Posted on 06/01/2022 5:56:23 PM PDT by TBP
Teh famous Rodgers and Hammerstein song from Carousel.
June’s bra snapped?
Carousel is my favorite of the R & H musicals.
I rarely disagree with Mark Steyn, but he thought that pipsqueak Frank Sinatra would have been a better Billy Bigelow than Gordon McRae (and presumably John Raitt). Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
We need to take back June.
June Is Busting Out All Over--Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians; vocals by Hildegarde and the Song Spinners (1945
Yep.
Yes! And I love it. But thanks a lot— now I have it in my head!
I really wish Broadway wasn’t dominated by homosexuals. I love show tunes and there is a history of wonderful, manly men (Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, etc.) producing tremendous American entertainment. But nowadays, show tunes have a distinct tinge to them.
What Is So Rare as a Day in June? -
by James Russell Lowell
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip starlets in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,--
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?
Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For our couriers we should not lack;
We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,--
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!
Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,--
'Tis for the natural way of living:
Who knows whither the clouds have fled
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake,
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.
https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/what-so-rare-day-june
Absolutely beautiful.
Describes every minute, of every beautiful, God given, June day.
Thanks for posting.
I liked her in The Glenn Miller Story.
That is very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Never disagree with Mark Steyn. :)
Frank Sinatra was hardly a pipsqueak. (Good boxer)
I think Steyn thinks the way he does about this because of Sinatra’s rendition of Soliloquy. Best version is on the “Concert Sinatra” album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ476jZrj14
That’s a wonderful poem. Thanks for posting it.
Frank Sinatra’s height was 5ft 7.5in (171 cm).
“Frank Albert Sinatra is physically and/or mentally disqualified for military service by reason of: 1. chronic perforation [left] tympanum; 2. chronic mastoiditis. The form noted the examinee’s weight as one hundred and nineteen pounds (four pounds below the Army minimum for men of his stature) and his height as five feet seven and a half inches.” – Frank: The Making of a Legend by James Kaplan, 2010 Source: https://www.howtallis.org/frank-sinatra-height-weight-shoe-size/
If he was a boxer, he was a bantam weight, and barely taller than Shirley Jones. While he was a great singer, his register isn’t low enough for a proper Billy Bigelow.
Mark Steyn also loved “Guys and Dolls”, where Sinatra’s acting was not great (granted, better than McRae’s in Carousel), and Marlon Brando was horribly miscast in that second-rate musical. (Note: My father performed as both Billy Bigelow and Big Julie in local community theatre, so I am familiar with both soundtracks). Sinatra was not great in “High Society” either, though he suffers from being compared to Jimmy Stewart in the Philadelphia Story. He was ok in Manchurian Candidate, where he didn’t even get to sing.
“Carousel” is one of my favorite musicals. I swiped my parents’ album when I was about ten and would listen to it in my room. I loved John Raitt’s powerful voice.
Thank you for playing this - it brought back some beautiful memories.
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