Main Theme from the Soundtrack of How to Marry a Millionaire

I know this sounds like a strange request when everyone else is requesting mournful, reflective songs. But one of my strongest memories of that time is the stark difference in the mood in the city before 9/11 and after. One of the last things I heard in the days before 9/11 was David Garland's soundtrack show. He was playing the soundtrack from How to Marry a Millionaire. It was hopeful, Gershwineque, sorta generic film music that typified post-war, confident America and New York City--in fact, I thought I had heard parts of the theme used as stock "New York City" background music in other movies. In the hours and days just after 9/11, I kept thinking back to that upbeat, optimistic, bright and happy soundtrack as a marker between the world we had left behind and the world we were now entering. The tunes of How To Marry A Millionaire seemed to symbolize the city's loss of innocence. But now, ten years later, it should also remind us that hope never dies.

Leah Maddrie