So many years ago, and this song still pulls All your Heart Stings. Two people obviously broken hearted, and still putting their best face forward. How many of us have had those loves and lost and meet them again, and yet still both wished things turned out better, and still knowing it never could be ? Bitter Sweet, but still wouldn't trade a moment ... Thanks for the memories ! :-)
"You might have been a headache, but you never were a bore. . ." You can't find the extra lyrics they sing here anywhere else. "Little dreams that never did come true. . . " Her face is so heartbreaking! We can guess what those "sweet little secrets" were.
Thanks for this. The breakup song. In those days everything was recorded in a studio and the actors had to lip sync their performance, unlike modern ones who suck at this. The reason? The old stars rehearsed it many times and got it right. One camera multiple takes. If it looks easy, it wasn't.
@@DotGuitarist Yes,you are right,but not in this instance. Director Mitch Leison decided the performance would be enhanced if recorded "live",and brought the Paramount Studio Orchestra to the set for the occasion! That's why it worked so well.
Both Bob and Shirley break out into spontaneous, unscripted laughter at the nylon-stockings-had to shave line at @3:04. She had a lovely laugh. Notice that Shirley takes a quick peek at the cameraman? director? She sees nothing telling her to 'cut' so the 2 of them carry on. It's a wonderful moment within a wonderful scene.
The Big Broadcast of 1938 was a delightful piece of fluff and this song made watching the movie well worth the while. A moving performance for memories of time lost, time past.
This is a GREAT song - so bittersweet but also moving. So good to see it in context in the movie and with the correct title, too. Thank you VERY much for sharing this clip with us!!!!!
One of the great scenes in cinema history. No wonder Bob made this his theme song. And Shirley was a major talent too bad Hollywood didn't recognize this.
Song means something different here than on all those 70's specials, right? It's a heartbreaker and one of the best..."Whatever happened to those pyjamas?" Her look...ACHE!!! Nothing sentimental about that if you've lived it.
Thanks for this. A treasure for sure. Gosh we miss people of this quality and class today. This song and clip-believe it or not- brings a tear to me, thinking of my own memories. Thanks. Hooray for us. -Bill
When Director Mitch Leisen first heard the song, he teared up. The song won the Best Song Oscar for 1938. After the 1942 mid-air collision that killed all members of a USO troupe including composer Ralph Rainger, Bob Hope said he would always use this song as his theme song. Ralph Rainger was not only a great composer but a fantastic pianist. scott9445, thank you for posting this.
what a wonderfully fun classic scene, song and performers. Ross had such a fine, distinctive voice, i don't know WHY she didn't make more recordings...
Thanks for the memories Sir. Mr, Bob Hope. You selfless you entertained troups of U.S. and Allied soldiers to help all of them to remember to laugh for a little while before returning to the nightmare of war.
"We did have fun and no harm was done".... seems this one was lost on the male audience.... and the look in the eye upon Shirley "Surely" tells a different story from the female side..... holy crap what a wonderful moment in American pop culture and most of us that lived and loved our grandparents from this generation really miss the simplicity/love/generosity and earnestness of the feelings from that era feeling morally bankrupt after watching this a third time .... but loving every moment
"So.. Thanks for the memories.. Of crabgames on the floor.." "Nights in SIngapore, You might have been a headache But you never were a bore..." "Thank you so much....." "Thanks for the memories, Of China's funny walls, Trans-Atlantic calls, That weekend in Niagra Where we hardly saw the falls..." "How lovely THAT was...." ;-)
I miss when he use to do those Bob Hope specials!He use to ding this at the end of everyone! Thanks for the memories Bob ,they don't make them like you anymore!
William, are you just stupid or pulling my leg. These men and women serve all of us. The protect our country and help to keep us free compared to China or Korea, or Russia. They risk their lives to keep us safe!!
These lyrics, and this performance, has a heartbreaking honesty, and goes where few others have gone. So many of us have been here. For me, it was an afternoon tea at Fortnums almost a lifetime ago- stiff upper lip, eyes not quite meeting, and so many things left half said and unresolved.
I’d never seen the movie, but just from having heard the recording a number of times on the radio, I knew that this is one of the saddest and most beautiful songs ever written. Thanks so much for posting this. Nicholas Stix
For this who have forget that the world travel they describe was then very, very rare. My mom had a steam trunk they used on a voyage they never talked about.
@yugo...As Betty Hutton once said, it was an age of great writers, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Parker ("I wished on a moon"), Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, The Gershwins, Johnny Mercer...the list is long. But all great writers. A wonderful period now, thank God, preserved by RU-vid.
Countless lighthearted variations of this Oscar award winning song would become Bob Hope's signature at so many future performances, but here in its original version it is a tale of two former lovers reminiscing about all the joy they shared and lamenting that it had to come to an end. Again, a sentiment that most people can relate to. I tell you what, I think every time I listen to it since the first time many years ago it brings a tear to my eye, but that's the power of a good song.
Stari Night I can't tell you how many years I've been searching for the Hope/Ross combination. They were quite a team. Too bad she's been lost in movie. To repeat, I haven't heard this in MANY decades!
Jay Young Oh Jay, it is so wonderful when we find some clip, some movie we have been searching for, for a while. I totally understand & am glad you found it. They just don't make movies like this any more..Oh, there are a few really good movies out there, but the diaglog, the whole feel is sadly gone. Woody Allen is one of the last of a dying breed who still understands the nature of film & art. Have a good weekend.
Stari Night Are you my alter ego? Jeez, we have the same taste. Yes, Woody is our last connection to those times, isn't he? Stari, are you with me when I say that Larry King's looks and voice are also reminders of the way we were? King is the only person I knew who can say, "Brother, can ya spare a dime?" a saying from the Depression. I promise not to filibuster, but do you like these reminders in song of the way we were?: "Shoe shine boy," by Ivie Anderson; "We just couldn't say good night," by Annette Hanshaw; and "Lost in a fog," by Connee Boswell. Good night, sweet dreams, my newly found alter ego!
@aknowneemus Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is a great introduction to b&w for the kids. My offspring was the same way until that film. Now I get told that all scary films should be in black and white and there's no question about it. :)
I just read someones comment about Bob as a coward. No way. He and his compatriots had to stop many a show until the firing stopped and they could go on again. Many of his troup over the years were wounded. Martha Raye comes to mind, she was wounded in Africa, somewhere in the Pacific, and slightly in Korea, and nearly got killed in Viet Nam. And they didn't have to be there. Now the torch is passed to those like Toby Kieth, thank God someone has taken up the torch that Bob lit and carried.
WHat's interesting about the song is its social context: The sexual revolution of the decade before, the 1920's, when "intelligent people" were adults who could have multiple affairs and not get all sentimental about break up. The brilliance of the lyric is that they start off reminiscing as though they were indulging in pleasant, but not tearful, nostalgia, as though they were philosophical and humorous about it, but then their posturing all fell apart because they (more she than he, here) they're actually what we all are and must be, creatures of sentiment, however we profess to be detached and "intelligent" about love, which nobody can be, not really! To paraphrase Holden Caulfield, once you start thinking about people you start to miss everybody. Ay my age, I understand that--but how did Salinger and how did that obscure lyricist, Leo Robin know that?
"You might have been a headache/But you never were a bore..." A friend just emailed me with that message. They had a great deal of worldly wisdom, those lyricists of the 20's & 30's, and brilliant skills. A song about nostalgia that makes one pine away for the past we've never experienced. Lovely, lovely melody. I especially like when he sings something about that weekend in Niagara when we hardly saw the falls, and she closes her eyes recalling their ecstatic sex, speaking the line "How lovely that was..." and his reply, also spoken, "thank you." The genius who directed the song. And the actors/singers: Shirley Ross is wonderful and, well, there's no use underestimating Bob Hope. It's surely one of the great moments in 20th Century popular culture!
Yes!!!! Yes!!!! I was anout to say that...its so clever without being dirty like today standards... We still totally got what they meant!!! I love it!!!
this message is for GOP7 1 I totally agree with you. I'm 52 yrs old and I grew up during the almost ending of wonderful times , I'm thankful I lived and grew up to remember these great stars and the music that transended up to the early 1980's and to the person rhinnawi95 who also made a comment about being fifteen during the 1940's i agree with you either the 1940's or 1950's would have been fine for me. and then pass on by the end of the 1990's , Not missing anything after that.
Not only is about having a memory, it's about two people who can still be thankful for their memories even though they're no longer together. It's really quite a lovely song / sentiment.
Thanks for the Medicare For Blue Cross and Blue Shield For hip that finally healed Remember on prescriptions generic is a steal We thank you soooo much ;D
how 'bout that hat?! but how sweet and lovely. what a pleasure to see bob without the double-takes and snappy patter. love and love-songs from the golden age: clever AND poignant, modernity without the cynicism.
I'm dedicating this to the Continental restaurant formally known as the Waffle House in Indianapolis. Came by this morning and found this sign in the door Thanks for the memories. Couldn't help but cry had so many memories there. You will be missed.
Bob Hope was huge...Golden era. There was a caddie call at Torrey Pines...leave it to me, went out for the call and if someone had asked what a caddie was supposed to do beyond carry the clubs...crickets. Hope was really late. Everybody was waiting near the first tee, a huge gang of us plus the players. He showed up and someone commented how, "he finally showed up." The person was a somebody with the event. Bob Hope turned just two steps ahead of me...the look was pure, "I am a star, I am Bob Hope, I double dare you to say that again."...all in one look. He was a true humanitarian too with the military shows abroad. Thanks for the memories. At a fund raiser event years later and after his death, his golf putter went for hundreds of dollars.
