Texas plug at Sochi Olympics

[huisache]

channel surfing last night I ran across NBC and the closing ceremonies and stopped when I heard some familiar music.

Why are they playing the theme from "Giant" at the Russian olympic games?

Then it hit: Giant was filmed in Marfa Texas but the score was written by Dimitri Tiomkin, from the Ukraine and the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music.

He also did Alamo, Guns of Navaronnem, High Noon, Friendly Persuasion, Gunfight at OK Corrall, the High and the Mighty, Rio Bravo and a few hundred others.

The AP story this morning mentioned music from Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky but not Tiomkin.

 

[Texanne]

In the 1960s, the Longhorn Band played Giant. I miss those days.

 

[Texanne]

Also, if you grew up in the 1960s in Dallas, you will recognize the theme from Giant as a tune that KLIF used in one of its promotional jingles.

This is the KLIF land,
The Lone Star State and KLIF Land ...

 

[accuratehorn]

The song was a staple of high school marching bands in the 1960's and 70's, maybe it still is.
"Giant" was the tune adopted by Galveston Ball High School to be its fight song, and I played it hundreds of time in the band there.