Deryk Barker writes:

>Don't forget the geneartion who were surreptitiously
>introduced to CM by Bugs Bunny, Flash Gordon and/or The Lone Ranger.

That's me all right, if you leave out Bugs Bunny. (Lots of pre-Bugs
cartoons used Mozarts's alla turca rondo, though.) I never saw Flash
Gordon after I was nine, so all I can remember from it for sure is Les
Preludes. Does anyone remember Captain Video, c. 1952? It was on just
before Howdy Doody.  Anyway, it opened with a rocket ship hovering amidst
the stars to the opening strains of the Flying Dutchman overture. I've
always thought that electrifying music was wasted on a silly story about
redemption through love.

The Lone Ranger was a treasure trove, of course. In addition to the
various snippets written for it, there was a more or less continuous
soundtrack in which one could hear brief excerpts from, among other
things, The Flying Dutchman Overture (not the opening, though) the 1812
Overture, the New World Symphony and even Schubert 5. Not to mention the
"Lone Ranger Song" as I called it when I was about five. I guess the
William Tell Overture was the first piece of classical music I knew by
name, or at least among the first.

"Richard Todd" <[log in to unmask]>