Legendary homosexual Cole Porter

While resident in his Waldorf Towers suite, lunch was often served to Porter by waiters from the hotel's restaurant, Oscar's. Some of them occasionally offered more than the chef's special in return for a generous "tip." That service was requested of one new and particularly attractive waiter who, upon request, hauled out his very generous endowment to display and suggested a price higher than Porter was willing to pay. As he put away his checkbook and the Italian stallion put away the salami, Porter was heard to say, "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today."

But OP.... he was married! To a woman!

You saw the movie, FF: she slept in an iron lung!

Is he the one who said he was “going to end up in Harlem with my end up in Harlem”?

I hadn't heard this gem from 1928 show PARIS / Jeri Southern - Don't look at me that way -

In my opinion, this is one of the best albums of all times. Used to play it unashamedly and incessantly in college, decades ago (early 80s)

Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, let's do it, let's fall in love

In Spain, the best upper sets do it, Lithuanians and Letts do it, let's do it, let's fall in love

The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it, not to mention the Finns. Folks in Siam do it: think of Siamese twins

Some Argentines without means do it, people say in Boston even beans do it, let's do it, let's fall in love

Romantic sponges, they say, do it, oysters down in oyster bay do it, let's do it, let's fall in love

Cold Cape Cod clams 'gainst their wish do it, even lazy jellyfish do it, let's do it, let's fall in love

Electric eels, I might add, do it, though it shocks 'em I know

Why ask if shad do it? Waiter, bring me shad roe

In shallow shoals English soles do it, goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it

Let's do it, let's fall in love

Cause baby, if I’m the bottom, YOU’RE THE TOP!!!

I get no kicks from cocaine...

Some get a kick in a plane, Flying too high with some guy in the sky Is my idea of nothing to do. But I get a kick out of you.

Amended:

Some get a kick in a plane,

Flying too high with some guy in the sky

Is my idea of nothing to do.

But I get a kick out of you.

So taunt me

And hurt me

Deceive me,

Desert me

I’m yours, till I die.

So in love, so in love, so in love with you my love

Am I

R12 I love you ❤️. They can't write raw, simple, beautiful lyrics like Cole anymore.

Now I have to go dig out my Ellla Sings Cole's Songbook CD.

I've Got You Under My (Fore) Skin.

Live and let live, be and let be

Hear and let hear, see and let see

Sing and let sing, dance and let dance

You like Offenbach, I do not

So what, so what, so what

Read and let read, write and let write

Love and let love, bite and let bite

Live and let live, and remember this line

Your business is your business

And my business is mine

Use your imagination

Just take this motto for your theme

And soon every night will be crowded with delight

And every day will be a dream

And use your imagination

You'll see such wonders if you do

Around you there lies, pure enchantment in disguise

And endless joys you never knew

Experiment,

Make it your motto day and night

Experiment

And it will lead you to the light

The apple on the top of the tree is never to high to achieve

Just take an example from Eve

Experiment!

Be curious,

Though interfering friends may frown

Get furious

At each attempt to hold you down

If this advice you'll only employ,

The future can offer you infinite joy and merriment

Experiment and you'll see.

You're the top! You're a Waldorf salad.

You're the top! You're a Berlin ballad.

You're a baby grand of a lady and a gent.

You're an old Dutch Master, You're Mrs. Astor, You're Pepsodent.

You're romance, You're the steppes of Russia,

[bold]You're the pants on a Roxy usher.[/bold}

I'm a lazy lout that's just about to stop,

But if Baby, I'm the bottom,

You're the top!

"I Loved Him, but He Didn't Love Me" was written for the 1929 musical Wake Up And Dream. Porter wrote it about an unrequited love.

It's usually sung by a woman, as here by Judy Garland, but Porter wrote it about an unrequited love of his own.

"I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him but he didn't love me"

This is so witty!

r6 has no taste.

Do you know who's playing?

I love 'Night and Day' and 'Begin The Beguine' but he and Noel Coward did too many list songs (such as 'Let's Do It' and 'The Physician') which relied on using a rhyming dictionary rather than any innate wit.

I maintain that Coward was better value because he did full plays as well songs but one of our DL colleagues here says Porter was a better song-writer because he had a wider range.

They're both good.

Irving Berlin could be funny and clever and cutely dirty too. In more basic way of course. Porter's expertise was really in the range of his musical compositions more than his good but (for him) formulaic lyrics. He was kind of the reverse Sondheim, who is a much better lyricist than composer.

Later recycled into the Crosby/Sinatra/Grace Kelly film version of "High Society"

Recording of the Radio 3 concert from 2001.

I hope I'm not being controversial but I get the feeling that Porter was the only Gentile amongst the Great 20th Century American Songwriters/Tin Pan Alley/Showmen/Musical composers.

This, R22, is the definitive Reno Sweeney despite an awful venue (Barbara Bitch Bush White House), backed by the Marine Band and not a chorus, and state of the art 1990's videotaping.

I love Patti Lupone, but she's way before my time. I've seen Sutton Foster and we always say that she was created in a lab, she's so fucking spectacular. And she is. Don't bother to argue silly things. Patti definitely is flesh and blood and came from the earth, ha. I love her smeared mouth and blaring voice, but she's not exactly a dancer.

You do know that Reno Sweeney is also (now) a dancing part R27? On a good day, Sutton Foster's piercing second soprano is the most perfectly placed instrument of inflection, nuance and pretty power you'll ever hear. That day. And her vibrato is even better than Ms. Lupones.

Come to think of it, this song is Cole Porter-esque. Sutton is insanely committed, early in the morning!

R28 No, just NO

WOW, now you're just very old and sad. R29. As if you're Justin Bieber response didn't already reveal that about you. Friday night drunks on DL, thinking they can shoot down my great post and a universally acclaimed performer with a " No, just NO."

Stop being THAT gay. It's old dude.

R30 It is Saturday afternoon love. Sutton is meh, but at least Younger is keeping her off the stage, until she murders Marion next year in TMM

I like a lot of the 'laundry list filler sings with lots of contemporary references to celebrities who are mostly completely forgotten today. Many of them are 'in-jokes' for Porters smart-set Broadway audiences.

(I've always loved this silly, frothy song. These are just the lyrics from the Sinatra-Rosemary Clooney recording. The Broadway lyrics are sharper and smarter, and I can't find the nasty version on line. Would love Sondheim to update it with modern references)

Oh, by Jove and by Jehovah, you have set my heart a flame And to you, you Casanova, my reactions are the same I would sing thee tender verses but the flair, alas, I lack Oh go on, try to versify and I'll versify back

Cherry pies ought to be you Autumn skies ought to be you Mr. Pulitzer's prize ought to be you Romeo in disguise ought to be you

Columbine ought to be you Sparkling wine ought to be you All of Beethoven's nine ought to be you Every Will Shakespeare line ought to be you

You are so enticing, I'm starting to shake You are just the icing to put on my cake

Heaven's blue ought to be you Heaven too ought to be you Everything super-doo ought to be you

Asphodels ought to be you Orson Wells ought to be you Ankles like Kip Cornell's ought to be you Towels from Ritz hotels ought to be you

Sweet Snow White ought to be you Ambrose Light ought to be you Eleanor wrong or right ought to be you Errol Flynn loose or tight, ought to be you

You are so exciting, I can't even laugh, If you're fond of biting, I'll bite you in half

To continue Whistler's ma ought to be you Elliot's pa ought to be you Everything hip-hurrah ought to be you

Ought to be you, ought to be you, ought to be you Ought to be you, ought to be you, ought to be you Ought to be you, ought to be you

Dang formatting!

Hope this is better. A song that gradually gets filthier, it was banned from radio for years. Not all the lyrics are here.

BUT IN THE MORNING, NO From the Broadway show "Du Barry Was A Lady" (1939) (Cole Porter)

Ethel Merman & Bert Lahr - 1939 Frances Day & Bud Flanagan - 1940 Julie Wilson & William Roy - 1990

HE: Love affairs among the gentility Hit the rocks with great agility Either because of income or incompatibility

SHE: We've adjusted our finances You run mine and I run France's So there's only one question that's hot Will we have fun or not?

SHE: Are you fond of riding, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I'm fond of riding, Dear But in the morning, no

SHE: Are you good at shooting, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I'm good at shooting, Dear But in the morning, no

When the dawn's early light Comes to crucify my night That's the time when I'm in low

SHE: Are you fond of swimming, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I'm fond of swimming, Dear But in the morning, no

SHE: Can you do the crawl, my Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I can do the crawl, my Dear But in the morning, no

When the sun through the blind Starts to burn my poor behind That's the time when I'm in low

SHE: Do you use the breast stroke, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I use the breast stroke, Dear But in the morning, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no!

HE: Are you fond of Hot Springs, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I'm fond of Hot Springs, Dear But in the morning, no

HE: Do you like Point Comfort, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I like old Point Comfort, Dear But in the morning, no

When my maid toddles in With my orange juice and gin That's the time when I'm in low

SHE: Are you good at figures, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes,I'm good at figures, Dear But in the morning, no

SHE: Do you double entry, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I do double entry, Dear But in the morning, no

When the sun on therise Shows the bags 'neath my eyes That's the time when I'm in low

SHE: Are you fond of business, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I'm fond of business, Dear But in the morning, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no!

HE: Are you in the market, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I'm in the market, Dear But in the morning, no

HE: Are you fond of bulls and bears? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I'm found of bears and bulls But in the morning, no

When I'm waked by my fat Old canary, singing flat That's the time when I'm in low

HE: Would you ever sell your seat? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I'd gladly sell my seat But in the morning, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no!

SHE: Are you fond of poker, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I'm fond of poker, Dear But in the morning, no

SHE: Do you ante up, my Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: Yes, I ante up, my Dear But in the morning, no

When my old Gunga Din Brings the Bromo Seltzer in That's the time when I'm in low

SHE: Can you fill an inside straight? Kindly tell me, if so

HE: I've filled plenty inside straights But in the morning, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no!

HE: Are you fond of Democrats? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I'm fond of Democrats But in the morning, no

HE: Do you like Republicans? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I like Republicans But in the morning, no

When my pet Pekinese Starts to cross his Q's and P's That's the time when I'm in low

HE: Do you like third parties, Dear? Kindly tell me, if so

SHE: Yes, I love third parties, Dear But in the morning, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no!

The hard of hearing ARE big fans of Ethyl Merman and Patti Lupone.

Why are you so drunk on a Saturday afternoon R31? You might fall and hurt someone.

R34 OMG, you are so bright. And correct, Steven is a much better lyricist than composer. 'I Feel Pretty' so proves your point

Gosh, you're old & dumb. And drunk. Are you a racist too? That makes you a gold star DL member R35. Kindly fuck off.

The poor man’s Irving Berlin.

[quote]get the feeling that Porter was the only Gentile amongst the Great 20th Century American Songwriters/

No. Vincent Youmans was a goy too.

I think it’s pretty obvious who the real drunk on this thread is. You brought a Jeanine Tesori clip, you idiot, when the thread is explicitly about Cole Porter. And no, “Gimme Gimme” doesn’t sound remotely like a Porter song.

I'm black. We don't drink. And I won't fuck ancient white fags who start quoting Jeanine Tesori. Like I know who that is. Go back to Broadway Melody with your blackface self R39. The old fag from tomorrow (r35) was painful enough, but ain't no other bitch gonna kill my vibe. I sing, I play, I compose. I graduated the Royal Conservatory of Music. I'm pretty fine in most ways. They award me and some bow down. No ancient fruity white pebble gonna tell me that Sutton Foster can't sing. Be grateful for my contribution to this thread or pay for more services. Old white men worshipping Cole Porter's "dirty" lyrics. Just another excuse for DL theatre GIANTS to discuss Patti Lupone? Geez whiz fuck christ. Ain't Judy Garland still dead and still you're favorite singer?

* your

Cary was SO pretty.

(Much prettier than Kevin Klein)

"I love 'Night and Day' and 'Begin The Beguine' but he and Noel Coward did too many list songs (such as 'Let's Do It' and 'The Physician') which relied on using a rhyming dictionary rather than any innate wit."

Love the people who think they know more about songwriting than Cole Porter!

Nobody in American music could do both lyrics and music at such a high level.

Yes, there were a few who did better melodies, but they couldn't touch Porter's lyrics, if they wrote lyrics at all.

And there were a few who maybe wrote better lyrics, but they couldn't touch Porter's music, if they wrote music at all.

Sondheim is a good example. He is Porter's only better when it comes to lyrics, but his melodies don't come close to Porter's.

Noel Coward was the poor man's Cole Porter.

Coward wrote parody homages to Porter, but Porter did not return the favor. There is a reason.

R48 Noel came from the lower-middle-class and CREATED his own wealth but I understand that Cole inherited his.

[quote]You’re a piece of shit, [R40], and you’re the “I’m black” troll, which no one believes. You’re the one who posted the clip of Gimme Gimme, in a thread where it was neither needed nor wanted. And you know neither how to spell nor what proper grammar is. The fact that you’re writing this shit and you’re “not drunk” makes you pathetic. We know who you are. We know what you are. Now go play on the freeway.

[quote]s the well-recognized lunatic here who thinks that its coprophagia won't be noticed because it blends in so well with its native hue. A particularly pathetic example of late-stage syphilis, racist and potty-mouthed (in more ways than one) who thinks it is an intelligent, erudite social commentator. Homeless and using a library computer with someone else's account left open on it. Try to ignore it and maybe it will go back to its crack pipe. Or chasing Japanese tourists for change. Or, more likely, it will continue its rampage because it is sooooo sick.

Who is this old white man hatebox? What's an I'm black troll? Gimme Gimme is a great performance by Sutton Foster. Upset some old fruit so bad he had to start with his old fag racism again and then calling a fine writer and composer uneducated. Like some lisping old queen of yesterday, he refers to a man as she or it? I heard this sad example of old school gay talk in Boys in The Band. FAGS are gross, especially the ones who have been out for too long. Smells bad miss warwick.

Dude IS also THE Matt Damon as the King of France and Miss Warwick (permanently banned) and Olivia De Havilland's second cousin, except when he's a BLACK man from Missouri, your sister's son-in-law or someone who hates any performer born after 1970!!!

An expert on everything. The institutionalized LOVES Dionne and Judy and pretending to be black. His effort there is to denigrate all other black people. Bitch knows his Broadway, camp, Dionne Warwick and SCAT - am I right R45 and R46? We love your threads about "guests" leaving shit all over the bathroom walls. And all the other scenarios you come up with to encourage others to engage in SCAT CHAT, so you can get off!!

WE Studied you at Georgetown dude. So much shit and how many times have you been banned for it? My boy here tells me you tried to tell mourning people to fuck off and take their misery elsewhere. WE don't all live in a facility with 24 hour staff Gramps. What a sick fuck you are. And how sad that your good taste lead you to eating shit, begging for shit and talking nothing but shit. Until you have to be restrained. WE enjoy how you answer your own posts Miss Warwick. Y'all kept that thread going for years. But you'll do it here too, to condemn the cute sexy brave one. That me. Do your worst bitch. No one is afraid of your ancient racist white man ASS. You're a mouth full of shit.

[quote]Noel came from the lower-middle-class and CREATED his own wealth but I understand that Cole inherited his.

Not to take away from Coward's achievements, but Cole Porter made far more money from his talents than Noel.

I always liked Dionne Warwick’s medley of So in Love/What Is This Thing Called Love.

Some of her 1990 Cole Porter album now sounds dated because of the production, but she really does have the phrasing and deft touch for Porter’s music and lyrics.

I wish Streisand had recorded a "Cole Porter Songbook" in the '80s, when her voice was still great, instead of schlocky garbage like duets with Kim Carnes.

Cole was a Hoosier and a fraternity man (Delta Kappa Epsilon).

Mabel Mercer, of course, also was gay. And legendary.

Western culture peaked with the release of Ella Fitzgerald’s Cole Porter Songbooks. It’s all been one slow decline since.

[quote]“We’ve got to recognize that a kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate and not a gangbanger"

Miss Frances Faye......

[quote]Western culture peaked with the release of Ella Fitzgerald’s Cole Porter Songbooks. It’s all been one slow decline since.

Ella Fitzgerald, while a very pleasant singer, was a very boring one. She sang every song as if English was not a language she understood.

I think it was Betty Bowers, many years ago, who said Ella Fitzgerald sang every song as if she was searching for mints in the bottom of her purse.

Oh piffle.

R61 Is Ella singing from a jail or an airport lounge -- calling flights over the bridge?

Kelly Clarkson almost got it and her voice has it all of course. She's a great singer.

[quote]No. Vincent Youmans was a goy too.

Also Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

And Hoagy Carmichael

Who the fuck are these assholes tagging on Ella Fitzgerald. Can you bitches do better? You probably sound like dying cats in heat.

R49 I wonder if Cole and Noël exchanged body-fluids on the Lido back in '26.

I think it highly suspicious that Noël asked his long-time bum-boy to adopt the name 'Cole'.

[quote]I think it was Betty Bowers, many years ago, who said Ella Fitzgerald sang every song as if she was searching for mints in the bottom of her purse.

Sad, sad. Some old white gay man quoting some faceless white queer hiding behind an actress who pretends to destroy fundamentalists, but really just argues biblical interpretation.

Regardless, Ella Fitzgerald had an impeccable voice, supreme musical ability, and she was a SUBLIME singer.

Shirley Jones confirmed Jack Cassidy's "involvement" with Cole in her book.

In his book, pimp to the stars Scotty Bowers wrote that his two best customers were Cole Porter and Tom Ewell.

Cole frequently requested that Scotty send over multiple guys for him to suck off one after another.

R69 FINALLY, 69 replies to finally get to Jack

Cole Porter is probably the best, non Jewish, American lyricist.

It's the wrong time

And the wrong place

Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face

It's not her face,

But such a charming face,

That it's all right with me.

It's the wrong song in the wrong style

Though your smile is lovely, it's the wrong smile

It's not her smile, but such a lovely smile

So it's all right with me

You can't know how happy I am that we've met

I'm strangely attracted to you

There's someone I'm trying so hard to forget

Don't you want to forget someone, too?

It's the wrong game with the wrong chips

Though your lips are tempting, they're the wrong lips

They're not her lips, but they're such tempting lips

That if some night you're free

Dear, it's all right

Yes, it's all right with me

Kelly Clarkson sounds like she has marbles in her mouth in that clip. Bitch needs to enunciate.

R74 Noël Coward said singers who can't enunciate should be replaced.

He complained that the singing profession was being polluted from 1925 onwards by these new "radio singers".

"Radio singers" are incapable of singing, he said, without a microphone thrust almost into their gullet. They are lazy singers.

One of my very favorite Porter songs. Deceptively simple and heartbreakingly beautiful. When Fred Astaire was uncertain about doing "Gay Divorce", Porter played him this song from the score. Fred immediately agreed to do it.

After the show (with Astaire) opened in London in 1933, "After You, Who?" became a huge hit with British audiences, even more than in America. The sing was inexplicably dropped from the movie "The Gay Divorcee".

Though with joy I should be reeling

That at last you came my way,

There's no further use concealing

That I'm feeling far from gay,

For the rare allure about you

Makes me all the plainer see

How inane, how vain, how empty life without you would be.

After you, who

Could supply my sky of blue?

After you, who

Could I love?

After you, why

Should I take the time to try,

For who else could qualify

After you, who?

Hold my hand and swear

You'll never cease to care,

For without you there what could I do?

I could search years

But who else could change my tears

Into laughter after you?

I'm sort of fascinated with the "Do You Want to See Paris?" sequence from Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), which is a sophisticated piece of writing for the period. Even though it's two years after Show Boat, most musicals were still pretty frivolous and ramshackle. I don't know if the show is any good whatsoever, but it's got a pretty great score overall, including: "You Do Something to Me," "You've Got That Thing," "Find Me a Primitive Man," "I'm Unlucky at Gambling," plus Porter added "Let's Step Out" and "The Boyfriend Back Home" to the score after opening.

Here's handsome, big-dicked Howard McGillin leading the cast in "Do You Want to See Paris?" from the concert/studio recording.

I am still trying to figure out what R23 meant by saying Coward was "better value."

Is he planning on hiring them for a show and thinks he can get away paying less if he gets Coward to do it all?

"I've Still Got My Health" introduced in the Broadway show by Ethel Merman in 1940 and here reprised for the 1942 film by Ann Sothern co-starring Red Skelton, Rags Raglund, and Virginia O'Brien.

[italic]"By fashion and foppery, I'm never discussed. Attending the opry, my box would be a bust.

I never shall have that Park Avenue air, but I've still got my health: why should I care?

The hip that I shake doesn't make people stare, but I've still got my health so what do I care?

The sight of my props never stops a thoroughfare, but I still got my health, so what do I care? [/italic]

[quote] Dude IS also THE Matt Damon as the King of France and Miss Warwick (permanently banned) and Olivia De Havilland's second cousin, except when he's a BLACK man from Missouri, your sister's son-in-law or someone who hates any performer born after 1970!!!

Emperor of the French. Get your DL lore correct, cuntface.

And no one's mentioned this yet?

^^^ Don't know R82 but if not we're slipping. Well done!

Busby Berkeley should have told Ann Sothern to open her eyes really wide. It might have helped sell that shitty number.

[quote]Sad, sad. Some old white gay man quoting some faceless white queer hiding behind an actress who pretends to destroy fundamentalists, but really just argues biblical interpretation.

You know what's sad? You're in a snit with a fake [WHITE!] internet personality because they had a different opinion about a singer. Grow the fuck up.

Is this DL at it's worst? Two loons having an incomprehensible argument?

R87 You must be new here

Used to cruise for sailors with his pal, Monty Woolley

No one's brought up the Cole Porter score to Evil Under the Sun yet. It helps make the movie. Who can forget Jane Birkin descending the staircase to Just One of Those Things.

Evil Under the Sun is a period-piece gay fever dream from start to finish.

Cole Porter was the ideal choice for the score.

R90, R91 "Evil Under the Sun" needed some Cole Porter glamour because (although it had a few good English stars and a witty Anthony Shaffer script) the whole film seems rather constipated with tight close-ups around the small cliff face locations.

We'd be so grand at the game

So carefree together, that it does seem a shame

That you can't see, your future with me

'cause you'd be oh so easy to love

Why do you think Barbara Cook disliked Cole Porter? She always said she didn't warm to his songs.

Johnny Hartman’s Down in the Depths is sublime.

R95 Was Barbara Cook a fag-hater?

R96 She loved Robert Preston and Lenny

[R96] Barbara Cook made one album with Michael Finestein.

On Tuesday, I participated in a test marketing group for the new 90210 series. We didn't see an episode, just promos.

The new series seems to a fictionalized version of the actors getting together. First for a reunion on stage, then for a reboot of the show. It seems to be a comedy, a la Episodes with Matt LeBlanc.

Everyone is in it. We watched five promos, and one seemed to reference Luke Perry. It had Jeannie Garth looking sad and saying to Tori Spelling "maybe to move forward, first we have to look back."

Shannen Doherty is in the promos, but was not in any of the group shots. Tori says to Jeannie "the good news is, Shannen won't be there." Cut to Shannen packing a bag, with her passport, putting on her sun glasses.

It looks interesting. Starts in August.

–PattiFan

R99 Woah. What does having attended a focus group have to do with liking a lyric of Cole Porter? I find this post weird and stalky. Please don't do that. Thanks.

R100, r99 is the loon who's been stinking up this thread. It doesn't care what the thread is about, it just wants to prattle on in its incomprehensible way. It gets like this, usually drunk, and hits various threads every few months. Usually the theater threads, but not this time, although this thread is theatre-adjacent. Anyway, this time around it's pretending to be black, although we know for a fact that it isn't. Best to just ignore it.

R101 Gotcha. I can ignore a loon, but not one who stalks me, and then calls me out personally.

But thank you for taking the time to clarify.

I think we should each try to make up a stanza of our own modern version of "You're the Top". I mean Porter wrote about a dozen, would one be so hard?

Some people transcend time. Think Shakespeare, Mozart, et al. I believe Judy is of that ilk.

Continue to rest in peace, beautiful lady.

Supposedly by Irving Berlin:

You're the top,

You're a gin and tonic,

You're the top,

You're a high colonic

You're the burning heat of a bridal suite in use,

You're the mound of Venus

You're King Kong's penis,

You're self-abuse!

You're an arch

In the Rome collection

You're the starch

In a groom's erection

I'm a eunuch who

Has just been through an op

But if, baby, I'm the bottom

You're The Top!

No one's mentioned the unofficial anthem of rentboys (as well as certain First Ladies) everywhere?

R106 Is that really a DL anthem? I thought I was literally the only person in the world who obsessed on that video. The imagery is stunning.

I love the DL despite what I said about y'all earlier. I didn't mean it!

Fats Waller

Had him

r107 I didn't say it was a DL anthem, I said it was a RENTBOY anthem. Of course there IS some overlap ...

It doesn't have the beautiful visuals of r106's link - but it's a rentboy anthem, all right.

Annie Lennox singing "Every Time We Say Goodbye" from the "Red Hot and Blue"cd. To me, it's the best song she ever recorded, and it's the best version of this song I know. She also sings it in D. Jarman's movie, *Edward II*.

Even near the end of her life, Mary Martin did understand completely the lyrics of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," the song that made her a star.

Yeah, sure. And she didn't understand Janet Gaynor's affinity either.

R113 Mary Martin was probably told to ignore the lyrics of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" (especially the second verse).

The singer refers to her vagina as a haddock fish.

^^Actually the lyrics are "my fine Finnan haddie" (which is cold-smoked haddock). Merman advised her to look toward heaven when she sang the risque lyrics. It worked, she stopped the show every night.

Marilyn Monroe sang the same lyrics in her rendition in "Let's Make Love," although other parts of the song were changed.

[quote]Cole Porter was a slave to his rhyming dictionary

No, that you be Stephen Sondheim.

Cole Porter knew about tunes, Sondheim knows nothing except his psychoanalist's couch.

Did Porter ever dine on Linda Lee Thomas’s “fine Finnan haddie”?

r112, I love that recording. When she sings “...there’s no love song finer...” it breaks my heart. I love that whole album.

It's funny, [R120], I've been sitting here, listening to it over and over again. It's incredible. I hadn't listened to it at all since about 1993, when this thread reminded me of hearing it in that Derek Jarman movie in a theater in NY back then. -R112.

And [120], I see you're a fan of one of our greatest poets, John Shade...- [R112]

R119 The thought of Kevin Kline (as Cole Porter) dining on this creature's “fine Finnan haddie” is repellant to me.

That Kevin Kline/Cole Porter movie was such a dreary mess of a film. It was no more explicit about Porter's sexual urges than the Cary Grant version.

r112: That was beautiful and heartbreaking, I know nothing about Lennox personal life, but here I can tell she had an older brother who died in the plague.

The Marvelous Party. "Sung" by the master himself. It's not to be missed.

*nods to r122*

[quote]Merman advised her to look toward heaven when she sang the risque lyrics

Merman had nothing to do with it. She and Martin didn't even know each other in 1938, and Merman - already the biggest female star on Broadway - would not have bothered herself with a little nobody like Mary Martin.

It was Sophie Tucker, who was the star of "Leave It To Me," (while Mary had a supporting role) who gave her the advice of looking up when she sang the dirty lines. Mary thanked her by dining on Sophie's fine finnan haddie herself once or twice.

Michael Feinstein told me that Stephen Sondheim told him that Cole Porter felt like a eunuch without his rhyming dictionary by his side.

Eldergays, can I ask you if Cole Porter's penis was functional after the accident?

All Mary Martin knew was that fiinan haddie is a fish and she was even sure about that.

I wonder if Cole Porter often classified females as 'fish"?

Not her best....

She sounds like Sutton Foster, but with marbles in her mouth. Is that Ethel Merman R133.

[quote]Michael Feinstein told me that Stephen Sondheim told him that Cole Porter felt like a eunuch without his rhyming dictionary by his side.

That remark must have made Stephen feel like a post-operative tranny.

My father grew up in Cole Porter's hometown of Peru, Indiana, and as a student he won the Cole Porter Poetry Contest, which carried a small cash award and lifelong prestige.

Last year I went back to visit Peru for the first time, and stayed in Cole Porter's house which is a B & B run/owned by prominent members of the Cole Porter Society which has a Cole Porter Festival every year. My grandfather is buried in the same cemetery.

R136 Did your father use a rhyming dictionary to win the Cole Porter Poetry Contest?

He was too poor to have a rhyming dictionary. It was during the depression and he would wash elephants for a nickel. Peru was a circus town.

Mmmm... elephants for a nickel.

I bet Cole could build a song around that.

R136 Would you be willing to share the winning poem with us?

In Iowa it's spelled Paroo.

I would share if I had it. My father was a poor orphan who ran away from home at 14 and lived at the YMCA. He would have been 101 years old if he were alive. I found a book of his stories but no Cole Porter poem. He was a wonderful man.

In Peru, Indiana it is pronounced PEE ROO, at least it was in the olden days.

In California, it's PIRU.

And how do they pronounce Peru's capital?

Cole Porter was Peruvian? I had no idea!

Ella had to have her fuse lit. Otherwise, as someone famously said, she sometimes sounded like she was singing while looking for change in her purse. But with the Porter songbook, as with the others, she was working from a stance of delivering the definitive, unembellished (mostly), from-the-paper rendition that would serve as a definitive version of the song. She held back, mostly, from vocal effects or overly emotional flourishes. She can't be faulted for that.

Because we know what she was capable of. One listen to "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing" is enough for her matchless bone fides (Mary!).

"Noel came from the lower-middle-class and CREATED his own wealth but I understand that Cole inherited his. "

I thought that Cole Porter married his wealth. Yes, he earned a lot of money from his song-writing, but his lifestyle was mostly financed by his wealthy wife.

And Noel Coward was the very definition of piss-elegant! He does seem to have faded completely, are his plays or songs performed any more?

R148 Wiki tells us that Porter was the only surviving child of a wealthy family. His grandfather was the richest man in Indiana.

Who knows why he married that woman who was so much older than him? Neither of the two films gave us any clue as to Porter's motivation.

Peru Indiana citizens view the pronunciation of “Pee-ru” to be archaic and gauche. By the start of the 20th century, no one pronounced it that way.

Linda Lee Thomas had been physically abused by her first husband. She had no interest in having physical (sexual) relationship with a man, which made her perfect for Cole. He would not have liked being a bachelor boy.

Did Cole do any autobiography ?

(Noël published his first in his 30s. Noël may have been an egomaniac but I do have a suspicion that Cole was a secretive, damaged character even before the accident)

"Linda Lee Thomas had been physically abused by her first husband. She had no interest in having physical (sexual) relationship with a man"

I presume that Cole and Linda both liked Society with a capital S, and liked having a trustworthy and presentable opposite-sex escort around full time, and were good lifelong friends. I wonder if she liked the pussy? Lavender arrangements were so common in those days, among those who liked to maintain a social profile.

And BTW this is one of the things the movie "De-Lovely" got desperately wrong. Instead of showing Cole as gay gay GAY and Linda as his lifelong friend, they tried to portray the relationship between those two as romantic and occasionally sexual. AND they hired the beautiful Ashley Judd to play Linda, she was 21 years younger than Kevin Klein who played Cole. No respect for the real people there, presumably the straight idiots who make these decisions wanted someone who looked fabulous in period costumes, and who they thought a gay man might consider banging.

Cole & Linda......

^. The real Linda had a real bust, didn't she?

R155 Yes, and the real Cole had a real busted face.

The real Cole and Linda Porter.

They both look very friendly but busted, and she's wearing an entire dead animal around her neck.

I thought Alexis Smith looked doleful, skinny and sexless in Cary's movie.

[quote]like she was singing while looking for change in her purse.

Like she was looking for change at the bottom of her purse.

R149, try a book.

Live Cole Porter Spectacular, 1955.

Kiss Me, Gays!

Linda Porter was very plain. She looked like his mother.

Oh FFS, Cole sat around all night and day sucking dick. *I* was the one who wrote all the songs.

[quote]He was kind of the reverse Sondheim, who is a much better lyricist than composer.

Oh, yes. Such a great lyricist. Oy vey!! It's like he just opened his rhyming dictionary and copy and pasted it in.

In the depths of her interior

Were fears she was inferior.

And something even eerier.

But no one dared to query her superior exterior.

R167 Everyone did it.

[italic]The sleepless nights, the daily fights

The quick toboggan when you reach the heights

I miss the kisses and I miss the bites

I wish I were in love again.

The broken dates, the endless waits

The lovely loving and the hateful hates

The conversation with the flying plates

I wish I were in love again.

No more pain, no more strain

Now I'm sane, but I would rather be punch-drunk

The pulled out fur of cat and cur

The fine mis-mating of a him and her

I've learned my lesson but I wish I were in love again.[/italic]

....and so on for six or seven more verses.

"I Wish I Were In Love Again" Rodgers and Hart.

Même Jane Birkin le chante.

Can Asian DLers confirm if it's true what they say about Chinese girls?

God, that's an awful song. And June Havoc is painful to listen to.

Ohh.....

June Havoc was really Jochebel Havick.

June Havoc was really Ellen June Evangeline Hovick and the younger sister of the incomparable Miss Gypsy Rose Lee.

She had a lady companion, didn't she?

She was the original Baby June.

[italic]Let me do a few tricks

Some old and then some new tricks

I'm very versatile...[/italic]

That whole Mexican Hayride score is mostly second and third rate Porter. It's easy to see why so many thought he had lost his mojo.

For some reason, "I Love You" became sort of a hit, and "There Must Be Someone for Me" and "Girls" are cute, but that's it.

Thank goodness he came back with "Kiss Me Kate," "Out of This World" and "Can-Can" after this stinker, to prove he still had it.