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[0:00] Paul Lazarus: Hi, this is Paul Lazarus. In the 1980s, I produced and hosted a radio series called Anything Goes, a celebration of the American musical theater. Now the Broadway Podcast Network is bringing back these shows. This is the second of a three-part program devoted to turn-of-the-century composer, matinee idol, and occasional lyricist Ivor Novello. My guest is noted operetta historian Richard Traubner. This program originally aired in March of 1982 and featured commentary by Traubner and a detailed survey of Novello's distinguished career.

[0:42] Paul Lazarus: In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was a look on something shocking. But now God knows, anything goes. We really should hear one of his most famous Charlotte Review songs from a 1921 show called A to Z or A to Z, as we would call it over here. And this made the career of a young Scottish singer-dancer named Jack Buchanan. He was at the Prince of Wales Theater. And you all remember Jack from his role opposite Fred Astaire on the bandwagon. The song he sang was And Her Mother Came Too, and the words are by Dion Titherage. And in the program, Richard and I were looking at the programs from A to Z, it's listed as part of a section entitled Too Much Mother.

[1:42] ♪ Musical number: "And Her Mother Came Too" — performed by Jack Buchanan ♪

[4:21] Paul Lazarus: Jack Buchanan sang one of Ivor Novello's most famous numbers, And Her Mother Came Too, originally in a 1921 Andre Charleau review, A to Z. Richard, the next song we're going to play is not till 1935 in a show called Glamorous Night. We're skipping roughly 14 years of Ivor's career. Why didn't he write shows during that period, and what was he up to during that period?

[4:51] Richard Traubner: Well, he did write shows, a lot of comedies and melodramas during that period, but not really any major musicals. And it's mainly because he was a very in-demand matinee idol, appearing in his own and other plays. He was really striking, handsome. Yes, very, very handsome. He looked sort of Raymond Navarro way. And he couldn't sing, as I say, so he couldn't be in musicals really. So he was in these very, very melodramatic things. And he was in lots of famous films, like a film for D. W. Griffith called The White Rose. He was in a silent version of the British opera The Bohemian Girl with Gladys Cooper and C. R. Bruce Smith. And in 1924, he had a tremendous triumph on the London stage in a play called The Rat, which he co-wrote.

And he was with Isabel Jeans in that. And she was, you remember, the old courtesan in Gigi, in the film Gigi. His most famous part, I think, was as the lodger in Alfred Hitchcock's famous film. He did film parts that Noah Carrott had done on the stage, like The Vortex and The Constant Nymph. And he was in Hollywood in the early 30s. He did the dialogue for, among other things, Tarzan, part of it anyway, with Johnny Weissmuller. In the early 30s, he was writing minor comedies that were done in the West End. And then in about 1934, he was having lunch with the manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. And the manager, H. M. Tennant, Harry Tennant, was bemoaning the fact that he had not had success in his theatre for, well, four years or so since Noah Carrott's Cabalcade. And Ivor, on the spot, dreamed up this incredibly romantic plot involving a shipwreck and a gypsy wedding and that kind of thing.

[7:07] ♪ Musical number: "Glamorous Night" — performed by Ivor Novello ♪

[10:06] ♪ Musical number: "Glamorous Night" — performed by Mary Alice ♪

[11:06] Richard Traubner: That was Mary Alice performing the title song from Ivor Novello's 1935 score to *Glamorous Night*, the original Rosemary, wasn't she?

[11:12] Paul Lazarus: That's right, she was American. She was in *Rosemary* at the Imperial in 1924 here in New York, and she was also at the Metropolitan at one point, and she was in, then she went to Britain and did things like *Music in the Air* before she was in *Glamorous Night*, and very much associated with Ivor.

[11:36] Richard Traubner: She played a gypsy opera singer, opera prima donna in *Glamorous Night*, and at the end of Act One, there's supposedly an assassination attempt against her.

[11:48] Paul Lazarus: *Glamorous Night* was, I think, the only show, as I mentioned, that was played in the United States, I believe in the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

[11:55] Richard Traubner: Right, all his shows, and that's the only one that even came over for a little run.

[12:02] Paul Lazarus: Well, it's the only one that I've heard of anyway.

[12:04] Richard Traubner: Yeah, I haven't heard of none other. It was booked, it could have run and run on Drury Lane in 1935, but the management had already booked a pantomime for Christmas that year, so it had to get out and play The Provinces, which it did very well.

[12:19] Paul Lazarus: And the next show was in 1936, and that was *Careless Rapture*. This was much more rambling. There were many more different sets than this, and even more spectacular.

[12:31] Richard Traubner: Ivor had two parts. He played a politician and his illegitimate half-brother. He was almost always in his own shows, even the musicals, even though he took sometimes non-singing parts, he was in.

[12:43] Paul Lazarus: Yes, he was always in them. The public really came to see him because he was such a matinee idol. He was too old to be a matinee idol in films where there were close-ups, but on the huge stage of Drury Lane, you could get away with it with make-up and wigs and that kind of thing. He still looked great.

[12:57] Richard Traubner: And *Careless Rapture* went all over the world. It went from a London beauty parlor to a carnival on Hampstead Heath, and then it went to China, and believe it or not, they tried to make you believe that there was an amateur light opera society in China preparing to present another operetta.

[13:17] Paul Lazarus: And of course, they had a rehearsal scene for this operetta. Operetta relies on that show-within-a-show format a lot, a lot.

[13:25] Richard Traubner: And that's the lovely song, the love-made song I sing to you. It's a gorgeous song.

[13:38] ♪ Musical number: "Love Made the Song" — performed by Sybil Crawley and Eric Starling ♪

[16:28] Richard Traubner: The big disaster in the end of *Careless Rapture* was an earthquake in China. Afterwards, the lovers escaped to the mountains, and there was a wedding in white, a Chinese wedding at the end of that.

[16:46] Paul Lazarus: You're listening to *Anything Goes* with a look at the work of Ivor Novello. The next year came another Drury Lane show, *Crest of the Wave*, which was very similar to *Careless Rapture* and had basically the same cast. This also had a luxury cruise, but instead of a London musical, it had, within the context of the show, there was a musical film called *Fair Maid of France*.

[17:09] Richard Traubner: And then there were scenes in Rio de Janeiro, and there was a big transcontinental train crash at the end of this one. These shows couldn't be done without some kind of natural or social disaster.

[17:22] Paul Lazarus: Yes, yes, the Drury Lane audience expected this by now, yes.

[17:26] Richard Traubner: But it was also the story of a house, a British country home, and that was something he would repeat later on in *Perchance to Dream*, but there was a song associated with England and with this house called "Rose of England."

[17:41] ♪ Musical number: "Rose of England" ♪

[20:13] ♪ Musical number: "Rose of England" — performed by Mary Ellis and Ivor Novello ♪

[21:18] Richard Traubner: We next come to Ivor Novello's most popular show, The Dancing Years, written in 1939. This ran for years, didn't it?

[21:26] Paul Lazarus: Yes, it ran. It was interrupted, but it ran almost a thousand performances at the Drury Lane and at the Adelphi Theatres in London. What happened was it opened in the spring of 1939, and then in September the theatres were closed at the beginning of World War II for two weeks. The show had to go out of town, and it came back to the Adelphi. It was a huge, huge hit, and it was very much associated with the war, not only because of the fact that it was the one that was on at that time, but the subject matter was something like The Sound of Music because it was about the Nazi takeover of Vienna. In fact, the original prologue of the show had Ivor, as an operetta composer, being interrogated by a Nazi official.

Well, the producer wanted all this sort of softened down. This was before the war had actually begun in the spring of 1939, and so it was much weakened, actually, but it still was a cavalcade of Viennese history from the beginning of the 20th century up to 1938. And typically he played an operetta composer. He would sit at the piano and play his newest creation to a leading lady, and meanwhile his new mistress would stand on the stairs or the other way around, something like that. It was a love triangle typical of the Hollywood musical of the time. We're going to hear a little example of that.

[22:57] Richard Traubner: With dialogue.

[22:58] Paul Lazarus: Right. Preceding the song My Dearest Dear, Ivor Novello at the piano playing this composer and talking to his leading lady on the stage, Mary Ellis. These songs were heard in the show, but also at the time they were recorded by some of the most famous singers of the day, particularly the songs from this score. Waltz of My Heart was recorded by Richard Tauber, so we thought we'd feature that after hearing My Dearest Dear performed by Mary Ellis and Ivor Novello.

[23:27] Richard Traubner: And now let's do some work. I can't get the last page of that gavotte. Have you got it there?

[23:32] Paul Lazarus: No, but I've got something else I'd like you to try.

[23:34] Richard Traubner: Oh?

[23:35] Paul Lazarus: Something I wrote last night.

[23:36] Richard Traubner: Oh, I know, another waltz.

[23:38] Paul Lazarus: No, no, not another waltz, no. It is just a simple little tune, not a moneymaker. I wrote the words too. See if you like it.

[23:45] Richard Traubner: Dedicated to me?

[23:46] Paul Lazarus: They're all dedicated to you.

[23:48] Richard Traubner: Oh, Rudy, you're writing, really.

[23:51] Paul Lazarus: Say them for me, I don't want to spoil it.

[23:53] Richard Traubner: My dearest dear, if I could say to you, in words as clear as when I play to you, you would understand how slight the shadow that is holding us apart. So take my hand, I'll lead the way for you. A little waiting, and you'll reach my heart. Play it through.

[24:33] ♪ Musical number: "My Dearest Dear" — performed by Mary Ellis and Ivor Novello ♪

[27:04] ♪ Musical number: "Walls of My Heart" — performed by Richard Tauber ♪

[29:08] Richard Traubner: From the original cast of The Dancing Years in 1939, Mary Ellis and the composer Ivor Novello sang and acted My Dearest Dear, and that was followed by Richard Tauber, a great tenor, singing Walls of My Heart, also from that show.

[29:36] Paul Lazarus: You've been listening to Ivor Novello II, the second of a three-part series. Anything Goes, backstage with Broadway's Best, is produced and hosted by Paul Lazarus. For more information, visit anythinggoespl.com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us. Thanks for listening.