Baby Elephant Walk (Song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Baby Elephant Walk” is a song composed in 1961 by Henry Mancini for the 1962 film Hatari! Lyrics by Hal David were not used in the film version. The instrumental earned Mancini a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement in 1963.

Background

The tune was written for an impromptu scene in Hatari! in which Dallas (Elsa Martinelli) led three baby elephants to a waterhole to bathe. The catchy simplicity has made it one of Mancini’s most popular works, appearing on many compilation albums.

Hal David composed lyrics for it, which were not used for the film but appear in the printed sheet music. Pat Boone used the lyrics in his recording released by Dot Records in 1965. Mancini’s version was not released as a single.

Brass instruments (including repeated blasts from the tuba) and woodwind elements are combined to convey a large and plodding elephant toddler that is filled with the exuberance of youth. Mancini uses a calliope introduction to suggest the sound of a circus. A cheeky melody is then played over this on a clarinet, and the song concludes with the calliope playing the old four-note phrase known as “Good Evening, Friends”.

The overall style is as that of boogie-woogie, as Mancini explained:

I looked at the scene several times [and] I thought, ‘Yeah, they’re walking eight to the bar’, and that brought something to mind, an old Will Bradley boogie-woogie number called ‘Down the Road a Piece‘ … Those little elephants were definitely walking boogie-woogie, eight to the bar. I wrote ‘Baby Elephant Walk’ as a result.

The cheerful tone, like that of Mancini’s “The Pink Panther Theme“,

presents a stark contrast to more melancholy Mancini standards such as “Moon River“.

Due to its “goofy” sound, it is often used in a humorous context. As the allmusic.com album review states, “if Hatari! is memorable for anything, it’s for the incredibly goofy ‘Baby Elephant Walk,’ which has gone on to be musical shorthand for kookiness of any stripe. Get this tune in your head and it sticks.”

Chart history

“Baby Elephant Walk” performed by Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra peaked at #48 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1962 as well as #10 on the Easy Listening chart.

Cover versions

The song was recorded by a number of performers in the 1960s, including:

• Dalida, who recorded Petit Éléphant Twist in 1962, with French lyrics.

• The Fabulous Echoes on their 1963 Diamond Records album Those Fabulous Echoes

• Bill Haley & His Comets who recorded a version for Orfeon Records in 1964.

• Singles by Lawrence Welk and by the Miniature Men both reached the Billboard Top 100 the same week in 1962.

• Quincy Jones includes it on his 1964 album Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini.

• In 1963, Brazilian pre-Jovem Guarda group Trio Esperança recorded a vocal version of this song, titled “O Passo do Elefantinho”, with lyrics written by Ruth Blanco. This version achieved #14 on the 1963 Brazil radio charts.

• Bert Kaempfert

• Denmark Street Big Band

• Pat Boone

• G Hutch Organ

• Sir James Galway

• Saint-Petersburg Symphony Orchestra

• Living Guitars

• Bobby Hackett

Popular culture

• For a period of time, it was used as the theme song to The Ramblin’ Rod Show, a children’s morning cartoon show.
• Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra recorded the song as “Tiny Elephant Parade” on their 1990 album Ska Para Toujou.

• The first few seconds of the song were interpolated in the 1980 arcade game Crazy Climber as the 5-second intro tune to each building (level).

• In 1986, the song was featured in Cheers season 5 episode 10: “Everyone Imitates Art”, in which Woody whistles the song.

• In 1990 the song was featured in The Simpsons season 2 episode 5: “Dancin’ Homer“, in which a drunk Homer dances to the song which inspires the Springfield Isotopes baseball team to win.

• In 1994 Willi One Blood sampled the melody of “Baby Elephant Walk” for the chorus of the song “Whiney Whiney (What Really Drives Me Crazy)” as featured on the soundtrack for the film Dumb and Dumber.

• In 1996 the song was featured in Friends season 3 episode 7: “The One with the Race Car Bed”. Joey hums the song during the episode’s opening scene.

• In 2016, the song was used in a Land Rover TV ad.

Hatari! (Film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hatari! (pronounced [hɑtɑri], Swahili for “Danger!”) is a 1962 American adventure romantic comedy film starring John Wayne as the leader of a group of professional game catchers in Africa. Directed by Howard Hawks, it was shot in Technicolor and filmed on location in northern Tanganyika (in what is now Tanzania). The film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the scenic backdrop of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano.

At the 35th Academy Awards, Russell Harlan was nominated for Best Color Cinematography for his work on Hatari!, but the award went to Freddie Young for his work on Lawrence of Arabia.

Plot

In Tanganyika in the 1960s, the Momella Game Company, owned by Frenchwoman Brandy de la Court, captures animals for zoos and circuses using off-road vehicles, lassos, and cages.

The crew consists of Irish-American Sean Mercer, who heads the capture expeditions; retired German race car driver Kurt Müller; Mexican Bullfighter Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez; Native American sharpshooter Little Wolf (aka “The Indian”); zoophobic former NYC cabbie “Pockets”; and several native-Tanzanians.

Kurt and the Indian drive a herding jeep to force animals toward a larger capture truck driven by Pockets. An aggressive rhino gores the Indian’s leg during a pursuit; the crew transports him to Arusha hospital, where French marksman Charles “Chips” Maurey approaches them, wanting the Indian’s job. Kurt, offended, punches him. Chips, the only one present with the Indian’s blood type, agrees to undergo a transfusion to save him; Sean then offers him a job.

Returning to their compound, the crew finds Italian photographer Anna-Maria “Dallas” D’Alessandro has arrived, though everyone was expecting a male photographer. Because she was sent by the Basel zoo, Momella’s biggest client, Sean reluctantly allows her to accompany the crew on a giraffe capture. Despite many rookie mishaps, Dallas enjoys herself, and everyone except Sean votes to let her stay.

The next day, Chips arrives and has a sharpshooting contest with Kurt; afterwards, the two become friends. Dallas and Sean gradually become mutually attracted, though Sean resists, as his first fiancée abandoned him. Meanwhile, Kurt and Chips actively pursue Brandy; Pockets reveals to Dallas he secretly has feelings for Brandy, too. The Indian is released from the hospital; still shaken, he makes Sean agree to hold off capturing more rhinos until the end of the season.

On a multi-day trip, the crew passes through a village where a rogue female elephant has been killed by a game warden. They find her orphaned calf, and Dallas adopts it despite Sean’s protests. Chaos ensues when the crew helps Dallas obtain goats to get milk for the calf; that night, Dallas apologizes to Sean, and coerces him into a kiss.

After another orphaned elephant calf shows up at the compound, the local Arusha tribe, impressed by how the elephants follow Dallas, adopt her into the tribe. They name her “Mama Tembo” (“Mother of Elephants”). A third elephant orphan later makes its way into the compound, infuriating Sean.

The crew capture a zebra, an oryx, a gazelle, a leopard, and a buffalo. Later, the herding car blows a tire and flips while pursuing a wildebeest; Kurt’s shoulder is dislocated and Chips’ leg is badly sprained in the wreck. The same day, Pockets falls off a tall fence. He is unhurt, but Brandy shows the most concern for him out of the three, indicating whom she loves.

Pockets successfully launches a small rocket attached to a net to trap nearly 500 vervet monkeys in a tree, surprising everyone, including himself. A rhino is the only order left to fulfill; the crew finds an angry bull rhino, and, although it escapes once, they safely capture it, much to the Indian’s relief.

The season’s work done, Dallas fears Sean will always see her as he saw his former fiancée; she writes a farewell letter and flees the compound. Sean, helped by the crew and the three baby elephants, tracks her to Arusha, where they reconcile. Sean and Dallas are married and prepare to spend their wedding night in Sean’s room; however, the three elephants barge in and destroy the bed.

Cast

• John Wayne as Sean Mercer
• Hardy Krüger as Kurt Müller
• Elsa Martinelli as Anna Maria “Dallas” D’Alessandro
• Red Buttons as “Pockets”
• Gérard Blain as Charles “Chips” Maurey
• Bruce Cabot as Little Wolf (“The Indian”)
• Michèle Girardon as Brandy de la Court
• Valentin de Vargas as Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez
• Eduard Franz as Dr. Sanderson
• Cathy Lewis as the voice of “Arusha Control” on the radio (uncredited)
• Queenie Leonard as Nurse (uncredited, scenes deleted)

Production

While Hatari! is bookended by the two attempts to capture a rhinoceros, it otherwise has a very loose script, and, like many other works by Howard Hawks, is principally structured around the relationships among the characters. At the start of production all Hawks knew was that he wanted to make a movie about people who catch animals in Africa for zoos, which he saw as a dangerous profession that would allow for exciting scenes, the likes of which had never been seen on-screen before. Much of the script was written by Hawks’ favorite writer, Leigh Brackett, after the production returned from Africa with footage of the characters catching various animals, and before and during studio takes in Hollywood.

Hawks increased his knowledge of animal-catching by studying the work of the famous South African animal conservationist Dr. Ian Player. In 1952, South Africa was eliminating large wild animals to protect livestock, and only 300 white rhinos survived. Player then invented his famed rhino catching technique to relocate and save the white rhinos. His project was called “Operation Rhino”, and it was recorded in the renowned documentary film of the same name.

Another source of inspiration for Hawks was the famous animal photographer Ylla, so he had Brackett add the character of Dallas to the script. Hawks said, “We took that part of the story from a real character, a German girl. She was the best animal photographer in the world.”

Hawks stated in interviews that he had originally planned to star both Clark Gable, who had just played a rough-and-ready wild horse catcher (who did his own stunts) in The Misfits, and Wayne in the film, until Gable’s death ruled that out.

Much of the film revolves around scenes of the cast chasing animals in jeeps and trucks across the plains of East Africa. Ngorongoro farm, purchased by Hardy Kruger after the filming, served as the movie’s setting. The animals pursued are all live, wild, and untrained. Capturing animals by chasing them down is banned today both due to concerns over strain upon all those involved in a chase (targeted and not) and the development of effective animal tranquilizers and powerful dart guns to subdue those ultimately selected.

According to director Howard Hawks, all of the animal captures in the film were performed by the actors themselves—not by stuntmen or animal handlers (although a stand-in, Mildred Lucy “Rusty” Walkley, was used for some scenes involving Elsa Martinelli’s character). When Hawks interviewed de Vargas, he said production would be very dangerous, as there would be no double, and showed de Vargas a documentary. Government-licensed animal catcher Willy de Beer was hired by Hawks as a technical adviser, and he and his assistants worked with the actors on how to go about catching the animals. During filming, the rhino really did escape and the actors had to recapture it, which Hawks included in the completed film for its realism.

Much of the audio in the capture sequences had to be re-dubbed due to John Wayne’s cursing while wrestling with the animals, and Hawks said Wayne admitted being scared during some of the action scenes, particularly those in which he is sitting in the exposed “catching seat” as a truck hurtles over terrain full of hidden holes and obstacles. According to Hawks, Wayne “had the feeling with every swerve that the car was going to overturn as he hung on for dear life, out in the open with only a seat belt for support, motor roaring, body jarring every which-way, animals kicking dirt and rocks and the thunder of hundreds of hooves increasing the din in his ears.” On the other hand, one evening, while Buttons and Wayne were playing cards outside, a leopard came out of the bush towards them, but, when Buttons mentioned the approaching leopard, Wayne reportedly simply said, “See what he wants.”

Filming in Africa was not only dangerous for the actors, however. De Vargas said de Beer was mauled by a loose baby leopard that sprang on him from a tree, and “came back with his arm covered in bandages and throat completely wrapped, but he just shrugged it off.”

As the animals frequently refused to make noise “on cue” (in particular, the baby elephants refused to trumpet inside populated areas), local Arusha game experts and zoo collectors were hired to do “animal voice impersonations” for the film.

Michèle Girardon spoke no English when she was cast and, according to a July 1961 LIFE magazine profile of the actress, she taught herself English while on the set.

John Wayne wore a belt with the famed “Red River D” from his starring role in Hawkes’ iconic Red River on its buckle, as he did in many of his movies. It can be clearly seen in the scene where Sean Mercer radios “Arusha Control” after The Indian is gored by the rhino at the start of the film, and again in the scene where Sonja (the cheetah) wanders into the bathroom while Dallas is bathing and introduces herself by licking Dallas and purring.

The memorable Henry Mancini tune “Baby Elephant Walk” was written for and first appeared in Hatari!.

Another memorable musical moment from the film is a duet of Stephen Foster‘s “Old Folks at Home” (aka “Swanee River”), with Dallas on piano and Pockets on harmonica.

Reception

Ngorongoro farm, owned by Hardy Kruger from 1960 to 1973, served as the movie’s setting.

Hatari! grossed $12,923,077 at the box office, $7 million of which came from U.S. theatrical rentals. It was the 7th highest-grossing film of 1962.

Jean-Luc Godard listed Hatari! as one of the best films of its year of release.

The film was recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2005: AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated

Novelization

Michael Milner adapted Leigh Brackett’s screenplay for the film into a paperback novel published by Pocket Books in 1962 as a tie-in to the movie. The cover of the novel features the movie poster of the rhino attacking the catching truck. The novel goes into more detail about some aspects of the animal-catching, particularly Pockets’ rocket-net project, as well as about the pursuit of Brandy by Kurt, Chips, and Pockets. The book is a bit edgier than the film, but it is a fast read and faithful to the movie. The novel’s ASIN number is B000BJUQP4.

Comic book adaptation

• Dell Movie Classic: Hatari! (January 1963)

Watch The Trailer

Hatari! Music from the Paramount Motion Picture Score

Hatari! Music from the Paramount Motion Picture Score is the soundtrack from the 1962 movie Hatari! starring John Wayne. The music was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini. It included the hit single “Baby Elephant Walk“. It entered Billboard magazine’s pop album chart on July 28, 1962, peaked at No. 4, and remained on the chart for 35 weeks. AllMusic gave the album a rating of two-and-a-half stars. Reviewer Ted Mills called it “a fun blend of jazz and Afro-exotica, jungle drums mixed with a classic bop combo.”

Track listing

Side A

1. “Theme from ‘Hatari!'” (Henry Mancini) [2:53]

2. “Baby Elephant Walk” (Henry Mancini) [2:40]

3. “Just for Tonight” (Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael) [2:00]

4. “Your Father’s Feathers” (Henry Mancini) [3:30]

5. “Night Side” (Henry Mancini) [3:22]

6. “Big Band Bwana” (Henry Mancini) [3:01]

Side B

1. “The Sounds of Hatari” (Henry Mancini) [6:41]

2. “The Soft Touch” (Henry Mancini) [2:43]

3. “Crocodile, Go Home!” (Henry Mancini) [2:53]

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