Children's Underwear

It is a family tradition to go to the movies on Christmas Day, so after wondering what to do on our first Christmas in a long time without kids or grandkids in the room, my wife and I remembered—“Hey! Let’s go to the movies!” One plan was to take a long walk before arriving at the Balboa Theater to see a film about an ambitious ping-pong player, but between heavy rains and wind and a more appealing film, we crossed the bridge to drive to the Lark Theater in Larkspur. 

 

The film? Blue Moon. The topic? One night at a bar after Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered their new musical Oklahoma in 1943. The main character? Lorenz Hart, Rodgers former partner who wrote exquisite lyrics to Richard Rodgers' exquisite music for the 18 years they had worked together. On this night, he walked out of the premiere to drown his sorrows at the bar, knowing that this new musical would be a wild success and replace the more urbane sophistication of his own work with Rodgers with a more rah-rah corny Americana kind of vibe. Much of the film is his ongoing monologue with a sympathetic bartender and anyone else within earshot who will listen— including E.B. White. Hart is played by Ethan Hawke and if he is not nominated for an Oscar for his remarkable performance, I’ll give up on American filmmaking. And the film as well. So damn refreshing to sit for two hours with a single gun, superhero or special effect. Just the human drama of complex relationship and the wages of genius. 

 

Lorenz Hart was a complicated artist. Under 5 feet tall, a homosexual living in the cramped space of a cultural closet and an alcoholic on top of all that. He first met Rodgers when he was 23 and Rodgers was a 16-year-old high school kid composing melodies on his family piano. A friend brought them together and with their mutual passion for the emerging new style of theater songs being written by the likes of Jerome Kern and George M Cohan, they threw their hat into the ring and began pitching their songs to publishers. 

 

After five years of rejections, Rodgers threw up his hands and accepted a job selling children’s underwear. But as if a mirthful and mischievous cosmic puppeteer was waiting for the right moment to pull the strings, just before Rodgers reported for work, they got some songs accepted to a Broadway Revue called The Garrick Gaieties and much to the future delight of Broadway Shows, Hollywood Musicals and jazz musicians up to the present day, the doors were flung wide open to hundreds of songs that would be forever stitched into the tapestry of American popular music. Hard to imagine who we would have been without such gems as “Manhattan,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “Isn’t It Romantic?”, “You Are Too Beautiful,” “Lover,” “It’s Easy to Remember,” “Little Girl Blue,” “There’s a Small Hotel,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Have You Met Miss Jones?” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “I Could Write a Book,” “Where or When,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Blue Moon,"etc. etc. etc.. (If you don’t know these songs, you have much happiness ahead—check out the Rodgers and Hart album of The Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks, for starters.)

 

Generally, Rodgers wrote the music first and Hart followed with his exquisitely poetic and nuanced lyrics. Their first hit "Manhattan” was prophetic of the glories to come, with its clever, evocative, humorous and simply brilliant rhymes following the surprising rhythmic phrasing in the melody. Geography has never been so fun and artistic! 

 

1)   We’ll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too,

            It’s lovely going to, the zoo.

 

It’s very fancy, on old Delancy street, you know

The subway charms us so, as balmy breezes blow, to and fro.

 

And tell me what street, compares to Mott Street, in July,

Sweet pushcarts gent-ly gliding by.

 

The great big city’s a wondrous toy, just made for a girl and boy,

We’ll turn Manhattan, into an isle of joy.

 

2)   We’ll go to Greenwich, where modern men itch to be free,

            And Bowling Green you’ll see, with me.

 

We’ll bathe at Brighton, the fish you’ll frighten, when you’re in,

Your bathing suit so thin, will make the shellfish grin, fin to fin,

 

I’d like to take a, sail on Jamaica Bay with you,

And fair Canarsie’s Lakes, we’ll view. 

 

The city’s bustle cannot destroy, The dreams of a girl and boy,

We’ll turn Manhattan, into an isle of joy.

 

Hart’s alcoholism became an ongoing issue in his relationship with Rodgers, especially when he missed deadlines or didn’t show up when promised. Rodgers’ decision to switch to Oscar Hammerstein was both practical and financial, as the public in the midst of a horrendous war desired escape more than wit, some nostalgic immersion in the on-the-surface simple life of cowboys in Oklahoma and the more easygoing and sentimental lyrics that Hammerstein provided. Hart died some seven months after that Oklahoma debut, so there wasn’t even a choice but to continue the new partnership. From that groundbreaking show, Rodgers and Hammerstein went on with such iconic musicals as Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, all the way to The Sound of Music. 

 

How tragic it would have been to have lost all of that to a salesman selling children’s underwear!!