A quiet Sunday morning in the East Village. In front of a church, it seems odd to see a lion. The lion looks towards the church and is contemplative. He carries a shield befitting his role as king of the beasts.
But, in contrast to that, he stands quietly mute, as if on guard against any evil that might appear in his small peaceful territory with his subjects, the pigeons, at his feet. He wants to be the protector of anyone who might feel lonely and who would sit on those benches. You get the feeling that he would roar if it became necessary.
Denise Van Outen : “Tell Me on a Sunday” It’s a sad New York story.
GLENN MILLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA : The song featured in the video below is “I Know Why and So Do You.” It is from a 1941 movie called Sun Valley Serenade and it was a hit recording. On the record label, the song is described as a fox trot. Paula Kelly sang romantic the female solo.
The name of the song is intriguing —“I Know Why and So Do You.” The language is one dimension removed from “I love you and you love me.” The singer seems awfully sure of herself.
The lyric* in the song, “I’m in heaven when the music begins” refers to how emotional ballroom dancing can be. Well, OK, but that would have to be a marvelous dreamy slow dance.
Most big band arrangements usually begin with the orchestra, with the celebrity musician leader often getting the earliest solo. Examples of that include Harry James (trumpet,) Benny Goodman. (clarinet) and Tommy Dorsey (trombone.) Glenn Miller plays the trombone solo in this song, although an actor dubbed him in the movie. There also are some fine tenor sax and clarinet solos.
Later in the arrangement a lovely vocalist takes the stage. It is an actress with Paula Kelly’s voice dubbed. She performs on the recording with the all-male quartet The Modernaires.
And a romantic movie plot line intertwines with this music in the film, where an actress roles her eyes while Paula Kelly’s solo is dubbed. It looks like she has a bird’s nest on her head as she claims to hear Gypsy violins. And the actor John Payne moves his lips for the male vocal. Milton Berle has a bit part holding a cigar.
This music is heard but not seen in the 2018 soundtrack for the Oscar winning movie The Shape of Water which was set in 1962.
That movie won the Best Score during the 2018 Academy Awards. Alexandre Desplat created a wonderful array of music for that movie. Most of the musical moments were original except for a few special pieces including “I Know Why and So Do You.” The latter, the Glenn Miller version, was chosen to help out the romantic theme in this thriller film.
And now here is that same song as performed in the movie Sun Valley Serenade (1941) with Paula Kelly, The Modernaires , and Glenn Miller’s Orchestra .
Jean Bredin made this photo from Hamilton Park in Weehawken, New Jersey on November 16, 2020.
She says, “The view of the NY skyline and Hudson River is worth stopping for.”
BOBBY SHORT: “Penthouse Serenade” is one of the classic Depression-era songs with the yearning for the glamorous Manhattan apartment by the poor, yet romantic, couple. It was written in 1931 by Val Burton and Will Jason.” (Wiki.) In 1952, Nat King Cole named an album for this song.
When I see horseback riders I think of cowboy movies from my childhood or adult cowboy movies like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” I remember “High Noon,” Roy Rodgers, Mexican sombreros, and Indians. I don’t think of equestrian competitions like they had in my last hometown–Chester Township. I had a neighbor on my street named Bill Horsey, and whenever I rode by his house, I whinnied, sending my sons into hysterics. As someone with a funny last name, I found humor in Bill’s dilemma. These days the “boys” are less likely to laugh out-loud at my jokes.
There was a horse-drawn wagon in Ocean Grove which we all enjoyed seeing clopping down Main Avenue. But that horse is gone now.
And finally I think of the dopey Mayor of New York City trying to put the horse-drawn carriages out of business. He lost that battle, and one quaint memory of old New York remains.
I recall taking this photo from one of those stone bridges in Central Park. The two riders were moving along briskly on a wintry day, and it seemed nostalgic even though I never rode horses except one time at Kutscher’s in the Borscht Belt where I got knocked off my mount; but that’s another story.
Here’s a song which evokes another horsey era, recalled by a Jewish guy from Minnesota—–Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, with “Romance in Durango.”
ALICIA KEYES: “Empire State of Mind (Part II). Broken Down.” From the album The Element of Freedom.
“Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams
Baby, I’m from New York
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York!”
Lillie Devereaux Blake Elementary School, founded 1894. It is a public school on the Upper East Side—one of the best elementary schools in NYC. Lillie was a suffragist and supporter of public education. Photo by Paul Goldfinger, BLOGFINGER.net
MARLO THOMAS AND HARRY BELAFONTE From Free to be You and Me
