"Labor" as in "Labor Unions"
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, but the first of my two songs for today was written in 1930, for the Depression-era 1932 revival of the musical revue Americana, and it's a stark reminder of the need for organized labor.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney, sung by Bing Crosby:
Video posted by warholsoup100
In its review of the revival, The New York Times particularly called out the song for praise:
Interestingly, as Rob Kapilow points out in an interview on NPR the song isn't someone asking for a handout--it's someone talking back to the system, someone saying, "I worked hard, I helped build this country, I helped defend this country, WHERE'S MINE?" It's a fair question.
The second song I bring you today is (at least on its face) less depressing and more rousing, from Newsies--"Seize the Day," music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, sung by the cast of the Broadway musical:
Video posted by SOPHIA BP
(It would be churlish to wonder where these street urchins picked up their excellent ballet techniques, right?)
The movie on which the Broadway musical was based (and for which the song was originally written) came out in 1992, but the real-life story on which it was based--the Newsboys Strike of 1899--preceded the Great Depression by several decades, and it illustrates just how effective even loosely organized labor can be. Even more important, it hints at just what havoc a free market without the countervailing forces of regulation and organized labor can wreak, with it's "labor force" of barely compensated children, the actual newsboys in question being, as one can see from the contemporaneous photographs, considerably younger than the performers in the show:
By Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer. - Library of Congress LOT 7480, v. 1, no. 0032-A[P&P]
LC-DIG-nclc-03189 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/nclc.03189, Public Domain, Link
The "great victory" of the Newsboys Strike was that they got paid a little better--but the children were still working, and working for pennies.
***
Lyricist "Yip" Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg) was indeed Jewish, although he was a firm atheist in later life. Known as "Broadway's social conscience", Harburg wrote lyrics with many composers, including Jerome Kern, Jule Styne, Vernon Duke, Harold Arlen (with whom he wrote the songs for The Wizard of Oz, for which he and Arlen won an Oscar for Best Original Song), and Burton Lane (with whom he wrote Finian's Rainbow). Although Harburg was never a member of the Communist Party, he had joined a number of radical groups and was blacklisted. Broadway (and Broadway audiences) didn't care much about blacklists, however, and Harburg continued to write poetry and musicals. He was honored by the Songwriters' Hall of Fame with the Johnny Mercer Award in 1981.
Composer Jay Gorney (born Abraham Jacob Gornetzsky) was a Russian Jewish refugee, whose family fled to the US after surviving the Bialystok pogrom. He graduated from law school (which he put himself through as a pianist, interrupted by a stint in the Navy during WWI), and practiced law briefly before turning to music. He began on Tin Pan Alley, writing for a number of musicals by the Schubert brothers, and was introduced to Yip Harburg by Ira Gershwin. He based the melody for "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" on a Russian lullaby his mother used to sing to him.
I cannot find much in the way of personal information about lyricist Jack Feldman, so although I am tempted to call him Jewish based on his name and his birthplace of NYC, I am aware that it doesn't necessarily follow. I will therefore simply congratulate him on his Best Original Score Tony for Newsies and move along.
Composer Alan Menken is also Jewish. He made his first musical splash with Little Shop of Horrors, and his work is well-known to anyone who was a parent or child from 1989 onward, since he wrote the music for Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules, among others. His list of film, television, and musical show credits is impressive, and has garnered him eight Oscars, seven Golden Globes, and one Tony (for Newsies)--and of course, he's not finished yet.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney, sung by Bing Crosby:
In its review of the revival, The New York Times particularly called out the song for praise:
[Y]ou are likely to feel that Mr. Gorney has expressed the spirit of these times with more heart-breaking anguish than any of the prose bards of the day. If Mr. Hoover had asked for a song instead of a poem the other day, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" would have been what the President ordered.
Interestingly, as Rob Kapilow points out in an interview on NPR the song isn't someone asking for a handout--it's someone talking back to the system, someone saying, "I worked hard, I helped build this country, I helped defend this country, WHERE'S MINE?" It's a fair question.
The second song I bring you today is (at least on its face) less depressing and more rousing, from Newsies--"Seize the Day," music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, sung by the cast of the Broadway musical:
(It would be churlish to wonder where these street urchins picked up their excellent ballet techniques, right?)
The movie on which the Broadway musical was based (and for which the song was originally written) came out in 1992, but the real-life story on which it was based--the Newsboys Strike of 1899--preceded the Great Depression by several decades, and it illustrates just how effective even loosely organized labor can be. Even more important, it hints at just what havoc a free market without the countervailing forces of regulation and organized labor can wreak, with it's "labor force" of barely compensated children, the actual newsboys in question being, as one can see from the contemporaneous photographs, considerably younger than the performers in the show:
By Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer. - Library of Congress LOT 7480, v. 1, no. 0032-A[P&P]
LC-DIG-nclc-03189 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/nclc.03189, Public Domain, Link
The "great victory" of the Newsboys Strike was that they got paid a little better--but the children were still working, and working for pennies.
Lyricist "Yip" Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg) was indeed Jewish, although he was a firm atheist in later life. Known as "Broadway's social conscience", Harburg wrote lyrics with many composers, including Jerome Kern, Jule Styne, Vernon Duke, Harold Arlen (with whom he wrote the songs for The Wizard of Oz, for which he and Arlen won an Oscar for Best Original Song), and Burton Lane (with whom he wrote Finian's Rainbow). Although Harburg was never a member of the Communist Party, he had joined a number of radical groups and was blacklisted. Broadway (and Broadway audiences) didn't care much about blacklists, however, and Harburg continued to write poetry and musicals. He was honored by the Songwriters' Hall of Fame with the Johnny Mercer Award in 1981.
Composer Jay Gorney (born Abraham Jacob Gornetzsky) was a Russian Jewish refugee, whose family fled to the US after surviving the Bialystok pogrom. He graduated from law school (which he put himself through as a pianist, interrupted by a stint in the Navy during WWI), and practiced law briefly before turning to music. He began on Tin Pan Alley, writing for a number of musicals by the Schubert brothers, and was introduced to Yip Harburg by Ira Gershwin. He based the melody for "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" on a Russian lullaby his mother used to sing to him.
I cannot find much in the way of personal information about lyricist Jack Feldman, so although I am tempted to call him Jewish based on his name and his birthplace of NYC, I am aware that it doesn't necessarily follow. I will therefore simply congratulate him on his Best Original Score Tony for Newsies and move along.
Composer Alan Menken is also Jewish. He made his first musical splash with Little Shop of Horrors, and his work is well-known to anyone who was a parent or child from 1989 onward, since he wrote the music for Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules, among others. His list of film, television, and musical show credits is impressive, and has garnered him eight Oscars, seven Golden Globes, and one Tony (for Newsies)--and of course, he's not finished yet.
Amazing! A very timely reminder to look back and see how important it is to not let us stop fighting for what is just.
ReplyDeleteThis does not take away from the fun it was to watch, thank you.
When Grandpa talked about the Depression, he didn't like that "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" was presented as the soundtrack of the time. The way he remembered it, back then people were already depressed enough, and didn't need sad music.
ReplyDeleteThen he'd start singing "About a Quarter to Nine" by Dubin and Warren.
I did not know this—or at least I don’t remember it, so thank you for the story. (But even if I had known, “About a Quarter to Nine” doesn’t really fit Labor Day, so.)
Delete