"Laugh, Clown, Laugh" (1928) PART 2
(Actually it's part three - but who's counting?)
Believe it or not, this is not the final installment on "Laugh, Clown, Laugh.” Our buddy, the fine scholar Michael Garber has presented us with the revelation that the song was actually first heard in a Broadway musical even before it became connected with the 1928 MGM / Lon Chaney feature film of the same title. We’ll have that story next week, in the meantime, here is what I originally intended as part two, although considering that I ran a “bonus” post (regarding the man who introduced the song on records, the elusive Arthur Ball), this is actually part three. Does that make sense? I thought so. Clear as mud! In the meantime, have a Happy Holiday weekend, everybody!
“Laugh, Clown, Laugh”: Two 1928 Foreign Versions:
Here’s the “Original Havana Band (Late of the Savoy Hotel)” in a highly danceable waltz treatment - not a trace of old Havana here!
And for those of you who are dying to hear the song in German, here’s a Deutschlandish heldentenor named Herr Franz Bauman. (There’s another recording from Germany, during the depths of WW2, by the infamous Nazi propaganda ensemble, “Charlie and his Orchestra,” which uses the song to equate the ever-smiling FDR with a clown. I won’t include that unless somebody requests it!)
The Looney Tunes Connection (1936-1950)
“Laugh, Clown, Laugh” was originally published by Remick, Inc. Later that year, the company founder, Jerome H. Remick, sold his interest in the company to his vice president, Jerome Keit. Not long after, the firm was taken over by Warner Bros. and absorbed into the studio’s pool of music publishing interests. The song “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” became one of many Remick publications that was used extensively by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, musical directors of the Warner Bros. cartoon division, originally headed by Leon Schlesinger, which produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Between 1936 and 1950 or so, “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” is heard both vocally (usually sung by Mel Blanc) in a dozen or so Warner cartoons. Kudos to the anonymous scholar / editor / poster who runs the “Looney Tunes Songs” channel at YouTube.com for gathering all these occurrences of the song and splicing them together for us. (This is probably the only major recurring theme, frequently heard in Warners cartoons, that originated in an MGM feature film.)
A Few Worthwhile Later Performances:
Interestingly - I think - most of the original 1927-’28 versions of “Are You Lonesome Tonight” do not include the recitation, but the later post Jolson / Elvis recordings do. Conversely, most of the 1928 “personality” recordings of “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” do include the full recitation, but so far, none of the later recordings, especially in the LP / Hi-Fi area include it - at least I haven’t found one that does - except for Tony Randall! Bobby Short, as we shall see, performs what we might call a variation on the recitation.
Billy Eckstine (MGM 1951)
A very dramatic, pop-opera style interpretation - although unlike, say, Bobby Short’s version, it isn’t at all campy. Mr. B includes the first verse. This doesn’t appear to be on YouTube, so I’m including a 78 transfer from my friend Tom Bumbera.
Here’s the remarkable Ella Logan, c.1954, apparently on The Red Skelton Show - introduced by a Skelton marionette. Logan started as a band vocalist in England before becoming a star on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow, and, alas, there’s precious little footage of her. (This footage is courtesy our buddy, Alan Eichler, who has also recently produced an excellent retrospective of Logan’s rarer recordings, for the British label Jasmine.) She starts dramatically with the verse and then swings the chorus like crazy. Isn’t she adorable? I wish we had more vintage TV clips of her.
Bobby Short (The Mad Twenties, 1959)
For years, The Mad Twenties was always my favorite Bobby Short album, and his treatment of “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” is only slightly more campy than the most serious of the 1928 versions. Note that Bobby is one of the few artists who includes the second verse - in fact, he performs both verses in the middle, after the first chorus - speaking them aloud as if they were the recitation. After he finishes, there’s a wonderful sort-of-chase chorus in which Short and trombonist Lou McGarity laugh back and forth at each other. Great fun!
Abbey Lincoln (Abbey Is Blue, 1959)
Backed primarily by husband Max Roach’s combo, featuring Cedar Walton and the two Turrentine brothers, tenor saxophonist Stanley and trumpeter Tommy, Abbey Lincoln sets the standard for the way the song would be performed over the last 60 years - in mid-tempo swing time, bereft of the verses and the recitation. As mentioned, Lincoln sings an additional, probably original chorus not in the sheet music; she slows down the music and sings the title lines as “Laugh, clown. Laugh, clown.” which takes the overall feeling even further away from the traditional waltz time.
Sheila Jordan (Portrait of Sheila, 1962)
Ms. Jordan - who just celebrated her 96th birthday at Birdland a few weeks ago - included the song on what was for years thought to be her first album (although more recently an earlier one has been released) with a rather open trio of guitarist Barry Galbraith, bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer Denzil Best. She starts slow, interpreting it as a kind of a modernist ballad, and then bops it up agreeably.
Cécile McLorin Salvant (Music from the HBO film Bessie, 2015)
Cécile McLorin Salvant is supposed to be celebrating Bessie Smith and the Jazz Age, but her treatment owes more to Abbey Lincoln than anyone else, including Lincoln’s original chorus. (Now I wish she would go back into the studio with Aaron Diehl and record the whole thing as a ballad, including both verses and the full recitation.) On another note, it’s nice to conclude this informal retrospective with two great, currently active artists.
Post Script: Tony Randall (1960)
Let’s end with Tony Randall’s classic - and highly histrionic - performance of the song, first from his 1960 self-titled album, and then on camera from The Odd Couple. Note that in recreating the over-the-top style of ‘20s tenors, Tony Randall is virtually the only singer of the last 70 years to include the verse and the recitation, much to the consternation of Jack Klugman and Richard Dawson.
Special thanks to Elizabeth Zimmer, as always, not to mention Dan Weinstein, and Dan Levinson for sharing all the sheet music.
Elizabeth: “My folks had an old player piano in our basement in Great Neck, and ‘Laugh, Clown, Laugh’ was one of the rolls I played to pieces, and learned by heart.”
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As usual, some wonderful pop culture archeological work on your part.