Caution:
This item may be hazardous to your mental health. Exposure to the song may cause you to keep humming it for a week and drive you nuts.
I’m a sucker for the old black and white musicals… 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of.. (insert a year), Anything Goes, Top Hat, Meet Me in St Louis, Holiday Inn, White Christmas, any Busby Berkeley musical…
The other day I picked up a DVD double in the cheapo barrel at Blockbuster, Bing Crosby in Birth of the Blues and in Blue Skies. The latter has Fred Astaire dancing to Puttin' on the Ritz, a wonderful sequence that can be viewed and listened to by clicking on the following link:
(How does he get that cane to rise like that?)
Having watched it, the song kept going round and round in my head and I just kept humming it as I worked.
Even my young teenage son was singing it. When I asked him how he knew it, he said that Shiny Toy Guns do it.
Eventually I did some research into the song.
Some points of interest:
- Inspired by the elegant and expensive Ritz Hotel, the old time expression “putting on the ritz” meant to put on one’s fancy clothes and behave appropriate to that. It was not a compliment, the phrase having a meaning of putting on airs, of aspiring to the grandeur of the Ritz Hotels without having the social standing or financial wherewithal to do so.
- The song was written in 1929 by Irving Berlin and was introduced by Harry Richman in the 1930 movie Puttin’ On The Ritz.
- In 1939, Glark Gable of all people performed the number in Idiot’s Delight. That was the same year as Gone With The Wind.
- In 1946 Fred Astaire sang and danced to the number in Blue Skies.
- Another memorable version, a version that once seen will change your perception of the number forever, is featured in the 1974 film Young Frankenstein, where the doctor shows his created monster to the world.
- In 1982 Dutch singer Taco had a hit with a synthpop version of the song. The video clip that accompanied the song caused controversy by showing some of the performers in black face, causing a censored version without blackface to be quickly released.
- A good version, techno, has been released by Shiny Toy Guns.
-The most interesting thing is that there are two sets of lyrics. The original lyrics are featured in the Harry Richman and Clark Gable movies, the revised lyrics in the Fred Astaire movie.
At the time when the song was written, there was a popular fad for whites to go “slumming” by travelling to Harlem to watch their servants and other Harlemites dress up and blow their pay on Thursdays. The original lyrics feature the singer inviting others, presumably whites, to go with him to Lennox Avenue and amuse themselves watching the blacks “putting on the ritz”.
When Irving Berlin changed the lyrics he referred instead to white people “putting on the ritz” on Park Avenue.
Original lyrics:
Have you seen the well to doUp on Lennox Avenue?On that famous thoroughfareWith their noses in the airHigh hats and arrow collarWhite spats and lots of dollarsSpending ev'ry dime for a wonderful time
If you're blue and you don't knowWhere to go to, why don't you go,Where Harlem sitsPutting on the Ritz
Spangled gowns upon the leveeOf high browns* from down the levee,All misfitsPutting on the Ritz.
That's where each and ev'ry Lulu-belle** goes,Ev'ry Thursday*** evening with her swell beausRubbing elbowsCome with me and we'll attend the jubileeAnd see them spend their last two bitsPutting on the Ritz.
* High browns - a variation of the phrase high yellow, referring to someone of mixed racial background, usually with the inference that they're putting on airs beyond their social station.
** Lulu-belle: a generic name for black maids
*** Thursday: traditionally the maid’s day off
Revised lyrics:
Have you seen the well to do ?Up and down Park Avenue ?On that famous thoroughfare,With their noses in the air ?High hats and arrow collars,Wide spats and fifteen dollars.Spending every dime for a wonderful time !
If you're blue and you don' know,Where to go to, why don't you go,Where fashion sitsPutting On The Ritz.
Different types, who wear a day coatPants with stripes, and cut away coat,Perfect fitsPutting On The Ritz.
Dressed up like a million dollar trooper,Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper,Super-duper !
Come, let's mix where Rockefellers,Walk with sticks, or umbrellas In their mitts.Putting On The Ritz.
Spangled gowns upon a beauty of hand-me-downs, on clown and cutie,All misfits.Putting On The Ritz.
Tips his hat just like an English chappie,To a lady with the wealthy happy.Very Snappy !
You'll declare it's simply topping,To be there, and hear them swapping,Smart titbits.Putting On the Ritz.
Following are the links for the clips of the various versions and performances described above:
Harry Richman (1930)
Clark Gable (1939)
(Watch the wardrobe malfunction as the strap break on the outfit on the woman second from the left at the 0.55 mark and that she loses the steps as she tries to protect her modesty).
Fred Astaire (1946)
Fred Astaire (1930)
(In this version Astaire sings the original lyrics. The clip is illustrated with pics and prints of the period).
Judy Garland (1960)
Young Frankenstein (1976)
(Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle)
Taco (1982)
(Uncensored blackface version)
Shiny Toy Guns
Well, there it is and now the bloody thing is going around in my head again.
We should neither try to whitewash (unfortunate term) our musical history nor condemn people for acting as most did in their time; it is my sincere hope that a century hence people will see many of _my_ attitudes and tolerances (e.g., for so many starving on a rich world) as barbaric, and I hope they also understand a little why I was so.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that hostels actually provide a great option for budget travelers and with their affordable prices, allow many people to see the world they otherwise couldn’t afford.
ReplyDeletePousada Ubatuba