Klarinet Archive - Posting 000238.txt from 1998/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] The Gang's All Here
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 11:29:53 -0400

Jim Lytthans described that movie with the Paducah, Paducah and
even the remembrance of it sent shudders up my spine.

In all of Goodman's musical life he never played samba music and
in all of Carmen Miranda's life she never played anything but
samba music, so here are both of them singing this song.

First Benny sang it is a straight, up-tempo tune. A stupid
tune to the worst set of lyrics since "Put a Watermelon on my
Grave and Let the Juice Soak Through."

Paducah, Paducah
If you want to you can rhyme it with Bazooka
That city in Kentucky
Where you can feel lucky
Etc. ad disgustingitis

Then when he gets done doing what he does worst in the world, namely
singing, the band has to make this rediculous transition to samba
music so Miranda can do her south American version of it.

Can you believe it? A South American version of Paducah, Paducah?

Then the tempo and style changes and it goes back to Benny who
sings it again.

It was awful. A hideous clash of styles in the most insipid tune
ever written. Benny does not play a note in the stupid thing.
He's got his clarinet. It's under his arm. That's where it
stays.

He is smiling. Everybody is smiling. Carmen Miranda is smiling.

Why are all these people smiling in a world class stinker like
this. The film cost maybe $4.58 to make and the gross revenues
were $2.75. So they lost a fortune.

Carmen Miranda had a very sad end after this movie. She was in
a film with Cesar Romero and he was doing a dance number with
her. There were still shots being made for publicity and both
Romero and Miranda were up on a platform. He twirled her and
her skirt went up. She had no underwear on, the photographer
clicked, and that was the end of Carmen in the days of
Hollywood bluenoses. She was a great artist who simply was
never given a chance to do anything but samba music, and was
always dressed in a hat that had real fruit on it, lots and
lots of real fruit.

The next time this film is on television, I will watch it
with my S&M club. We enjoy the torture.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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