Great selections for Sometimes a Song (and, for this week, Dance)!
Berlin's songs are a national treasure of melodies and lyrics, which generations of music lovers in all walks of life have been able to sing or hum without using rough vocal effects or constricted, strangulated vocal cords. The flow and gracefulness of Astaire's and Rogers's harmonious dancing brings to my mind a warm, gentle breeze rippling the surface of a rural stream or rustling the leaves of a stand of oaks or maples.
The music and dance of our parents' generation, between the world wars, helped relieve and elevate spirits. Seeing and hearing, and sometimes even participating in, such expressions, perhaps gave hope to many folks, enabling them to imagine that they, too, could be unburdened by life's trials, especially during The Great Depression and during the War. Between the 1890s and mid-20th. Century, many small towns had bands featuring brass, wind, and percussion instruments, which gladdened the hearts of the folks who lived there. Those bands, as well as traveling vaudeville troupes, were a big time, and rightfully so. As for dancing, Dad believed, even during his teens, that the ability of men and women to interact through ballroom dancing was one of the social graces, regardless of one's station in life. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were two of his favorite dancers, whom he tried to emulate. Both he and my Mom had beautiful singing voices.
Regarding the film, "Follow the Fleet", I'm struck by its release-date of 1936, when we were in the throes of a deep, national and worldwide depression, with no end in sight, and by its storyline. The man and woman in my profile picture are my Mom and Dad, living in a rural county of Kentucky in the Summer of 1936, just a few months before they married. Dad was a few months past 21, serving in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Mom was a few months shy of 16, about to enter her senior year of high school (having skipped a grade); she remembers that she paid $1.98 for the dress and a 3 or 4 dollars for the shoes, which she wore in the photo. A few years later, Dad was serving with the fleet on a destroyer in the Central Pacific, and Mom and my brother and sister were awaiting his return home.
I hope you'll forgive me for such a long comment. Thank you for your patience in reading it. I hope your and Dr. Esolen's labor of love with this magazine continues long into the future.
Thank you, John, for that long reply and sweet reminiscence. Yes, life was different then inn so many ways. My own mother was two years old in 1936, the 9th child in a family of 13 children. My father at that time was happily riding his tricycle, given to him by "Santa" (because the shopkeepers in his small town knew that his family were too poor to give Dad what he told everyone that Santa was definitely going to bring him). They met in 1952 at a dance when he was in the Navy. Dancing was a huge part of the social life of just about everyone in those years. "Their song" was "You Belong to Me," a great hit by Jo Stafford. They were poor, but life was rich back then. We were all blessed to be born to such folks. And thank you so much for being part of our effort at Word & Song. We had no idea when we began it how much it would come to mean to us, and to others. We hope to stick to it as long as we can. :)
Thank you for sharing some of your memories about your mom and dad. You are right: We were blessed to have parents such as ours, who knew hard times and taught us to persevere and to strive for our God-given potential. Life was rich in the nonmaterial then, as it can be now. In honor of our fathers, I've included a link to the Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save". It never fails to move me. I hope you enjoy it. https://youtu.be/lsVWKKXS_PU
I adore all of the Astaire/Rogers films and have been rewatching them recently. It isn’t just the dancing—-it’s the superior music. Berlin, Gershwin, Porter…wow. In this particular dance that you feature, Fred Astaire says that he was injured when her heavily weighted sleeve struck him in the face (at about the 2:04 minute mark in the clip). He says he it was all he could do to stay conscious. He asked that they re-do the dance, which they did several times but they all decided the first rendition was the keeper. In his many interviews, Fred Astaire comes across as a shy, humble, modest man. He never says anything bad about any of his dancing partners. Ginger Rogers said that he never actually kisses her in any of their movies…he would not do so and she thought it was in deference to his wife who was often on set.
Margaret, I saw in my email inbox that you had replied to my comment about "Revisiting Irving Berlin", but did not see your reply on this page. Just wanted to thank you for your kind comment and for sharing your dear memories about your mom and dad.
Margaret, I welcome your and others' comments, including those about how a particular post evokes a related family or individual experience. I hope you have a very blessed Paschal Triduum.
I agree with John (below). Thank you for sharing that back story. Fred Astaire was evidently a perfectionist when it came to dance performances, but on a personal note seems indeed to have been a true gentleman, one of those Hollywood performers whom my husband calls "the good guys."
Yes, he sounds like a great person. Fred Astaire came to Debbie Reynolds’ assistance when she was making “Singing in the Rain”. She says she was literally under a piano crying, expecting to be fired because her dancing was sub-par. Fred Astaire came in from another sound stage and told her to get up. He had her watch his own practice to show her that dancing is hard work, even for people who had danced professionally since age 4. He bucked her up, convincing her that she could learn. She seemed in awe of him—not just because of his talent but because he bothered to help an unknown teenaged actress in somebody else’s movie.
Monica, I'd have been disappointed if someone hadn't mentioned "Music, Music, Music!" And YES, I did think of it. It was part of my embarrassment of riches dilemma!
I so enjoy watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Such artistry in both the dancing and the song they are dancing to.
My son recently took a class on jazz. He came away with a great appreciation of early jazz, but did not think any of the more recent trends came anywhere near the genius of the older forms.
Ah, yes! The best inoculation against poor art is familiarity with the real thing! And ah, Fred and Ginger -- they were elegant, and Fred was a perfectionist. Evidently they practiced endlessly. This particular number was recorded in a single take -- and it was utterly exhausting for them both. But it doesn't show!
Absolutely, the sets for a lot of the early musicals were deco, and very impressive on screen. I think of Art Deco as the last real architectural development, and the only great contribution to the field by modernity. I know that others "in the know" will object to that observation, but subsequent forms leave me cold.
Berlin was a national treasure. I wanted to write more about his style with "Let's Face the Music," but may get to it later on. He had no formal training, but the music of cantors in synagogues clearly was a significant influence on him. And it shows in this song, particularly.
He reportedly was very generous with charities in general and especially patriotic causes. Just one example: he wrote a tune "Any Bonds Today?" which was sung by Bugs Bunny in a 90-second 1942 film encourging the public to purchase war bonds.
Well, of course he joined the war effort as an entertainer -- but had to get a special permission to miss reveille in the morning, because he had spent a lifetime doing his composing in the wee hours! They gave him an exemption, but that adds a whole new layer to his song, "O How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning!" And he did a lot of charity, donating the proceeds from "God Bless America to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts-- in perpetuity. A national treasure, he was.
Ah .. I always wanted to be tall and lithe! Instead I stopped growing at age 12 and had to settle for little and "cute." I couldn't aspire to "striking older woman," either. Just "little old lady" will have to do for me!
Ellin wrote three novels, Lace Curtain, Land I Have Chosen, and my favorite, The Best of Families. Her novels are not romantic tales where everything is tied up in a satin ribbon and all live happily ever after at the end. They live real lives with faith woven through the tale.
Ellin sort of reminds me of Elizabeth Goudge although not as prolific in her writings, which I think is a shame.
Ellin also wrote Silver Platter, a biography of her grandmother, Louise Mackay, whose husband owned the Comstock silver mine.
She was born and lived among NYC elite. Her father objected to her marriage to Irving, a Jewish composer.
The daughter, Mary Ellin, wrote Irving Berlin, A Daughter’s Memoir.
Gee, I need to put that memoir on my birthday list, or else I'll have to wait until Christmas. As for his daughter's novels, that's news to me -- happy news! I'll look them up.
Great selections for Sometimes a Song (and, for this week, Dance)!
Berlin's songs are a national treasure of melodies and lyrics, which generations of music lovers in all walks of life have been able to sing or hum without using rough vocal effects or constricted, strangulated vocal cords. The flow and gracefulness of Astaire's and Rogers's harmonious dancing brings to my mind a warm, gentle breeze rippling the surface of a rural stream or rustling the leaves of a stand of oaks or maples.
The music and dance of our parents' generation, between the world wars, helped relieve and elevate spirits. Seeing and hearing, and sometimes even participating in, such expressions, perhaps gave hope to many folks, enabling them to imagine that they, too, could be unburdened by life's trials, especially during The Great Depression and during the War. Between the 1890s and mid-20th. Century, many small towns had bands featuring brass, wind, and percussion instruments, which gladdened the hearts of the folks who lived there. Those bands, as well as traveling vaudeville troupes, were a big time, and rightfully so. As for dancing, Dad believed, even during his teens, that the ability of men and women to interact through ballroom dancing was one of the social graces, regardless of one's station in life. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were two of his favorite dancers, whom he tried to emulate. Both he and my Mom had beautiful singing voices.
Regarding the film, "Follow the Fleet", I'm struck by its release-date of 1936, when we were in the throes of a deep, national and worldwide depression, with no end in sight, and by its storyline. The man and woman in my profile picture are my Mom and Dad, living in a rural county of Kentucky in the Summer of 1936, just a few months before they married. Dad was a few months past 21, serving in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Mom was a few months shy of 16, about to enter her senior year of high school (having skipped a grade); she remembers that she paid $1.98 for the dress and a 3 or 4 dollars for the shoes, which she wore in the photo. A few years later, Dad was serving with the fleet on a destroyer in the Central Pacific, and Mom and my brother and sister were awaiting his return home.
I hope you'll forgive me for such a long comment. Thank you for your patience in reading it. I hope your and Dr. Esolen's labor of love with this magazine continues long into the future.
Thank you, John, for that long reply and sweet reminiscence. Yes, life was different then inn so many ways. My own mother was two years old in 1936, the 9th child in a family of 13 children. My father at that time was happily riding his tricycle, given to him by "Santa" (because the shopkeepers in his small town knew that his family were too poor to give Dad what he told everyone that Santa was definitely going to bring him). They met in 1952 at a dance when he was in the Navy. Dancing was a huge part of the social life of just about everyone in those years. "Their song" was "You Belong to Me," a great hit by Jo Stafford. They were poor, but life was rich back then. We were all blessed to be born to such folks. And thank you so much for being part of our effort at Word & Song. We had no idea when we began it how much it would come to mean to us, and to others. We hope to stick to it as long as we can. :)
Thank you for sharing some of your memories about your mom and dad. You are right: We were blessed to have parents such as ours, who knew hard times and taught us to persevere and to strive for our God-given potential. Life was rich in the nonmaterial then, as it can be now. In honor of our fathers, I've included a link to the Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save". It never fails to move me. I hope you enjoy it. https://youtu.be/lsVWKKXS_PU
I adore all of the Astaire/Rogers films and have been rewatching them recently. It isn’t just the dancing—-it’s the superior music. Berlin, Gershwin, Porter…wow. In this particular dance that you feature, Fred Astaire says that he was injured when her heavily weighted sleeve struck him in the face (at about the 2:04 minute mark in the clip). He says he it was all he could do to stay conscious. He asked that they re-do the dance, which they did several times but they all decided the first rendition was the keeper. In his many interviews, Fred Astaire comes across as a shy, humble, modest man. He never says anything bad about any of his dancing partners. Ginger Rogers said that he never actually kisses her in any of their movies…he would not do so and she thought it was in deference to his wife who was often on set.
Margaret, I saw in my email inbox that you had replied to my comment about "Revisiting Irving Berlin", but did not see your reply on this page. Just wanted to thank you for your kind comment and for sharing your dear memories about your mom and dad.
I did delete my comment because I thought I was nattering on too much about my own family and taking attention away from your reflections. thank you.
Margaret, I welcome your and others' comments, including those about how a particular post evokes a related family or individual experience. I hope you have a very blessed Paschal Triduum.
I agree with John (below). Thank you for sharing that back story. Fred Astaire was evidently a perfectionist when it came to dance performances, but on a personal note seems indeed to have been a true gentleman, one of those Hollywood performers whom my husband calls "the good guys."
Yes, he sounds like a great person. Fred Astaire came to Debbie Reynolds’ assistance when she was making “Singing in the Rain”. She says she was literally under a piano crying, expecting to be fired because her dancing was sub-par. Fred Astaire came in from another sound stage and told her to get up. He had her watch his own practice to show her that dancing is hard work, even for people who had danced professionally since age 4. He bucked her up, convincing her that she could learn. She seemed in awe of him—not just because of his talent but because he bothered to help an unknown teenaged actress in somebody else’s movie.
A wonderful back-story about Fred Astaire.
Indeed! A blessed Holy Week and Easter to all.
Thank you, Steve! A blessed Holy season to you, as well.
Holy Week and Easter blessings to you and yours.
Sorry about the commercial!
I was wondering what you’d pick. What, no Teresa Brewer? https://youtu.be/-gUNZAmFfKA?si=NZcCIpwiuKKSlrxz
Just kidding. I loved both your choices!
Monica, I'd have been disappointed if someone hadn't mentioned "Music, Music, Music!" And YES, I did think of it. It was part of my embarrassment of riches dilemma!
I so enjoy watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Such artistry in both the dancing and the song they are dancing to.
My son recently took a class on jazz. He came away with a great appreciation of early jazz, but did not think any of the more recent trends came anywhere near the genius of the older forms.
Ah, yes! The best inoculation against poor art is familiarity with the real thing! And ah, Fred and Ginger -- they were elegant, and Fred was a perfectionist. Evidently they practiced endlessly. This particular number was recorded in a single take -- and it was utterly exhausting for them both. But it doesn't show!
Thank you - one might easily forget and need a reminder of just how many standards he composed. And it's always nice to see real dancing again.
Would you say that the set for Follow the Fleet is an example of Art Deco? Funny that this modern design now seems almost classical in a broad sense.
Absolutely, the sets for a lot of the early musicals were deco, and very impressive on screen. I think of Art Deco as the last real architectural development, and the only great contribution to the field by modernity. I know that others "in the know" will object to that observation, but subsequent forms leave me cold.
Berlin was a national treasure. I wanted to write more about his style with "Let's Face the Music," but may get to it later on. He had no formal training, but the music of cantors in synagogues clearly was a significant influence on him. And it shows in this song, particularly.
He reportedly was very generous with charities in general and especially patriotic causes. Just one example: he wrote a tune "Any Bonds Today?" which was sung by Bugs Bunny in a 90-second 1942 film encourging the public to purchase war bonds.
Well, of course he joined the war effort as an entertainer -- but had to get a special permission to miss reveille in the morning, because he had spent a lifetime doing his composing in the wee hours! They gave him an exemption, but that adds a whole new layer to his song, "O How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning!" And he did a lot of charity, donating the proceeds from "God Bless America to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts-- in perpetuity. A national treasure, he was.
I wish I could dance like Ginger Rogers, and I also wish my dresses moved like hers. :)
Ah .. I always wanted to be tall and lithe! Instead I stopped growing at age 12 and had to settle for little and "cute." I couldn't aspire to "striking older woman," either. Just "little old lady" will have to do for me!
Irving Berlin’s daughter, Mary Ellin, wrote a memoir about life with her father and her mother, his wife, Ellin,
was also a writer. Ellin’s novels give an insiders view of NYC society.
I think you would enjoy the books.
Ellin wrote three novels, Lace Curtain, Land I Have Chosen, and my favorite, The Best of Families. Her novels are not romantic tales where everything is tied up in a satin ribbon and all live happily ever after at the end. They live real lives with faith woven through the tale.
Ellin sort of reminds me of Elizabeth Goudge although not as prolific in her writings, which I think is a shame.
Ellin also wrote Silver Platter, a biography of her grandmother, Louise Mackay, whose husband owned the Comstock silver mine.
She was born and lived among NYC elite. Her father objected to her marriage to Irving, a Jewish composer.
The daughter, Mary Ellin, wrote Irving Berlin, A Daughter’s Memoir.
Gee, I need to put that memoir on my birthday list, or else I'll have to wait until Christmas. As for his daughter's novels, that's news to me -- happy news! I'll look them up.
Thanks. Just forwarded song off to the grands to enjoy with their Saturday morning pancakes.
Aw, Gary! That's a nice grandfatherly thing to do! I hope they like it!