"Supper Time" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer , where it was introduced by Ethel Waters. The song is about racial violence inspired by a newspaper headline about a lynching.
Berlin wrote the musical As Thousands Cheer with the librettist Moss Hart in Bermuda. [1] Berlin's biographer, Laurence Bergreen, described it as "the best work he had ever done for the stage" and consisting of "nothing but hits". [2] The score included the songs "Easter Parade", "Harlem on My Mind", "Heat Wave" and "How's Chances?" in addition to "Supper Time". [2] The musical was a satirical revue of recent events that had made news headlines with parodies of President Herbert Hoover, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Barbara Hutton, Noël Coward, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. [2]
Berlin first met Waters in the spring of 1933 during her headlining appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. [3] Berlin was immediately impressed by Waters and wanted her for As Thousands Cheer. [3] Water's subsequent performance in As Thousands Cheer marked the first time that a black woman had ever starred in a Broadway musical. [3] "Supper Time" was introduced by Waters as the second song of Act II of the musical. [4] The song followed "Metropolitan Opening" a sketch about the economic woes of patrons at New York's Metropolitan Opera during the recent Great Depression. [4] Waters was depicted on stage standing next to a table in a shack set in the Southern United States. [4] The headline "Unknown Negro Lynched By Frenzied Mob" accompanied the song. [5] Bergreen described the "Supper Time" as a "magnificently understated lament of the wife of the victim who must tell her children that they will never see their father again". [5] Bergreen felt that the song was not a protest song as Berlin had "so personalized and muted the incendiary racial aspects of the event that what the song lost in bite it gained in universality". [5] Waters said of the song that "If one song can tell the whole tragic history of a race, "Supper Time" was that song. In singing it I was telling my comfortable, well-fed, well-dressed listeners about my people...those who had been slaves and those who were now downtrodden and oppressed." [6] Waters said that Berlin had "...wanted to do something dramatic to feel, to bring home to the people as a whole about the cruelty of mob violence". Berlin told Waters that he wanted her to "...show the agony of the family that's left behind" after a lynching and Waters felt that "...anything I do I can take a reference from my personal life". [7] In performing the song Waters drew on her experience of staying with a family in Macon in Georgia. A man of the family had been lynched shortly before Waters' arrival in Macon and she spoke of the fact that "nothing was said, but oh the grief that, you know, and the fear. ...you never sensed the pall that comes over it. Oh, it was just—you could feel it. You didn't see nothing. This is an actual fact. I don't know if I can express it the way that I would without the Lord's help". [7] Berlin later said that people told him he was "crazy to write a dirge like that", but felt that the satirical musical required a serious song. [4] The song was inspired by the lynching of an African-American man in Florida that Berlin had read about. [7]
Jeffrey Magee writing in Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater in 2014 felt that the extended bridge and the return to the principal phrase of "Supper Time" marked a "stroke of songwriting genius" with the repetition of the word 'Lord' forming the melodic peak of the song. [8]
At the tryout for As Thousands Cheer at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia, three of the musical's stars, Helen Broderick, Marilyn Miller, and Clifton Webb, refused to take a bow at the end of the show with Waters. Berlin told the three that as a result there would be no bows at the next performance, and they subsequently bowed with Waters at the next performance. [3] Miller and Webb also complained to the producer of the musical, Sam H. Harris about the presence of "Supper Time" in the score as it jarred with their light-hearted song "Society Wedding". [3] Harris insisted that the song would remain. [3]
Some reviewers were critical of the song. Wolcott Gibbs writing for the New Yorker described himself as "mildly distressed" by "Supper Time" as it "definitely seemed to belong somewhere else...In Mr Harris's safe, possibly". [3] John Mason Brown, reviewing the show for the New York Post wrote that "I do wish Miss Waters would find another song to take the place of "Supper Time", which neither fits her gifts nor fits into the general scheme of things...". [3]
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald R. Ford in 1977. Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite stated he "helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives".
"All Alone" is a popular waltz ballad composed by Irving Berlin in 1924. It was interpolated into the Broadway show The Music Box Revue of 1924 where it was sung by Grace Moore and Oscar Shaw. Moore sat at one end of the stage under a tightly focused spotlight, singing it into a telephone, while Oscar Shaw sat at the other, doing the same.
"You're Just in Love" is a popular song by Irving Berlin. It was published in 1950 and was first performed by Ethel Merman and Russell Nype in Call Me Madam, a musical comedy that made its debut at the Imperial Theatre in New York City on October 12 that year. The show ran for 644 performances. Ethel Merman also later starred in the 1953 film version, with Donald O'Connor.
"Heat Wave" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer, and introduced in the show by Ethel Waters.
People is Barbra Streisand's fourth solo studio album, released in September 1964. The title track was a newly recorded version of the hit song from the Broadway musical Funny Girl in which Streisand starred.
"They Say It's Wonderful" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1946), where it was introduced by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. A film version in 1950 again featured the song when it was performed by Howard Keel and Betty Hutton.
"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman.
"You'd Be Surprised" is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which Eddie Cantor interpolated it into Ziegfeld's Follies of 1919. Cantor soon recorded it and it became a major hit. Other popular versions in 1920 were by the All-Star Trio and by Irving Kaufman.
As Thousands Cheer is a revue with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, first performed in 1933. The revue contained satirical sketches and witty or poignant musical numbers, several of which became standards, including "Heat Wave", "Easter Parade" and "Harlem on my Mind". The sketches were loosely based on the news and the lives and affairs of the rich and famous, as well as other prominent personalities of the day, such as Joan Crawford, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Noël Coward, Josephine Baker, and Aimee Semple McPherson.
"Easter Parade" is a popular song, written by Irving Berlin and published in 1933. Berlin originally wrote the melody in 1917, under the title "Smile and Show Your Dimple", as a "cheer up" song for a girl whose man has gone off to fight in World War I. A recording of "Smile and Show Your Dimple" by Sam Ash enjoyed modest success in 1918.
"You Can Have Him" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1949 musical Miss Liberty, where it was introduced by Allyn McLerie and Mary McCarty.
"The Best Thing for You (Would Be Me)" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin and published in 1950. It was featured in the 1950 Broadway musical play, Call Me Madam, in which it was introduced by Ethel Merman in a scene with Paul Lukas. The 1953 film version also featured the song when it was sung by Ethel Merman and George Sanders.
"Lazy" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1924. Popular recordings of the song in 1924 were by Al Jolson, Blossom Seeley, Paul Whiteman and the Brox Sisters. The best known version today may be that performed by Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, and Mitzi Gaynor in the motion picture There's No Business Like Show Business.
"All by Myself" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin, published in 1921.
"When I Lost You" is a song with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It was written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss; it was the only song that he ever admitted had such a connection to his own life. The song, a ballad, was unlike any of Berlin's previous songs, which were upbeat tunes written to take advantage of the dance craze. The song is in a slow waltz tempo. It became Berlin's first hit ballad.
I Want to Go Back to Michigan is a song by Irving Berlin composed in 1914. It was a moderate commercial success when it was first released with popular versions by Elida Morris and by Morton Harvey. Afterwards it became a staple in vaudeville. Its most famous performance was by Judy Garland in the film Easter Parade.
"I Love a Piano" is a popular song with words and music by Irving Berlin. It was copyrighted on December 9, 1920 and introduced in the Broadway musical revue Stop! Look! Listen! when it was performed by Harry Fox and the ensemble. The song was given a tremendous boost in the show as the set for it consisted of an enormous keyboard running completely across the stage. In front of this were six pianos with six pianists playing the tune. Irving Berlin always regarded the song as one of his best efforts.
"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the Ziegfeld Follies. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a jazz standard.
"This Year's Kisses" is a popular song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the musical film On the Avenue (1937) and introduced by Alice Faye. Popular recordings in 1937 were by Benny Goodman, Hal Kemp, Shep Fields and by Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday.
