Stanley Kramer made the observation in 1970, "This is the most exciting time to be making movies...This is also a very exciting time for film as an art. Before, I was competing with a few hundred other film makers within the Establishment. Now there are 150,000 people making films, or trying to. Young people make films today the way they used to write novels." In 1971 Stanley directed his 10th picture, 'Bless The Beast & Children' based on Glendon Swarthout's novel.
Barry De Vorzon recounted, "...I wove this melody all through the movie and it worked great with these young kids, summer camp and buffalo. It was just terrific. When they finally snuck away from camp to free the buffalo, in the process a young boy called Cotton was killed. It was a very important moment in the picture and a poignant moment. And I had to play that moment. And the only thing I had to play that moment with was this beautiful major theme...The accompaniment to 'Bless The Beast & Children' was the unique motif. It went from the ninth to the tonic...it was a very recognizable motif, so I said, 'Well wait a minute if I used that accompaniment motif and I put it in a minor key it will have that identification to the main title and all I had to do was write a different melody over the minor chord.'
"The only way I know how to touch others was with a great melody. Now usually these scenes, they were about a minute and a half, 2 minutes long. They were meant to go by once, never to be heard of again but I worked on this the same way I would work on a hit record...The cue under the important scene was called 'Cotton's Dream'. You see, all the important cues in the movie you had to give it a name. That's how you get your performances. So this little theme was called 'Cotton's Dream'.
"Now 2 years later (1973) a television producer called up and said, 'I had a new daytime television show going on the air and I had this soundtrack album for 'Bless The Beast & Children' and there's a cut on it called 'Cotton's Dream' that is really beautiful. I would like to make that the main title for my new television show...So 'Cotton's Dream' became the theme for 'The Young and the Restless'. It went on the air. The show was an immediate hit. A number of people recorded the theme...My theme was on television 5 days a week...
"Five years from the time I did the picture (1976) a little girl from Romania called Nadia Comaneci stole the heart of the world...and ABC had this slow motion film clip of her (at the Olympics). Since it was slow motion they needed some music to put behind it, so a music editor in New York went to his music library and pulled out a 5-year-old soundtrack album called 'Bless The Beast & Children' because he remembered there was a cut on it called 'Cotton's Dream' that might work behind this film clip. Well that's what he put behind that film clip and suddenly all over television night after night was this beautiful slow motion film clip of Nadia Comaneci and my theme playing behind it.
"There was such a reaction that A&M released the cut and changed the name to 'Nadia's theme' and that became the biggest hit of my career...It just goes to show you how much luck you need in this business because that was meant to...go once, never to be seen again, was never written to be a hit and it turns out to be the biggest...
"Now this little theme just keep reinventing itself. (In 2001) it came out with another title change. Mary J. Blige recorded 'No More Drama' which was based on 'Nadia's Theme'. So it was a very special piece of music but it only pointed to the fact that in this business you never know what's going to give you that hit so whatever you do, take some time, spend some time, make sure it's your best."
On the 'Bless The Beasts & Children' soundtrack, Renee Armand sung the song 'Lost' which also used the 'Cotton's Dream' melody.
