Ramona (song)

"Ramona" is a 1928 song, with lyrics written by L. Wolfe Gilbert and music by Mabel Wayne.

History

It was created as the title song for the 1928 adventure film-romance Ramona (based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson). The song was used again in the 1936 remake of the movie. Ramona was recorded in 1928 by Dolores del Río for the film. Gene Austin's version charted for 17 weeks, eight weeks at #1, and easily topped a million in sales.

On record it was a popular hit, usually performed as a romantic ballad, sometimes with a Latin inflection by "Whispering" Jack Smith and, in an idiosyncratic arrangement recorded on 4 January 1928, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. The Paul Whiteman version, Victor 21214-A, featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, was #1 for 3 weeks on the Billboard charts in 1928. Gene Austin's recording was #1 for 8 weeks the same year. Ruth Etting recorded a version also that reached #10 It was a German, and Dutch number one hit in 1960 for the Blue Diamonds, arranged in an upbeat style similar to the Everly Brothers recordings of that period. A few years later it was a UK hit for The Bachelors. Singer Billy Walker revived the song for the country market in 1968, reaching the top 10 of the US country charts. In 1958 Jim Reeves recorded ramona for his lp Girls i have known.

Ramona

Ramona is an 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican-American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scots–Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. It has had more than 300 printings, and been adapted four times as a film. A play adaptation has been performed annually outdoors since 1923.

The novel's influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Its sentimental portrayal of Mexican colonial life contributed to establishing a unique cultural identity for the region. As its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines in the region, countless tourists visited who wanted to see the locations of the novel.

Plot summary

In Southern California, shortly after the Mexican-American War, a Scots-Native American orphan girl, Ramona, is raised by Señora Gonzaga Moreno, the sister of Ramona's deceased foster mother. Ramona is referred to as illegitimate in some summaries of the novel, but chapter 3 of the novel says that Ramona's parents were married by a priest in the San Gabriel Mission. Señora Moreno has raised Ramona as part of the family, giving her every luxury, but only because Ramona's foster mother had requested it as her dying wish. Because of Ramona's mixed Native American heritage, Moreno does not love her. That love is reserved for her only child, Felipe Moreno, whom she adores. Señora Moreno considers herself a Mexican, although California has recently been taken over by the United States. She hates the Americans, who have cut up her huge rancho after disputing her claim to it.

Ramona (1936 film)

Ramona is a 1936 American Technicolor drama film directed by Henry King, based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona. This was the third adaptation of the film, and the first one with sound. It starred Loretta Young and Don Ameche.

The New York Times praised its use of new Technicolor technology but found the plot "a piece of unadulterated hokum." It thought "Ramona is a pretty impossible rôle these heartless days" and Don Ameche "a bit too Oxonian" for a chief's son.

Plot

Ramona (Loretta Young), is a half-Indian girl who falls in love with the young man Felipe Moreno (Kent Taylor).

Cast

References

Ramona (1928 film)

Ramona is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Edwin Carewe, based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona, and starring Dolores del Rio and Warner Baxter.

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times found much to praise in what he called "an Indian love lyric": "This current offering is an extraordinarily beautiful production, intelligently directed and, with the exception of a few instances, splendidly acted. The scenic effects are charming.... The different episodes are told discreetly and with a good measure of suspense and sympathy. Some of the characters have been changed to enhance the dramatic worth of the picture, but this is pardonable, especially when one considers this subject as a whole."

This was the first United Artists film with a synchronized score and sound effects, but no dialogue, and so was not a talking picture.

The story had been filmed by D. W. Griffith in 1910 with Mary Pickford, remade in 1916 with Adda Gleason, and again in 1936 with Loretta Young.