"Hold Everything" - 1928 Musical

[rclocalz]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:50pm

I've just heard a song called "You're the Cream in My Coffee" from the 1928 Musical "Hold Everything." I absolutley adore the song but have never heard of the musical. I've been searching the internet to find out how the song fits in the show and who in the show sings the song. So I came to my friends at BWW who seem to have all the answers. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find a synopsis of this musical? I think it's about a Boxer of sorts. Thanks!

[DezBryner]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:58pm

You're the cream in my coffee
You're the salt in my stew
You will always be
My necessity
I'd be lost without you

You're the starch in my collar
You're the lace in my shoe
You will always be
My necessity
I'd be lost without you

Most men tell love tales
And each phrase dovetails
You've heard each known way
This way is my own way

You're the sail of my love boat
You're the captain and crew
You will always be
My necessity
I'd be lost without you


Sorry it's not the answer you're looking for, but you put the song in my head and I had to get it out.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:00am

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=10743

There's a pop up when you click song slections that tells you who sang what. I cant find a synopsis on any of the standard boards, but since it's 1928, it's probably standard boy-meets-girl fare.

[rclocalz]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:04am

Thanks SeanMartin,

Yeah I saw that on ibdb, but I just can't find the synopsis. It's just such a cute song. It's become my Sunday night obsession trying to figure more out about the musical.

[DezBryner]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:07am

On October 10, 1928, Bert Lahr achieved immortality in a raucous musical, Hold Everything, by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson. Lahr played a punch-drunk boxer named Gink Schiner who was given to making strange sounds like "Gnong, gnong, gnong"; these utterances later became his trademark. The cast also included the beloved Victor Moore, Jack Whiting, Ona Munson, and Betty Compton, but it was Lahr who got the raves and who kept the musical running for 413 performances. The hit song was "You're the Cream in My Coffee."

Found this on Playbill.com

[rclocalz]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:30am

Hmm, thanks Dez. You rock! We are getting closer ya'll!

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:38am

What else do you want to know? We know lots about the stars, the producers, the theater, the composers and the costume designer. We can (between the guys on this site) probably find a copy of the program - hey, I know I have one in my collection but it's 3,000 miles away - so tell us what you want and we'll try to deliver.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 4:49am

HOLD EVERYTHING was filmed by Warner Brothers in 1930 in two-strip Technicolor. In one of the earliest cases of Hollywood trumping Original Broadway stars, Lahr was replaced by Joe E. Brown. The fabulous Winnie Lightner was his co-star.

The film is lost, and the only existing elements are its Vitaphone soundtrack discs.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 11:47am

still waitin' to hear what you need (although MasterLcZ had some cool info...)

[rclocalz]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 5:04pm

Basically, I just want to know the story (synopsis). I want to know why the song "You're the Cream in My Coffee" is in the show and how it fits in. And just about the characters that sing the song, etc...

I don't know, I'm just facinated by 1920s musicals and for some reason, I haven't heard of this one. Thanks for all the help ya'll have given me :)

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:20pm

I'll try to find some further info for you (which is hard cause I'm stuck up here in Toronto and all my hundreds of books are in LA). HOWEVER, that being said, I'd be willing to bet that there's little or very slight context for the song as there was in 1920's musicals. They may literally have come up with the song first, then decided to place the scene in, say, a diner so someone could sing "You're the cream in my coffee". This was a few years before Kern and Hammerstein begin producing shows that had the score moving the story forward and songs that introduced character, and reflected on the plot, etc.And since the show starred Bert Lahr, I'm sure most of it was a service to him and his clowning, but I'll try to find out the exact context.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:25pm

As a fan of late 20s and early 30s musicals, let me concur with what allofmylife said: there is no context. Gershwin, for example, would write a dozen songs for a show, then someone else would build a flimsy script around them, with stories that were barely more than boy meets girl. There were exceptions, of course, like my favourite STRIKE UP THE BAND, which is about the US declaring war on Switzerland over cheese. It has about four or five standards (One is "Someone to Watch Over Me"), but none are so intrinsic to the show that you could take them out and sense anything missing.

But that's how shows were written back then: truly as mindless entertainments.

[rclocalz]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:01pm

Thanks for the info. I'm sure that is probably what happened with this song since the recording I heard came from a vocal album rather than the musical itself. It can stand on it's own.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 11:13pm

"You're the Cream In My Coffee" was the only song from the Broadway show retained for the film, which had an original score by Al Dubin and Joe Burke (who wrote the hit score to Lightner's lost GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY, featuring "Tip Toe Through The Tulips" and "Painting The Clouds With Sunshine").

Dubin & Burke's big number for HOLD EVERYTHING was "When The Little Red Roses Get The Blues For You".

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 11:21pm

I mean, the title of the song alone pretty well sums up how it was written.

FADE IN:

INT. COFFEE SHOP

De Silva, Henderson and Brown are at the counter, pulling back on sinkers and java.

BROWN
Boys, we need a swell love song for the
second act.

HENDERSON
A snappy little number. Maybe we
could get a swell dish to warble it.

DA SILVA
But nothing to threatening. Remember
what Mrs. Lahr said about the love song
in The Revels.

At that moment BLOWSY WAITRESS approached.

WAITRESS
You guys need anything? More coffee?
Another plate a doughnuts? Howza bout
some fresh cream? Just two cents extra.

The guys are on a budget. YOU try getting paid by Vinton Freely.

BROWN
That's okay honey. You're the cream
in my coffee...

All three look at each other....

Well, you get the idea....

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 3:00am

Synopsis (from The Best Plays of 1928/29):

Sonny Jim Brooks, welterweight champion, is to box for the Milk Fund. Sue Burke, with whom he has been singing duets ever since they were children, thinks he should fight hard and his trainer thinks he should box lightly and not risk his title. When Sue has words with Sonny's opponent and he slaps her, she tells Sonny and at the fight Sonny wins in a punch.

Act One: "Pop" O'Keefe's Training Camp, Long Island
Act Two: Hotel Wood and Madison Square Garden.


Unfortuately Best Plays back then didn't list songs.

Of course there was no cast album made but the Victor Light Opera Company recorded Vocal Gems for the Victor Talking Machine Company: Don't Hold Everything; To Know You is to Love You; Too Good to be True; You're the Cream in My Coffee (on Victor 35970). (Gems from FOLLOW THROUGH are on the reverse.)

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 12:11pm

Actually, this is amazing. We've managed to keep this totally forgotten, uber-obscure musical on the front page of the message board for three days now.

Let's talk about "Banjo Eyes" next!

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 1:02pm

Banjo Eyes
Musical, Comedy
Setting: Carver Greeting Card Company; Bar in midtown hotel; Mabel's room; The Dream Heights; Erwin's home, Jackson Heights; Camp Dixon; Belmont Park.

Music by Vernon Duke; Book by Joseph Quillan, Izzy Ellinson; Lyrics by John La Touche, Harold Adamson, Charles Tobias, Cliff Friend.
Based on: Three Men on a Horse.

Wasnt a musical version of Three Men on a Horse one of Sondheim's "assignments" from Oscar Hammerstein?

But this... music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by John LaTouche (who would go on to write for Candide some years later). Okay, folks, what do we know about this one? Any hit songs?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 4:02pm

Actually, "We did it before (we'll do it again)" became the theme music of one of the branches of the military (The Seebees?) during the war.

But there is a very familiar number in the show. It just didn't become famous until ten years leter.

"We're Having A Baby(My Babie and Me)" is very famous. Just sing it out of the side of your mouth, with a Cuban accent while your wife makes google eyes at you. She has sone 'splainin' to do.

Yes, it's the number Lucy gets Ricky to sing at the Copacabanna so he'll understand she's "enciente" or "'specktin'" (the network never let them say Lucy was pregnant in any episode of "I Love Lucy" so Ricky said it in Spanish instead.)

As for the show, I have been told that it would have had a much longer run (it was a very big hit) if Mrs. Cantor hadn't caught Eddie trying to get one of the chorus girls enciente.

She demanded he quit. He did. It died.