Skip to content
Transcript

Ronald E. Bornstein
Where Shall We Go? Let’s Fly Away on the Wings of Popular Song

Sunday 9.06.2024

Ronald E. Bornstein - Where Shall We Go? Let’s Fly Away on the Wings of Popular Song

- Greetings from London. This is Ron Bornstein again, talking about popular songs. This time I will be focused on the season. It’s June, a lot of people are thinking about travel plans and related matters, so I thought I would greet you with my attire, which is a baseball cap from Roland-Garros, the French Tennis Open, in the colour of terre battue, which translates into clay, so from the clay courts of the French Open. I’ll take this off now. I’ll take off my sunglasses and we will begin. My first talk on this musical series was on songs written by Jewish composers about winter holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve. And my second talk was on Valentine’s Day about Cole Porter’s take on love. So this time my talk will centre around the month of June and travel and in anticipation of the summer solstice, and I also hope to do a talk at the end of the month in anticipation of the 4th of July, not the British elections, but the United States national holiday. So with that introduction, could I have the next slide, please? Next slide, please. Okay, you’re looking at Robert Sherman and Richard Sherman between Debbie Reynolds at the 1965 Academy Awards, two very interesting songwriters. They wrote more musical scores for film than any other songwriting team. They wrote the scores for “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” and numerous other Disney movies. But they also wrote a song called “You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine” in 1960, and come from a very interesting background. Their grandfather was a concert violinist in Kiev, where their father was born. The grandfather was Samuel Sherman.

The father was also very musically gifted, and he wrote songs for Tin Pan Alley and was one of the many songwriters who wrote songs that would be known to you. They were Jewish. The boys, Robert and Richard, were born and grew up in New York City. Robert had a very distinguished career in the military. He had many decorations including the Purple Heart, because he was wounded in the Second World War in Germany, and he was one of the first people in the US Army to enter the Dachau concentration camp. Very, very sad, obviously. His brother, Richard, also served in the military, but he was a conductor of the United States Army Band and Glee Club and the two brothers, although they wrote in tandem and did many, you know, as I said, many, many great songs to various movies, they never really got along. And it’s speculated that their military, that their different military services might have had something to do with that. But they wrote a song that I think is very appropriate for the talk today. “It’s a Small World.” “It’s a Small World, after all,” which they wrote to be the theme song for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. And, as you may know, if you’ve had children or grandchildren that you’ve taken to some of the Disney parks, it’s their song. Okay, so with that, oh, I should also add that Richard Sherman on the right was classmate of Andre Previn at Beverly Hills High School and they entertained together when they were in high school at the graduation. And Andre Previn also won Academy Award about the same time for his orchestration of “My Fair Lady.” Next slide, please. Next slide please. Thank you.

Okay, “Let’s Fly Away.” Here we are. Okay, here we have three images. The first is a seal commemorating the 200th anniversary of Fort Gibson and Fort Townsend, Oklahoma, the first white, shall we say, settlements in Oklahoma, same year that Beethoven introduced his “9th Symphony,” as we heard last Sunday. And the one in the middle is a cover for the CD that was published several years ago recreating Cole Porter’s Broadway show, “The New Yorkers.” and that’s where this next song comes from. And the one on the right is a picture of Westbrook Pegler. And the thing that ties these three diverse images together is Lee Wiley, who will be singing the next song. Lee Wiley was born and grew up in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, on Cherokee land. She was part Cherokee and she left when she was about 16 to go to Chicago and then New York, and became a great, great hit as a singer. She sang first with Leo Reisman, who was a great band leader in the ‘20s and '30s. And then Paul Whiteman, who’s probably more familiar to you. Lee Wiley also had a great career as a lyricist. She worked with Vincent Young, who is a wonderful composer, on a number of songs. And I guess the one that’s best known is “Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere,” which, if you don’t know it, it’s not very common today, is just a lovely, lovely song.

And Westbrook Pegler, when I did research on Lee Wiley, you know, I thought it was a typo that Westbrook Pegler had been married to Lee Wiley’s sister. Westbrook, fortunately, it was just a small short marriage. They obviously were not made for each other, but Westbrook Pegler was one of the godfathers of American exceptionalism, American right-wing nationalist thought. And he hated Roosevelt. He hated LaGuardia, he hated the Supreme Court. He hated the IRS. He hated a lot of American institutions. And I thought this was a very strange, strange connection for a singer to have. Lee Wiley was extremely popular in the '20s, '30s and '40s. As you’ll hear, she has a voice, which I think is a mixture of satin, silk, and maybe a little velvet thrown in. And she was a great interpreter of the great American songbooker, Gershwin Porter, who wrote this, Rogers and Hart and the like. So I hope you you enjoy this clip. Please play it, next slide, please.

♪ Let’s fly away ♪ ♪ And find a land that’s warm and tropic ♪ ♪ Where Roosevelt is not the topic ♪ ♪ All the live long day ♪ ♪ Let’s fly away ♪ ♪ And find a land that’s so provincial ♪ ♪ We’ll never hear what Walter Winchell ♪ ♪ Might be forced to say ♪ ♪ I’ll make your life sublime ♪ ♪ Far across the blue ♪ ♪ I’ll take up all your time ♪ ♪ Compromising you ♪ ♪ Let’s not delay ♪ ♪ Make Mother Nature our Messiah ♪ ♪ New York is not for us ♪ ♪ Let’s fly away ♪

  • Next slide, please. Thank you. Okay, the next song is “Sail Away,” by Noel Coward. He wrote it in 1951. We’ll see a little clip of an earlier time with that song. and Noel Coward wrote another version of the song we just heard, “Let’s Fly Away” called “Porter’s Song,” and used it in his nightclub routine that he put together and toured the United States with, particularly in Las Vegas. And he also did that with “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love.” He wrote his own lyrics for that. Okay, these are homes of Noel Coward. The one on the left is across the street from where I’m talking to you from. It looks very different today. It’s on Ebury Street. And he was the neighbour of Dame Edith Evans for a while, or I guess she probably moved in a little after he left because he went off to New York to seek his fame and fortune and then came back to England, had a hit in the '20s. And the one next to that is where he lived from 1930 to 1956, which is in London on Gerald Road, which is only about 10 minutes away from where he grew up in a boarding house where his mother worked. And the one to the right of that is Goldenhurst, his house in Kent, his country house, And he lived there in the '30s as well, and was making lots of money and, you know, doing very well. Then the war came along. He did some important work during the war, but after that, his fortunes changed quite a bit. He was kind of passe and he needed money because he wasn’t making as much money as he did before. And then the British government had to raise taxes very high, and so he became a tax exile and first moved to Bermuda. And then he built a house at a very lovely location in Jamaica.

And there is the view from his house to the left on the lower left. And that’s a statue of him looking out on the view. So he was there for the winters. And then on the right you’ll see a painting he did not far from his house in Switzerland where he spent the winters. So he had to sail away from his native England for tax purposes, although he always liked to travel. And he wrote the next song “Sail Away” in about the 1950s, early 1950s, about the same time he rewrote the lyrics to “Let’s Fly Away” for his nightclub show. And then in order to make money to finance these two lovely homes of his, he decided to write a play called “Sail Away,” which debuted in New York. It starred Elaine Stritch, and it was a great hit. So let’s hear a little bit of “Sail Away.” Next slide, please

♪ Clouds are riding through a winter sky ♪ ♪ Sail away, sail away ♪ ♪ When the love light is fading in your sweetheart’s eye ♪ ♪ Sail away, sail away ♪ ♪ When you feel your song ♪ ♪ Is orchestrated wrong ♪ ♪ Why should you prolong your stay ♪ ♪ When the wind and the weather blow your dreams sky high ♪ ♪ Sail away, sail away, sail away ♪

  • Okay, thank you very much. The next two songs have, I chose because they praised June and they’re in two very interesting, lovely places. One very loud song is in the quiet New England fishing village, and the second song is in a very quiet apartment in a very noisy New York City. These songs are from “Carousel.” I’d like the next slide, please. Okay, and Carousel was from a play written by Ferenc Molnar, a Hungarian Jewish playwright, who had been asked by Puccini and Kurt Vile to collaborate with them to turn some of his works into musicals or an opera in Puccini’s case, obviously. And he refused, but then he immigrated to the United States in 1937, and after Oklahoma became a hit, the first Rogers and Hammerstein musical was really, really ground changing in its impact. He said to Rogers and Hammerstein that if they could reproduce the greatness of “Oklahoma” for one of his works, he would agree. And so that’s how “Carousel” was born. You will see in the blue and yellow part of this slide that it was produced by Henry Ephron, who yes, was the father of Nora Ephron among other talented children. And when he divorced their mother, he married Oscar Levant’s widow, and you may remember Oscar Levant. And then the record cover shows Shirley Jones and Gordon McCray. Unfortunately, the film was released right after “The King And I,” in which they all also played. So it was a little bit in the shadow of, I’m sorry, they were in the, sorry, they were in the Oklahoma film and recording so that overshadowed “Carousel.” And then on the right you’ll see a map showing Booth Bay Harbour in Maine where this was filmed. So please listen carefully, beautiful music and very good lyrics. So next clip please, next slide, please.

♪ June is bustin’ out all over ♪ ♪ All over the meadow and the hill ♪ ♪ Buds’re bustin’ outa bushes ♪ ♪ And the rompin’ river pushes ♪ ♪ Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside a mill ♪ ♪ June is bustin’ out all over ♪ ♪ The ocean is full of Jacks and Jills ♪ ♪ With her little tail a-swishin’ ♪ ♪ Ev'ry lady fish is wishin’ ♪ ♪ That a male would come and grab her by the gills ♪ ♪ Because it’s June ♪ ♪ June, June, June ♪ ♪ Just because it’s June, June, June ♪ ♪ Fresh and alive and gay and young ♪ ♪ June is a love song, sweetly sung ♪ ♪ June is busting out all over ♪ ♪ The saplin’s are bustin’ out with sap ♪ ♪ Love has found my brother, Junior ♪ ♪ And my sister’s even loonier ♪ ♪ And my ma is gettin’ kittenish with Pap ♪ ♪ June is busting out all over ♪ ♪ The sheep aren’t sleepin’ any more ♪ ♪ All the rams that chase the ewe sheep ♪ ♪ Are determined there’ll be new sheep ♪ ♪ And the ewe sheep aren’t even keepin’ score ♪ ♪ Because it’s June ♪ ♪ June, June, June ♪ ♪ Just because it’s June, June, June ♪ ♪ It’s June, June, June ♪ ♪ Just because it’s June, June ♪ ♪ March went out like a lion ♪ ♪ A-whippin’ up the water in the bay ♪ ♪ Then April cried and stepped aside ♪ ♪ And along come pretty little May ♪ ♪ May was full of promises ♪ ♪ But she didn’t keep ‘em quick enough for some ♪ ♪ And a crowd of Doubtin’ Thomases ♪ ♪ Was predictin’ that the summer’d never come ♪ ♪ But it’s comin’, by gum ♪ ♪ You can feel it come ♪ ♪ You can feel it in your heart ♪ ♪ You can see it in the ground ♪ ♪ You can hear it in the trees ♪ ♪ You can smell it in the breeze ♪ ♪ Look around, look around, look around ♪ ♪ June is busting out all over ♪

  • Next slide please. Thank you, thank you, it goes on and it’s a lovely orchestration and with fabulous lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein the second. Next we have a 20-something Judy Garland and a 20-something Mickey Rooney in a song that I love, “How about You?” which is in praise of New York in this month of June, written by Burton Lane. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Burton Lane, born Burton Levy, who’s a great, great American songwriter, and the lyrics were by Ralph Freed, who was the much younger son of Arthur Freed. Ralph Freed was born in Vancouver, and Burton Lane was born in South Carolina. And I don’t know why Ralph Freed was born in Vancouver, but that fact got him into the Canadian songwriter’s Hall of Fame, whatever the circumstances. Mickey Rooney, you know, young and adorable. Judy Garland, I think has never looked better or sung better than in this clip. Was very popular tune, recorded by many artists. Unfortunately, it did not win the Academy Award because it was up against a song called “White Christmas” that year by Irving Berlin, which did win. “Babes on Broadway” is a truly forgettable musical apart from this song. It has many objectionable aspects to it, the most objectionable probably being Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland blackfacing in it and a cringeworthy production at the end. And also Mickey Rooney in drag playing a Carmen Miranda-type character. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I guess it was a different time, but this song, I hope you’ll agree is just adorable. So if you could play it, please. Next slide.

  • Now, would you do something for me?

  • If I can.

  • Will you sing me a song?

  • How do you know I can?

  • Because you sing when you talk, when you walk, why, your eyes are, they’re singing right now.

  • They are?

  • Uh huh.

  • Well, I’ll be darned. ♪ When a girl meets boy ♪ ♪ Life can be a joy ♪ ♪ But the note they end on ♪ ♪ Will depend on little pleasures they will share ♪ ♪ So let us compare ♪ ♪ I like New York in June, how about you ♪ ♪ I like a Gershwin tune, how about you ♪ ♪ I love a fireside when a storm is due ♪ ♪ I like potato chips, moonlight, and motor trips ♪ ♪ How about you ♪ ♪ I’m mad about good books, can’t get my fill ♪ ♪ And Franklin Roosevelt’s looks give me a thrill ♪ ♪ Holding hands in the movie show ♪ ♪ When all the lights are low ♪ ♪ May not be new but I like it ♪ ♪ How about you ♪ ♪ I like Jack Benny’s jokes ♪ ♪ To a degree ♪ ♪ I love the common folks ♪ ♪ That includes me ♪ ♪ I like to window shop on 5th Avenue ♪

  • Okay, next slide. Thank you. Okay, staying in North America, we’re going up to Quebec in Canada with a song by the name of “Cartier.” Now most people think of Cartier as the French jeweller established in the 19th century, which is very well known today. But long before that Cartier, there was a Jacques Cartier who was an explorer, who went to the New World and landed up in what is now Canada. And I’ve been trying to think of Canadian songs for our friends, our loyal listeners in Canada, and they may not be francophone mostly, but I think you will see visually that this song is rather clever. It talks about what had happened if Jacques Cartier had gone somewhere else and he would’ve, Canada would be an entirely different place. So play the clip please. Next slide please.

♪ Cartier, Cartier ♪ ♪ Cartier, Cartier, oh, Jacques Cartier ♪

  • Next slide please. Thank you. Well, it goes on, but we don’t have time to see all the places that Quebec might have looked like. Next slide is “Barcelona,” which is one of two songs by Stephen Sondheim. I think we’re not going to have enough time to play this. I was too ambitious in putting the song list together. So why don’t we go to the next slide, the next song, “Ah, Paris.” Okay, this is from “Follies,” absolutely wonderful 1971 musical by Stephen Sondheim following his 1970 success of “Company.” And it’s a spoof on songs in praise of Paris. There are many songs about Paris I could have used. And oh, speaking of Paris, I’m looking forward to Patrick Bade’s return a week from today in talking about modernity in Paris, modernity in Paris. So if you could play this, please listen carefully. The lyrics are extremely clever, thank you.

♪ New York has neon, Berlin has bars ♪ ♪ But ah, Paree ♪ ♪ Shanghai has silk and Madrid guitars ♪ ♪ But ah, Paree ♪ ♪ In Cairo you find bizarre bazaars ♪ ♪ In London “pip pip” you sip tea ♪ ♪ But when it comes to love ♪ ♪ None of the above ♪ ♪ Compares, compris ♪ ♪ So if it’s making love ♪ ♪ That you’re thinking of ♪ ♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Paree ♪ ♪ I have seen the ruins of Rome ♪ ♪ I’ve been in the igloos of Nome ♪ ♪ I have gone to Moscow, it’s very gay ♪ ♪ Well, anyway ♪ ♪ On the first of May ♪ ♪ I have seen Rangoon and Soho ♪ ♪ And I like them more than so-so ♪ ♪ But when there’s a moon ♪ ♪ Goodbye, Rangoon ♪ ♪ Hello, Montmartre, hello ♪ ♪ Peking has rickshaws, New Orleans jazz ♪ ♪ But ah, Paree ♪ ♪ Beirut has sunshine, that’s all it has ♪ ♪ But ah, Paree ♪ ♪ Constantinople has Turkish baths ♪ ♪ And Athens that lovely debris ♪ ♪ Carlsbad may have a spa ♪ ♪ But for ooh-la-la ♪ ♪ You come with me ♪ ♪ Carlsbad is where you’re cured ♪ ♪ After you have toured ♪ ♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah, Paree ♪

  • Okay, thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed that, okay, thanks. Next, “How Are Things In Glocca Mora” by Burton Lane born Levy and Yip Harburg, who Trudy has spoken about and who wrote the lyrics for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” among other great hits. This is sung by Ella Logan who originated the song in “Finian’s Rainbow” 1947. I’m just going to play a little clip. It’s amazing to me that two Jewish songwriters and a Scottish singer could make this sound so authentically Irish. Play it, please, we’ll just play the first part. Play it please.

  • [Finian] Sharon, do you hear that skylark?

  • [Sharon] Aye.

  • [Finian] The same skylark music we have back in Ireland.

  • [Sharon[ Aye, a Glocca Morra Skylark. ♪ I hear a bird, a Glocca Morra bird. ♪ ♪ It well may be he’s bringing me a cheerin’ word. ♪ ♪ I hear a breeze, a River Shannon breeze ♪ ♪ It well may be it’s followed me across the seas ♪ ♪ Then tell me please ♪ ♪ How are things in Glocca Morra ♪ ♪ Is that little brook still leaping there ♪

  • Okay, next slide, next slide. Well, from Ireland, we’re going on to South America, to Rio to be exact. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had featured billing. The big star of this was Dolores del Rio. And next slide, please. Yeah, and so there, you see Rio down with the little aeroplane I drew in on the East Coast, kind of about two thirds down. This was an important film for many reasons. Not only was it the first film of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers really launched their career together, even though they were stars in their own rights before, it also was orchestrated by Max Steiner, who Patrick Bate has talked about before. And although he didn’t write the song, he did all the, the orchestration. And you’ll see he did a pretty amazing job. And then the fellow to the right is Hermes Pan, who was a dancer and choreographer. And he teamed up with Fred Astaire on this film and they became a very important part of each other’s careers because Hermes Pan would help Astaire in his dance routines in the films. And they looked somewhat alike and they were both physically similar and they just communicated very, very well. So next slide, please. Okay, “Flying Down To Rio,” we’re going to see beautiful Rio. And this was filmed just before the censors cracked down with the Hays Code, so it’s a little risque in some respects. And yeah, and you’ll see they fly over Copacabana Beach and Ipanema Beach. It’s really quite spectacular, and also for the early ‘30s, not many people, you know, had been able to fly and this was something new and startling to them. We see it today with different eyes. But you’ve got to take yourself back almost 90 years to get the same feeling that this evoked at that time. Okay, play it please.

  • Ready, boys?

  • Ready.

  • Take it. ♪ An old sailor, in old time, would sing an old song ♪ ♪ Rolling down to Rio by the sea ♪ ♪ A young sailor, in these times, would sing a new song ♪ ♪ Flying down to Rio, come with me ♪ ♪ Where the lovely Brazilian ladies will catch your eye ♪ ♪ By the light of the million stars in the evening sky ♪ ♪ My Rio, Rio by the Sea-o ♪ ♪ Flying down to Rio where there’s rhythm and rhyme ♪ ♪ Say feller, twirl that old propeller ♪ ♪ We got to get to Rio and we’ve got to make time ♪ ♪ You’ll love it, soaring high above it ♪ ♪ Looking down on Rio from a heaven of blue ♪ ♪ Send a radio to Rio de Janeiro ♪ ♪ With a big hello just so they’ll know and stand by there ♪ ♪ We’ll fly there ♪ ♪ My Rio, everything will be okay ♪ ♪ We’re singing and winging our way to you ♪

  • Okay, let’s go. Next slide please. Okay, Bobby Short “On The Amazon,” which is another, which is a river and you’ll see all the different flags where the river and the basin touches. You know, Amazon today is a online retailer, and when this song was written, that was unknown. It was a river or it was some very powerful large women. But this song was written. Next slide, please. Okay, this song was written for the musical “Mr. Cinders”, which is a reversal of “Cinderella.” It was an English musical from 1920s, and I’ve only heard three recordings of it, Mr. Cinders, Don McLean, and the one we’re about to hear. The song was cut for from “Mr. Cinders” for some reason, but I heard it played on the radio a few years ago with an explanation that it was written to be sung by an explorer who’s something of a poseur, a phoney pretending he’d been an explorer on the Amazon and so he makes up his story about what it’s like on the Amazon. So play the clip, please.

  • [Singer] This is a song called “On the Amazon.” ♪ There’s a danger zone, not a stranger zone ♪ ♪ Than the little plot I walk on that I call my own ♪ ♪ Full of eerie sights, weird and scary sights ♪ ♪ Every vicious animal that creeps and crawls and bites ♪ ♪ On the Amazon, the prophylactics prowl ♪ ♪ On the Amazon, the hypodermics howl ♪ ♪ On the Amazon, you’ll hear a scarab scowl and sting ♪ ♪ Zodiacs on the wing ♪ ♪ All the stalactites and vicious vertebrae ♪ ♪ Join the stalagmites, with laryngitis spray ♪ ♪ All the acolytes that come from Paraguay in spring ♪ ♪ Starving equinox among the rocks will seize you ♪ ♪ And the Fahrenheit comes out at night to freeze you ♪ ♪ Wild duodenum are lurking in the trees ♪ ♪ And the jungle swarms with green apostrophes ♪ ♪ Oh, the Amazon is calling me ♪ ♪ On the Amazon ♪

  • Next slide.

  • This is, okay, unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to skip this song. “I’ll see you in C-U-B-A” by Irving Berlin performed by the wonderful Mary Cleere Haran, died tragically much too young while she was riding her bicycle, very sad. Anyhow, it’s written by Irving Berlin in 1920 and it’s a song about prohibition and going to Cuba and it’s a lovely song. And I really apologise that I was way over ambitious and had just had too many ideas for this. So we’ll go to the next slide please. To Japan. “Nagasaki,” the next few clips portray Asian women in a way that is probably very objectionable today. But this song was one of the many songs written in the 1920s to be exotic and jazzy. And it really didn’t, I don’t think there was any conscious intention to be insulting. It’s not only about Japan, but it’s also about England because it’s portrayed by, sung by Hugh Laurie who’s also playing the piano. Someone asked me at the last session whether Cary Grant really played the piano in, “What Is This Thing Called Love” on by Cole Porter? And so I didn’t know, but just coincidentally, I heard someone talking about Cary Grant playing the piano at some party so he did for those of you who are worried about that. And anyhow, back to Hugh Laurie from the PG Woodhouse story of Jeeves that was televised with Stephen Fry. So young Hugh Laurie, very fine piano player and young Stephen Fry. Play it please, next slide.

  • There it is,

  • Huh ♪ Fellows, if you’re on, I will spin a yarn ♪ ♪ that was told to me by Able Sea Jones ♪ ♪ once he had the blues ♪ ♪ So he took a cruise ♪ ♪ far away from nightclubs and from saxophones ♪ I don’t think much of this, Jeeves.

  • No, sir.

  • Yeah, I think Bahmer’s musical prognostications have come a bit of a cropper this time, dashed boring song this is. Oh, well, I’d better push onto the end, I suppose. Ah, no, this looks a bit more promising. Yes.

♪ Hot gingerbread and dynamite ♪ ♪ There’s nothing but that at night ♪ ♪ Back in Nagasaki where the fellers chew tobaccy ♪ ♪ And the women wicky-wacky-woo ♪

  • I knew Barmy hadn’t lost his touch. ♪ Oh, Fujiyama, you got a mama ♪ ♪ Then your troubles increase ♪ ♪ In Samagoda, she orders soda ♪ ♪ The earth shakes, milk shakes, ten cents apiece ♪ ♪ They kissy and huggy nice ♪ ♪ By Jingo! It’s worth the price ♪ ♪ Back in Nagasaki where the fellers chew tobaccy ♪ ♪ And the women wicky-wacky-woo ♪ ♪ You just have to act your age ♪ ♪ Or wind up inside a cage ♪ ♪ Back in Nagasaki where the fellers chew tobaccy ♪

  • Next slide please, thank you. Okay, next is “Shanghai Lil,” James Cagney and Ruby Keeler. This is the introduction to the song that I chose because of the different ethnic types that it shows in the introduction and it includes a reference to Palestine. So play it, please, next slide, please.

♪ He’s shaking like he’s got to a chill ♪ ♪ I know what it takes to cure him of the shake ♪ ♪ Oh, what he wants is Shanghai Lil ♪ ♪ Oh, she’s a fascinating heathen ♪ ♪ But say she ain’t been through the mill ♪ ♪ Since she met that gob, she’s acting like a snob ♪ ♪ Say, who the heck is Shanghai Lil ♪ ♪ That Chinese devil ♪ ♪ No, she’s on the level ♪ ♪ She can’t hurt you and me ♪ ♪ That Oriental dame is detrimental to our industry ♪ ♪ You said it ♪ ♪ I offered her a house in London ♪ ♪ And I a chateau in the hill ♪ ♪ She said she won’t be mine for all of Palestine, oy ♪ ♪ They all go for Shanghai Hill. ♪

  • Okay, that’s fine, next, I’m going to cut the dance routine with Ruby Keeler and James Cagney. So please go on to the next one. Okay, “Slow Boat to China,” written by Frank Loesser, composer of “Guys And Dolls.” Many great hits, and including “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which I mentioned in a previous talk. Curious title. He got it from playing poker and it was something that poker players used to say about people who are not very good poker players who would lose a lot of money and they would like to have them on a slow boat to China to take advantage of that. This is the sound may not be very good on this. It’s Barry Manilow and Bette Midler in Rockefeller Centre Outdoors. But it will give you a little taste of the song. I think it’s a very clever song, I love it. And it was a great hit when it came out in 1940s recorded by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, many, many other people. And, okay, so here we have a more modern version. Please play the next slide.

  • To sing a playful little ditty made famous by Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby.

  • Right.

  • “Slow Boat To China.” Once again, here’s Barry Manilow and Bette Midler.

  • Hey, nice piano playing, Manila.

  • Thank you very much, Miss M.

  • [Bette] What you doing these days?

  • Making records.

  • Really?

  • Yes, really.

  • [Bette] Do you ever play piano for people?

  • Well, depends on who.

  • Hmm. ♪ I’m going to get you ♪ ♪ On a slow boat to China ♪ ♪ All to myself alone ♪ ♪ Get you and keep you ♪ ♪ In my arms evermore ♪ ♪ Leave all the others ♪ ♪ Waitin’ on a faraway shore ♪ ♪ All right ♪ ♪ Out on the briny ♪ ♪ Where the moon’s big and shiny ♪ ♪ Meltin’ your heart of stone ♪ ♪ I’m going to get you ♪ ♪ On a slow boat to China ♪ ♪ All to myself alone ♪

  • Bette, I didn’t know you felt that way about me.

  • I don’t, I need a piano player.

  • Ah, just like the old days You’re not going to change keys on me, are yah?

  • I very well might.

  • Okay, well again, I apologise, way too ambitious. We need more time to really do these justice. Okay, last song is by Noel Coward again. He is singing it. He wrote this for “Sail Away,” the show that bailed him out, he was having money problems and yeah, I think it says it all, play it, please.

♪ Travel they say improves the mind ♪ ♪ An irritating platitude, which frankly, entre nous ♪ ♪ Is very far from true ♪ ♪ Personally I’ve yet to find that longitude and latitude ♪ ♪ Can educate those scores of monumental bores ♪ ♪ Who travel in groups and herds and troupes ♪ ♪ Of varying breeds and sexes ♪ ♪ Till the whole world reels to shouts and squeals ♪ ♪ And the clicking of Roliflexes ♪ ♪ Why do the wrong people travel, travel, travel ♪ ♪ When the right people stay back home ♪ ♪ What compulsion compels them and who the hell tells them ♪ ♪ To drag their cans to Zanzibar ♪ ♪ Instead of staying quietly in Omaha ♪ ♪ The Taj Mahal and the Grand Canal ♪ ♪ And the sunny French Rivera ♪ ♪ Would be less oppressed if the Middle West ♪ ♪ Would settle for somewhere rather nearer ♪ ♪ Please do not think that I criticise or cavel ♪ ♪ At a genuine urge to roam ♪ ♪ But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel ♪ ♪ When the right people stay back home ♪ ♪ And mind their business ♪ ♪ When the right people stay back home ♪ ♪ with cinerama ♪ ♪ When the right people stay back home ♪ ♪ I’m merely asking ♪ ♪ Why the right people stay back home ♪

  • Okay, that’s it. Maybe you’d rather stay home, maybe you’d like to travel to Rio or Japan or Paris, but give you a little fast tour around the world in song. And again, I apologise, I was much too ambitious. I needed much more time for this. So thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoyed what I had to say and what, more importantly, what great songwriters and singers had to say. Thank you. Some questions, let’s see. Okay, questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Okay, Were there? No, they were not. The Sherman brothers were not identical twins. They were born a number of years apart. Robert served in the Second World War, and Richard, I think, went into the Army about seven years later, eight years later. So they must have been a number of years apart. And also Richard just died in his nineties. And the reason I played this at the beginning was in memory of the two of them, and of course, their longest song title was “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

Okay, next. Interesting. Just watched documentary about Max Steiner, which claimed that he wrote the most for Hollywood films than any other composer. Well, the Sherman brothers were the team that wrote the most scores. Steiner obviously was very, very prolific as well. I don’t know which one wrote more.

Q: Am I the son of Dr. Bernstein, a wonderful paediatrician who was on the staff of Montefiore Hospital?

A: No. First of all, my name is Bornstein, not Bernstein. And all my childhood, when I grew up in New York and Leonard Bernstein was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, people have asked me if we were related, but I’m not related to either of those gentlemen.

Delightful presentation. Well, thank you very much, again, I apologise that, yeah, we couldn’t fit it all in. But actually you can go on YouTube and hear many of the songs that I unfortunately had to skip over or hear the entirety. The quality of the sound is better than on any other webinar.

Well, that’s great, thank you so much. We really worked hard to make sure the sound would be as good as it could be given the fact that we’re presenting clips and you know, there are limitations on the internet.

Oh. my God, a chorus line on the wings of a propeller aircraft plus Fred Astaire It doesn’t get any better. Well, it does get better actually. Please look at the whole clip of “Flying Down To Rio.” You will see cars, girls, doing all sorts of things, people falling off of aeroplanes . I mean, it really gets pretty wild. And, as I said, it just made it under the wire in terms of the Hays Code and the censorship. So yeah, it’s worth taking a look at the whole thing. It’s really quite a joyous and inventive creation given the fact that it was done in the early 1930s. As I said, you know, flying was a relatively new proposition.

What’s next? Okay, thank you for joyful interlude.

Okay, human rights lawyer. Patrick Bates, yes, well, he’s a friend. He’s become a friend of mine through lockdown and yeah, I’m sure many people will be happy to see him return next Sunday. I know I will be.

Actors playing the Sherman Brothers in the film “Saving Mr. Banks.” They were under contract with a very demanding Walt Disney. He had very tight deadlines. Yes. The spoonful for sugar, no, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” came from daughter’s polio shot. Yes, yes, well thank you for including that. I appreciate it.

Delightful session. Let’s have another one soon, please. Well, my next one, which I will make a little less ambitious will be on, I think it’s the last Sunday of June. And it will be about songs about America and particularly the various states and cities of America. And yeah, I’m looking forward to it and I hope you are too.

Thank you, this is an amazing topic, another session. Well, thank you very much.

Nothing else, well, thanks. You know, I have high expectations for myself and also a lot more information that I wish I could impart to the viewers. Okay, well, thank you all for the kind comments and I’ll look forward to seeing you again at the end of the month with our focus on America, not some of these other countries.