Rodgers/Hart–Conn Yank, Desert Island, Vera ellen

We have finished with the music of Ray Henderson, and now we get the chance to listen to some music from Richard Rodgers. He wrote the music, Larry Hart wrote the lyrics and Herb Fields wrote an adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic 1889 novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Some early editions are titled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, according to Wikipedia.

In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut named Hank Morgan receives a severe blow to the head and is somehow transported in time and space to England during the reign of King Arthur. After some initial confusion and his capture by one of Arthur’s knights, Hank realizes that he is actually in the past, and he uses his knowledge to make people believe that he is a powerful magician. He attempts to modernize the past in order to make people’s lives better, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur and an interdict against him by the Catholic Church of the time, which grows fearful of his power.

The show, now simply called A Connecticut Yankee, starts with a Prologue in Connecticut in the 1920s. Martin (William Gaxton) is about to be married to Fay. When an old flame, Alice Carter (Constance Carpenter) arrives, he flirts with her during his bachelor supper, and Fay knocks him out with a champagne bottle. As Martin dreams, he is seemingly in the court of King Arthur in 528. Dubbed “Sir Boss” by Arthur, Martin is directed to industrialize Camelot, which he does, including telephones, and radios. He falls in love with “Demoiselle Alisande” (“Alice”) but the king’s evil sister, “Morgan Le Fay” (“Fay”), kidnaps her. As Martin rescues her, he wakes up and realizes that it was Alice that he loved all along.

In the Prologue, Martin and Alice sing one of the loveliest duets that Rodgers and Hart ever wrote, “My Heart Stood Still.”

In Act I, Scene 1 in Camelot, they have another wonderful duet, this time bouncy and fun (“Thou Swell”).

Unfortunately, that was the end of the hits, although two fine tunes were given to the secondary stars, “On a Desert Isle (Island) with Thee” and “I Feel at Home with You.”

We found nothing on youtube from the original show’s stars, but we did find some audio clips from the 1943 revival starring Dick Foran, Julie Warren, Chester Stratton, Vera-Ellen and Vivienne Segal. While we know Vivienne Segal as one of the Broadway greats, and know Vera-Ellen from the MGM musicals, Dick Foran was not well known. He was a crooner on the radio, sounding much like Nelson Eddy. He starred as a singing cowboy in the movies. Finally, he starred on Broadway, opposite Julie Warren as Alice.

Let’s listen to two songs today that were sung by Chester Stratton and Vera-Ellen. Remember they were billed as the comic pair. Let’s start “On a Desert Isle (Island) with You.”