A friend asked me to post this question about the video release of "Dawn to Dusk" ---a late 1930's film by Union Switch & Signal Co. about CTC installation on the CB&Q in Colorado east of Denver:
What is the name of the composer and classical music piece played at the end of that documentary film, at least in the video version?
Thanks.

George-

As the producer who first released this film on video, I used some music to enhance the original silent film.

The music used in the sequences where the Denver Zephyr is running is a piece that is very similar to the Superman theme but not the actual music from that film. We subscribe to music by a music production house and pay an annual fee to use their music. This piece is one of thousands they furnish but it's not cheap and they don't sell to retail stores.

I also used some dramatic music in the other scenes, some of it in a tongue-in-cheek fashion such as the scene where a door opens to the chief dispatcher's office. The shadowy effect in the film has kind of a film noir look so I added some 1940's detective music to that scene. Strangely, almost nobody has commented on that.

This is a black and white, silent film from 1937 made for and originally released by Union Switch & Signal Co. There are a couple of scenes that show signals in color and those were actually hand colored on the film by whoever printed it.

-Jim Herron

hrvideo@mindspring.com

Thanks for the reply, Jim.
My friend recognized one hypnotic musical piece from Tchaikovsky in the video. Other pieces, including the grand finale with the Denver Zephyr, seem vaguely Wagnerian. That's the piece he'd like to identify. Any chance the music-dubbing company could at least identify it? The same piece also was used in one of Carl Sagan's episodes of "Cosmos" some 20 years ago.
He did notice the suspenseful "film noir" scene when the CTC room door swings open to reveal the dispatcher at work with the "Uncle Adolf" type moustache! Humorous.
All the dubbed music in the video fit well.