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Probably the singularly most unpoetic title line of any Broadway tune!

This sly lyric was written by P. G. Wodehouse for the 1917 operetta "The Riviera Girl", book in collaboration with Guy Bolton, score by Emmerich Kalman. Lovely score, but perhaps a bit too sweetly sentimental for the team that wrote the books for the "Princess Musicals".

This cylinder was a transfer from Diamond Disc. The sound is loud, the range is good, but the overall effect is rather coarse, I think. Nice performance, though.

http://youtu.be/x4c-1kMzw2g

That's Long Island, NY when it was out in the country!
If Hickville was far out in the country, then Quogue was like getting lost in the wilderness.

James.

Hey, I'm a Long Islander...!!!! I'm from the Babylon Village/West Islip area originally.

People in Quogue actually have a different accent!

)

The Female voice singing with Murray almost sounds like Ada Jones.. Strange!

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

Let's not forget "Yip! Yip! Yaphank!" by Irving Berlin. Long Island, Land of Wonder, from Patchogue on out to Quoge and Aquebogue--all on the South Shore.

There were a number of songs that referred to hicks in the country in American popular song. One that is better known is this one:

Forty-five Minutes from Broadway

Only forty-five minutes from Broadway
Think of the changes it brings
For the short time it takes
What a diff'rence it makes
In the ways of the people and things
Oh, what a fine bunch of reubens
Oh, what a jay[3] atmosphere
They have whiskers like hay
And imagine Broadway
Only forty-five minutes from here

This is an old waltz song from George M. Cohan's musical of the same name and refers to a train ride from Broadway to New Rochelle, NY. New Rochelle is just east of Yonkers, I think, and was thought of as really out in the sticks then. "Reubens" refers to a "rube"; think of Uncle Josh. And "jay" is an old-fashioned slang term for a hick also. It still survives today in the word "jay-walking". BTW, the actor who introduced and sang the song "45 Minutes from Broadway" back in 1906 was Victor Moore, who you may remember as Fred Astaire's old friend in "Swing Time" (1936) and "Gold Diggers of 1937".

If I'm not mistaken, "Rachel Grant" is actually Gladys Rice.

Jim