Twenty Thousand Hertz Latest Episode: The Iconic Sound Of The 20th Century Fox Fanfare
In this week’s episode, Twenty Thousand Hertz takes a trip through more than 100 years of Hollywood history. The podcast’s latest episode reveals how the 20th Century Fox Fanfare became one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world… With those instantly iconic drum rolls and orchestral blasts of horns, the fanfare has introduced thousands of films, and for millions of people it means one thing: movie time. But between the rise of streaming and the acquisition of the brand by Disney, host Dallas Taylor wonders what the future holds for the influential melody.
Through interviews with film historian Aubrey Solomon and composer/conductor David Newman — whose legendary father Alfred Newman wrote the 20th Century Fox fanfare (and whose family has earned more Oscar nominations than any other) — the episode traces the evolution of this emblematic theme. Beginning before sound came to movies, the story goes on to discuss how the fanfare first developed from the vision of dynamo studio head Darryl Zanuck.
The music declared that whatever the audience was about to see would be the greatest movie ever. It was a tactic that worked through the 1930s and ’40s, but when TV started eating into ticket sales in the ’50s, it was the innovation of widescreen CinemaScope that helped…
