Two Songs from 'America's Sweetheart'

Rodgers and Hart's 1931 spoof of Hollywood, America's Sweetheart, was not one of their great successes, running on Broadway for less than four months. Most of its numbers are obscure and some apparently lost, but the show did include two outstanding songs, even if neither are heard much these days.

Why didn't America's Sweetheart succeed? Its critics grumbled that Hollywood satires were old hat, and that Herbert Fields' book was inferior to Kaufman and Hart's Once in a Lifetime. The story line hinged on the changeover to talkies and the havoc it brought to the industry and its actors. (Rodgers, Hart and Fields may have been 20 years ahead of their time, considering the success of Singin' in the Rain.)

Jack Whiting and Harriette Lake

The leads were by all accounts appealing. One, appearing under her birth name of Harriette Lake, later became famous as Ann Sothern. The male lead was Jack Whiting.

Lake and Whiting introduced the two memorable songs from the show - "I've Got Five Dollars" and "We'll Be the Same." The former is a Depression song, and a wonderful one at that, with some of Hart's most winning lyrics. Lake sang:

"I've got five dollars / Eighty-five relations / Two lace combinations / They belong to you!

"Two coats with collars / Ma and Grandma wore 'em / All the moths adore 'em / They belong to you!"

The verse includes this gem: "I was more selfish / And crabby than a shellfish."

"I've Got Five Dollars" has been recorded any number of times, including several efforts when it was new. "We'll Be the Same" - a first-rate example of Rodgers and Hart's magic - is neglected, with only a few releases when new and a handful thereafter.

The best version of the latter song I have heard is by Tammy Grimes, and can be found in the collection of her work I recently posted. Today, however, we will go back to 1931 and a 78 by Victor Arden-Phil Ohman and Their Orchestra that couples it with "I've Got Five Dollars."

Victor Arden and Phil Ohman

Arden, Ohman and their pianos had been heard in several Broadway shows during the 1920s, including Rodgers and Hart's Spring Is Here. They don't seem to have been in America's Sweetheart, however.

For these two songs (and many other records), Arden and Ohman engaged Frank Luther for the vocal choruses. Luther seemed to live in the recording studio for several years, working under his own name, as "Bud Billings" for the country market, and with various vocal groups. Luther had a good reputation, although here his singing could best be described as accurate rather than ingratiating. His choppy phrasing does nothing for Hart's lyrics, to be sure.

Lee Wiley and Frank Luther

Then too, Arden-Ohman don't include the verse of "I've Got Five Dollars" nor the lyrics written for Hariette Lake. This means that Luther doesn't sing any of the Hart lines that I quoted above. To compensate for this omission, I've included a 1940 recording by Lee Wiley complete with the verse. Wiley, unlike Luther, was a stylist who injects much more personality into her singing. Her backing is by a Joe Bushkin ensemble that includes some of the usual Chicago-style musicians - Max Kaminsky, Bud Freeman, et al.

The sound on these records is good for its time, and is enhanced by ambient stereo processing.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

A 1934 Christmas Party with the Men About Town

My great pal Ernie (who is busily uploading Christmas music on his blog) expressed an interest in this particular record, which I happened to have, so here it is for one and all.

Now, I know Ernie, being a record collector, really wants the shellac item rather than the digital replica, but perhaps this will suffice.

It is a two-sided Decca 78 from 1934 called "Christmas Party," and it joins together holiday tunes familiar and not so, all under the auspices of the mysterious "Men About Town," which puts me in mind of a bunch of fellows in top hats and tails. Except that one of the most prominent party attendees is clearly a woman, who takes the lead during a good part of the vocalizing.

Not much can be found about the Men About Town and their female accomplice, but I think I have solved the mystery of at least the main protagonists on the record. The male lead is very likely Frank Luther, who at the time was equally prominent as a hillbilly and dance band vocalist, and who would later go on to dominate the children's record industry. The female voice is undoubtedly Luther's wife, Zora Layman, who is credited on the label of a Men About Town record from a few months earlier.

Frank Luther

Zora Layman

Under their own names Luther and Layman would go on to record a similar medley, "Christmas in Song," for Decca in 1939. (I should mention that the Men About Town also laid down a two-sided "Christmas Day" medley at the same November 1934 session in New York, and that both singles appeared on the Montgomery Ward label as well as Decca. I don't have the "Christmas Day" 78.)

As for the other voices on the "Christmas Party," my guess is that they are J. Donald Parker and Phil Dewey, who had recorded with Luther under the name the Melody Three. Parker and Dewey earlier used the "Men About Town" appellation with Will Donaldson.

I picked up this record many years ago hoping it would be at least a little ribald. Sorry to disappoint, but it is entirely sober, but pleasing nonetheless.