Thursday, July 1, 2010

Inda Good Old Somerstein


Uh-oh. It's July.

No help for it; there has to be a seventh month. We've been building up to it. We're at day 181, pretty much the fold in the calendar. The leaves are as full as they're going to be. It's going to get hot, weary-hot, and the trees will start to look a little tired. I can relate.

But I don't blame July. If July was a guy, he'd be grand marshal of the parade, jauntily waving right and left, pointing at some face in the crowd to make them feel special, tossing Bazooka bubble gum to the kids. And you know he'll get out of the Lincoln convertible and do that strut down the middle of Bristol Boulevard, do an angling cakewalk, doffing his hat, as his outfit keeps changing: Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, flip-flops, straw hat festooned with golf balls; Uncle Sam striped suit; Statue of Liberty with spiked chapeau; Robert Preston as the Music Man; big panama with a purple hat band. Call him Julius, Julian, Julie, Jules. He came, he saw, he's a summertime fool...


And speaking of summertime, here's a little July present, once again proving you can find anything on YouTube. This dates back to 1963. The TV show was "I've Got a Secret," hosted by Garry Moore, with a celebrity panel (anyone remember Bess Myerson?).

The gag was that the show found 24 people from the New York area phone books whose names (mostly) matched the lyrics to "In the Good Old Summertime." I.e, Inda / Good / Old / Somerstein (the star, of course). I was 14 at the time, but I remember it fondly. The chorus of 24 is conducted by none other than Meredith Willson (speaking of the Music Man). So, here's the part where they sing the song, after a last bit of guessing.

Roll on, July. I'm ready for you now.

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