December 2, 1929: Irving Berlin first publishes his song "Puttin' On the Ritz." The title was an expression that Harlemites of the time coined, meaning to dress nice, and takes its name from the Ritz Hotel in London, which may also have produced the adjective "ritzy.: The following year, a film with the title was released, and Harry Richman sang it in front of Hollywood's 1st interracial ensemble.
It's also been sung in films by Clark Gable (complete with white tie and tails) in Idiot's Delight in 1939, Fred Astaire in Blue Skies in 1946, and, for comedic effect, Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein in 1974.
In 1982, Indonesian-Dutch singer Taco Ockerse (using only his first name) released the most recent hit version. It reached Number 4 in the U.S. Irving Berlin was then 95 years old, making him the oldest living songwriter to have a song he wrote enter the Top 10. Unfortunately, Taco's original video for it had blackface performers, and had to be re-shot.
*
December 2, 1929 was a Monday. Sportswriter Dan Jenkins was born.
Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had a day off. So there were no scores on this historic day.
No comments:
Post a Comment