Reel to Real

Jay Livingston and Ray Evans were two of the last surviving songwriters from Hollywood’s “golden age.” Now both deceased, when Johnson and I interviewed them about a decade ago, we couldn’t help but notice the three Oscar statuettes for best song resting on Livingston’s grand piano in his Bel Air home. The awards were bestowed on the duo for “Buttons and Bows,” “Mona Lisa” and “Que, Sera, Sera.”

When film scoring dried up, Livingston and Evans made a living penning the themes to such TV classics as “Bonanza” and “Mr. Ed.”

Ironically, their biggest song hit, “Silver Bells,” written in 1951 for the Bob Hope film, “The Lemon Drop Kid,” provided them both with a life-time annuity in lucrative royalties. The holiday classic came about quite by accident.

“We were told to write a Christmas song for Hope’s film,” said Livingston. “We both thought that a Christmas song was doomed to fail, but the studio brass was intractable.”

Fortunately, sitting on Evans’ desk at the time was a small silver bell that provided inspiration for the song.

“Ray and I stared at the bell and write a song we titled ‘Tinkle Bell.’ We thought we’d insert it into the film and never hear it played again.”

If they had kept their title, their prophesy would have most likely come true. Livingston’s wife questioned the choice of the title. “She thought we were crazy,” he said. “She pointed out the fact that tinkle has a bathroom connotation. It was a revelation to us!”

Evans continued, “The next day Jay came into the office and said we have to change the title. Our eyes finally focused on the silver bell on my desk, and we changed the title. We never changed a word of the song except that “Tinkle Bell’ became ‘Silver Bells.’ “

We know the rest of the story! “Silver Bells” is definitely a holiday song classic.

What are your favorite holiday songs and what special memories do they invoke?