film was going to be then late for release as a result.

1:12:09 > 1:12:14On April the 3rd 1968, Kathe Green went to see her father

1:12:14 > 1:12:15on the sound stage.

1:12:17 > 1:12:22He was in the process of testing boys' voices.

1:12:22 > 1:12:28So I was at the back of the booth and I hummed the correct melody.

1:12:28 > 1:12:31And my father, who can be very intimidating, whipped around -

1:12:31 > 1:12:32"Who did that?"

1:12:34 > 1:12:36It was me.

1:12:36 > 1:12:39And he finally got me to say that I had done that.

1:12:39 > 1:12:41He said, "Can you lip-synch?"

1:12:41 > 1:12:46I had no idea what he was asking but I said, "Yeah."

1:12:46 > 1:12:50He said, "Go to my secretary's office, learn the song,

1:12:50 > 1:12:51"be back here at four."

1:12:53 > 1:12:55And that's what happened.

1:12:55 > 1:12:57What's in the film - Where Is Love? -

1:12:57 > 1:13:00what's in the film is the test that I did that day.

1:13:00 > 1:13:07# Where is love?

1:13:07 > 1:13:13# Does it fall from skies above?

1:13:13 > 1:13:19# Is it underneath the willow tree

1:13:19 > 1:13:27# That I've been dreaming of?

1:13:27 > 1:13:33# Where is she?

1:13:33 > 1:13:39# Who I close my eyes to see? #

1:13:39 > 1:13:42Oh, you wouldn't want me to.

1:13:42 > 1:13:43You wouldn't want me to sing.

1:13:43 > 1:13:48It would destroy that wonderful image of that little boy singing.

1:13:48 > 1:13:50So just...just don't go there.

1:13:53 > 1:13:55That little boy's face, he just draws you in.

1:13:57 > 1:14:01What's on the screen says it all, I think.

1:14:03 > 1:14:05I just became him.

1:14:05 > 1:14:07Where he swallows, I was really swallowing.

1:14:07 > 1:14:14# When I see the face of someone who... #

1:14:14 > 1:14:16Where he cries, I was really crying.

1:14:16 > 1:14:22# I can mean something to... #

1:14:22 > 1:14:25Oliver has to cry and tears roll down his face,

1:14:25 > 1:14:28which is actually quite a difficult thing to do.

1:14:28 > 1:14:33So Carol Reed devised this garland of onions

1:14:33 > 1:14:37that they put round my neck, and it's out of shot, obviously,

1:14:37 > 1:14:41but these onions sort of developed, and over about a couple of minutes,

1:14:41 > 1:14:45my eyes were starting to well up, and that's how we got the shot.

1:14:45 > 1:14:49I had no idea! Oh, my God.

1:14:49 > 1:14:53A garland of onions he had round his neck?

1:14:53 > 1:15:00In 1969, Oliver won six Oscars. One was for Best Musical Score.

1:15:01 > 1:15:03So, this is the Oscar -

1:15:03 > 1:15:07one of five that my father earned for his work in pictures.

1:15:07 > 1:15:09This is the Oliver Oscar.

1:15:11 > 1:15:14And because of my work on the film with him,

1:15:14 > 1:15:19he gave me a little Oscar to go on my charm bracelet.

1:15:19 > 1:15:24I think Kathe did an incredibly good job with the vocals.

1:15:24 > 1:15:29The singing looked realistic, nobody actually knew

1:15:29 > 1:15:32that it wasn't my voice until much, much later.

1:15:37 > 1:15:43Being recognised for being the singing voice of Oliver is...

1:15:43 > 1:15:45awesome.

1:15:45 > 1:15:47Makes me very happy.

1:15:51 > 1:15:55By the 1970s, the movies were tougher and grittier.

1:15:55 > 1:15:59It was the era of Easy Riders and Raging Bulls,

1:15:59 > 1:16:02of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

1:16:03 > 1:16:05The musical all but died out.

1:16:06 > 1:16:08With it went work for the secret singers.

1:16:10 > 1:16:13My mother used to jokingly always say one reason why she got out

1:16:13 > 1:16:16of the business is because they started making these sex films

1:16:16 > 1:16:19and different things and they needed to call in a dub to come in

1:16:19 > 1:16:20and do moaning and groaning.

1:16:20 > 1:16:23She said, "You know, I'm a professional."

1:16:23 > 1:16:25And they wanted her to audition to do that.

1:16:25 > 1:16:28She would say, "They can moan and groan on their own,

1:16:28 > 1:16:30"they don't need a dub to come in and do that kind of thing."

1:16:37 > 1:16:40At last, ghost singers began to be credited

1:16:40 > 1:16:41for their musical contributions.

1:16:42 > 1:16:45Time Magazine actually gave me the title

1:16:45 > 1:16:48"The Ghostess with the Mostest".

1:16:48 > 1:16:51Not quite a rhyme, but close enough.

1:16:51 > 1:16:55And that stuck, I felt that was a fantastic kind of handle.

1:16:55 > 1:17:00Now it's a blessing because the name has a certain luminosity.

1:17:00 > 1:17:02And now I can still go ahead and do what I do

1:17:02 > 1:17:06in my concerts and operas and things.

1:17:06 > 1:17:10When Hollywood musical soundtracks were re-released on CD, and later

1:17:10 > 1:17:16iTunes, many secret singers finally received recognition for their work.

1:17:16 > 1:17:19When soundtracks get re-released on CD,

1:17:19 > 1:17:24when you have DVDs, DVD extras, it's fairly apparent that these

1:17:24 > 1:17:29are the singers of those parts in those movie musicals.

1:17:29 > 1:17:33So much, in fact, that if you go to iTunes and you want to...

1:17:33 > 1:17:37I don't know, download a song from West Side Story, it will say

1:17:37 > 1:17:39Marni Nixon, it won't say Natalie Wood.

1:17:39 > 1:17:42So time has been kind to these very gifted artists

1:17:42 > 1:17:46and they finally are getting the recognition that they deserve.

1:17:46 > 1:17:50Ladies and gentlemen, Hollywood's Secret Singing Stars.

1:17:52 > 1:17:56# You thought those singing stars could really sing

1:17:56 > 1:17:59# You watch them as they fill the silver screen... #

1:17:59 > 1:18:03In the 1990s, Betty Wand and India Adams

1:18:03 > 1:18:07toured with a third ghost singer, Annette Warren.

1:18:07 > 1:18:11They called themselves Hollywood's Secret Singing Stars.

1:18:12 > 1:18:16Times have changed, where it's been a long enough period to where,

1:18:16 > 1:18:19"Hey, why not? Let's tell people that we really did the work."

1:18:19 > 1:18:20And that's where you are.

1:18:20 > 1:18:23# But when it was time

1:18:23 > 1:18:25# For rhythm and rhyme

1:18:25 > 1:18:30# Did she sing one note? No! #

1:18:30 > 1:18:34It's always satisfying getting public recognition.

1:18:34 > 1:18:38# ..And could croon as well as swing... #

1:18:38 > 1:18:42We'd played a lot of theatres and we had a lot of fun doing it,

1:18:42 > 1:18:43it was great.

1:18:43 > 1:18:47# Well, we're here to tell you what you didn't realise

1:18:47 > 1:18:50# That we're the ones it's called dubbing

1:18:50 > 1:18:52# We're the ones sometimes ghosting

1:18:52 > 1:18:54# We're the ones

1:18:54 > 1:18:57# Hollywood's secret singing stars

1:18:57 > 1:19:01# We make the movie stars...

1:19:05 > 1:19:06# Sing! #

1:19:10 > 1:19:15It was the 21st century before the movie musical really revived.

1:19:15 > 1:19:19A new wave of musicals such as Mamma Mia!...

1:19:20 > 1:19:22..Sweeney Todd...

1:19:22 > 1:19:26and Chicago reflected modern audiences' altered expectations

1:19:26 > 1:19:28of their stars.

1:19:30 > 1:19:35So even if, say, Renee Zellweger doesn't have an A+ musical voice,

1:19:35 > 1:19:38or Richard Gere doesn't have an A+ musical voice

1:19:38 > 1:19:43they are A+ movie stars and there is something about the connectedness

1:19:43 > 1:19:46of their voice to who they are that has its own integrity,

1:19:46 > 1:19:48and audiences seem to embrace that.

1:19:51 > 1:19:55It seemed like a really great opportunity to have a lot of fun

1:19:55 > 1:19:58and to be...

1:19:58 > 1:20:04to be allowed to be free, physically, musically, emotionally.

1:20:04 > 1:20:07I rather love the idea that

1:20:07 > 1:20:10actors who are not normally known as singers

1:20:10 > 1:20:14are now being asked to sing in films.

1:20:14 > 1:20:21When it bothers me is when the songs require some seriously good singing.

1:20:21 > 1:20:24Now, I don't think of Mamma Mia as the kind of film

1:20:24 > 1:20:28that would require, you know, Marni Nixon.

1:20:30 > 1:20:34Baz Luhrmann's casting of Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman

1:20:34 > 1:20:38in his 2001 movie Moulin Rouge had broken the mould.

1:20:39 > 1:20:43- # But I love you... - # I love you

1:20:43 > 1:20:48- # Till the end... - # Until the end of time

1:20:48 > 1:20:52# Come what may... #

1:20:52 > 1:20:56We hear the kind of flutters in their voice,

1:20:56 > 1:20:59the moments when they stumble, the pauses.

1:20:59 > 1:21:04I think there's a way in which that resonates very differently.

1:21:04 > 1:21:08It's palpable on screen and I think palpable to the audience.

1:21:08 > 1:21:14# Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste

1:21:14 > 1:21:20# It all revolves around you. #

1:21:20 > 1:21:25This affects musicals. Because musicals was about perfection.

1:21:25 > 1:21:29The perfect voice, the perfect love affair, the perfect romance.

1:21:29 > 1:21:31We don't make movies like that

1:21:31 > 1:21:34and we're not expecting those kind of stars anymore.

1:21:34 > 1:21:42# Come what may... #

1:21:42 > 1:21:46Luhrmann retained some imperfections in his stars' voices,

1:21:46 > 1:21:49despite modern audio technology that could have refined them.

1:21:55 > 1:21:57There's just a lot more help in the booth now.

1:21:57 > 1:22:01There's a lot more technical pitch correction and things,

1:22:01 > 1:22:04that a lot of actors can get away with a lot more.

1:22:07 > 1:22:10That may not be the most politically correct thing to say

1:22:10 > 1:22:12but it is definitely the truth.

1:22:12 > 1:22:16The modern engineers are really...

1:22:16 > 1:22:18miracle-workers, in some cases.

1:22:21 > 1:22:25In the era of vocoders, it's surprising to me

1:22:25 > 1:22:29that people still get so upset when we discover that our favourite

1:22:29 > 1:22:36performers are lip-synching or performing to other voices.

1:22:36 > 1:22:41The voice is so technologically mediated in contemporary music.

1:22:41 > 1:22:44# Come on, get your, get your head in the game... #

1:22:44 > 1:22:46And these days people do get upset.

1:22:48 > 1:22:54In 2006, teen heart-throb Zac Ephron was ghosted by Drew Seeley

1:22:54 > 1:22:57in the Disney TV movie High School Musical.

1:22:57 > 1:23:01# Maybe this time we'll hit the right notes... #

1:23:01 > 1:23:06The following year, Ephron publicly admitted it.

1:23:06 > 1:23:11Modern audiences have a different idea about musical stars.

1:23:11 > 1:23:16Today, they expect their musical stars to do their own singing.

1:23:16 > 1:23:19They felt a little betrayed because they had discovered this

1:23:19 > 1:23:23new talent, they had embraced him, they had made him a star

1:23:23 > 1:23:27and they found out that some of his star quality was manufactured.

1:23:27 > 1:23:32# Why am I feeling so wrong? #

1:23:32 > 1:23:36In the age of the internet and social media, ghost singing

1:23:36 > 1:23:39such as this can no longer be kept under wraps.

1:23:39 > 1:23:41I better shake this. Yikes.

1:23:44 > 1:23:47Hollywood, or what's left of Hollywood,

1:23:47 > 1:23:49is not able to keep secrets anymore.

1:23:49 > 1:23:53They do not have the power that they used to have over the press.

1:23:53 > 1:23:57So today we know about all the stuff that goes on.

1:23:57 > 1:23:58There's no secrets anymore.

1:24:01 > 1:24:05With the international blockbuster movie of Les Miserables,

1:24:05 > 1:24:07the story comes full circle.

1:24:08 > 1:24:13Director Tom Hooper not only refused to use ghost singers,

1:24:13 > 1:24:16he insisted that Les Miserables was produced without playback.

1:24:18 > 1:24:22The performers all sang live on set.

1:24:22 > 1:24:25It was incredibly daunting, but it was also really liberating,

1:24:25 > 1:24:28because it means that you can be spontaneous while you're performing,

1:24:28 > 1:24:32rather than spending 70% of your mind power thinking about

1:24:32 > 1:24:35lip-syncing to an album you recorded a month or two before.

1:24:35 > 1:24:39From the very beginning, I wanted to do Les Miserables live.

1:24:39 > 1:24:41And I think this was partly a personal reaction

1:24:41 > 1:24:46to the movie musicals I've seen, where, when it's to playback,

1:24:46 > 1:24:52I...I always feel a distancing effect.

1:24:52 > 1:24:56With a song like Dreamed A Dream, this character is really ripping

1:24:56 > 1:24:59this song out of her heart in a moment of great crisis.

1:24:59 > 1:25:05# He took my childhood in his stride

1:25:05 > 1:25:09# But he was gone when autumn came. #

1:25:11 > 1:25:14If you look at Anne's performance of Dreamed A Dream in detail,

1:25:14 > 1:25:17she quite often takes non-musical pauses.

1:25:19 > 1:25:23At the end of the introduction she says, "Then it all went wrong."

1:25:23 > 1:25:27You know, she takes, she takes a huge pause there.

1:25:28 > 1:25:30# There was a time...

1:25:36 > 1:25:40# Then it all went wrong. #

1:25:48 > 1:25:52I don't think you could have gotten that kind of performance

1:25:52 > 1:25:55in a pre-record...

1:25:55 > 1:25:57because it was live,

1:25:57 > 1:26:01because she was definitely in the moment,

1:26:01 > 1:26:05and I'm sure that's what the director was after.

1:26:05 > 1:26:09And I think that, in her case, it was absolutely perfect.

1:26:09 > 1:26:16# So different now from what it seemed... #

1:26:20 > 1:26:22We see her go from very vulnerable

1:26:22 > 1:26:26to hard in the eyes, and shut-down and repressed.

1:26:26 > 1:26:30# Now life has killed the dream... #

1:26:30 > 1:26:34And she does it within the space of that last line.

1:26:35 > 1:26:42# ..I dreamed. #

1:26:51 > 1:26:55It's possibly, for me, my favourite bit of acting in the entire moment.

1:26:55 > 1:26:59But it's a great example of how liberating her

1:26:59 > 1:27:04to control the tempo allows the emotion in.

1:27:09 > 1:27:13The era of the secret singers appears to be at an end.

1:27:14 > 1:27:17But does knowing the truth about ghost singing

1:27:17 > 1:27:21spoil our enjoyment of the classic movie musicals?

1:27:21 > 1:27:23Well, Hollywood is the dream factory.

1:27:23 > 1:27:26We all know that Superman doesn't really fly

1:27:26 > 1:27:28and rocket ships don't really go to Mars.

1:27:28 > 1:27:33But we embrace Hollywood's ability to construct

1:27:33 > 1:27:35these wonderful fantasies for us.

1:27:37 > 1:27:41They were beautiful to look at, great to listen to.

1:27:41 > 1:27:46They were fabulous entertainment and how can that ever go out of style?

1:27:49 > 1:27:54Feeling a great musical definitely is a very, very special experience.

1:27:54 > 1:27:57I'll try to take my grandkids to see it, I'll tell you that.

1:28:01 > 1:28:04I think it's an escapism anyway, the movies.

1:28:04 > 1:28:07Anyone that believes that that really happened

1:28:07 > 1:28:10then probably needs to have their head examined.

1:28:10 > 1:28:11But to actually have a film spoilt

1:28:11 > 1:28:15because the voices were not the original, I don't think so.

1:28:18 > 1:28:22You are so happy to see these films,

1:28:22 > 1:28:30you are so thrilled and delighted and charmed. Who cares?