True Love (which, I know, is a Cole Porter not a George Gershwin song)

In the 1945 George Gershwin bio-pic, Rhapsody in Blue, starring Robert Alda, the two women in his life (Joan Leslie and Alexis Smith, but, of course, not his mom, Rosemary deCamp) leave George because they love him so much that they don't want to distract his genius with their affection.

So, having just watched the film, I tell my lovely wife that if she had really loved me, she never would've married me.

To which she replied -- without hesitation, "Well, you're not a genius."

After thoroughly enjoying the New Britain High School production of "Hairspray"...

(photo by Gail Koerner)

...with any number of references to things that one may think a tad inappropriate for a high school cast, I had to chuckle heartily as I watched the 1956 film version of Anything Goes (Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and a French performer I'd never even heard of, Jeanmaire). 

The familiar title song, of course, written in 1934, is Cole Porter's take on the recurring fear that culture and society, at large, are going to hell in a hand basket.  As he writes:

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
was looked on as something shocking. 
Now heaven knows,anything goes!

Good authors too who once used better words
Now only use four-letter words writing prose.
Anything goes!

Well, take a listen to the opening part of Mitzi's version in the film.

And, yes, you heard right!

I don't even know what a "three-letter word" is supposed to suggest.

Ah, the good old days, when proper reserve meant not even using euphemisms!

 

Ah, Cole Porter!

This verse I've started seems to be
The tinpantithesis of melody
So to spare you all that pain
I'll skip the darn thing
And sing the refrain

from "DeLovely" (1934)

Career Advice from the Great Ameerican Songbook

A college education
I should never propose;
A bachelor's degree
Won't even keep you in clothes,
But millions you will win
If you can spin on your nose!
Be a clown, be a clown, be a clown

Cole Porter, "Be A Clown"

Sinatra lyric of the week from the Gigliotti vinyl collection

...in spite of a warning voice
that comes in the night
and repeats, repeats in my ear:

"Don't you know, little fool,
you never can win
use your mentality
wake up to reality"

But each time that I do
just the thought of you
makes me stop before I begin

cuz I've got you under my skin

"I've Got You Under My Skin" (Cole Porter)
as performed by Frank Sinatra, Songs For Swingin' Lovers (1955)