As we approach announcing our choice to play Laura in His Stretch of Texas Ground, which is the sequel to My Stretch of Texas Ground, I want to remind people that the name of this character came from Laura in the 1944 film-noir Laura which starred Gene Tierney, who was one of the great screen beauties of the 1940s. Her parents spelled her name "Gene" instead of "Jean" because she was named after an uncle.
In the movie, a detective, played by Dana Andrews, falls madly and obsessively in love with Laura-while investigating her murder! And one of the things he does is sit in her apartment and listen, over and over, to her favorite music, a piece of orchestral music, which was written by David Raksin. David taught film score composition at UCLA in the 1960s, and it just so happens that I was a student there at the time- although I knew nothing about him or his music or that movie at the time.
But, it was after the movie came out that they decided to turn the Theme to Laura into a song, and they brought in the great Johnny Mercer to do it. And he wrote some very stirring lyrics for it which make Laura the greatest song ever written about a woman by name, in my opinion.
Here is another Johnny, Johnny Mathis, singing it. And he points out beforehand how visual the lyrics are. And that was the genius of Johnny Mercer, to write lyrics that evoke visual images that you can clearly see- in your mind.
So, here's to Laura- the face in the misty light.
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