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Spring is in the air...

It is finally Springtime here at the Songbook Foundation, and we are excited to share our most cheerful and colorful collections with you. Whether it’s Big Band nostalgia, spring break dances or vacation trips we have something for everyone! Louis Armstrong sang it best, “I see trees of green. Red roses too. I see them bloom. For me and you. And I think to myself, 'What a wonderful world.'”

 

 

The dance floor is officially open!

What could be better than big band music, beautiful gowns and dance cards to kick off the spring dance season?

 

If you’ve seen Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, you might remember the scene where Esther (Judy Garland) and her sister Rose (Lucille Bremer) are attending an elegant ball on Christmas Eve. They are displeased to see that Lucille (June Lockhart) is at the dance with Rose’s crush, Warren. Esther and Rose plot to sabotage Lucille’s night by filling her dance cards with men who are less desirable. You’ll have to watch the rest of the scene to see what happens next.

 

Dance cards were used in America through the mid-20th century and were most often carried by women to keep track of partners with whom they had committed to dancing. As you can see on the 1951 dance cards from a springtime ball in our collection, song titles and musical artists like Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa were also listed on the decorative cover. Read more about dance cards and why they went out of fashion.

 

  

 

Take a closer look at the dance cards from the Jim Young Collection housed in the Songbook Archives to continue exploring.

 

Spring Break with Songbook Greats!

 

 

 

With spring weather comes spring vacations (and packing for spring trips!) For Songbook Greats like Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr., traveling was part of the lifestyle, which means packing for work and for play. For most musicians, this meant traveling with a variety of trunks: trunks for instruments and music, trunks for additional equipment, and trunks as suitcases. Sammy Davis Jr. traveled with a variety of different-sized trunks throughout his career. Trunks were useful on and off the road for safe and secure storage. Clothing trunks were often constructed with built-in hangers to keep shirts and jackets from becoming wrinkled. Shown here is Bing Crosby’s trunk with multiple compartments for clothing and other personal items, like his pipe and hat. Harold Arlen’s smoking jacket is displayed on the collapsible hanger rack (because what fun is a trip if there isn’t some rest and relaxation?) Wherever a spring break vacation might take you, you definitely need the right trunk for the trip!

 

Our Library & Archives staff captured the exciting moment when we opened Sammy Davis Jr.'s trunk for the first time. Relive that exciting moment with us below!

 

 

 

 

Look to the Rainbow and watch Fred Astaire dance and sing in his final movie musical Finian's Rainbow (1968). To the right, you'll see the worn-in brown shoes with a golden buckle that Astaire wore in Finian's Rainbow. Did you know that the lyrics for Finian's Rainbow were written by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, the same man who wrote the lyrics for The Wizard of Oz (1939)? "Look to the Rainbow" is a very similar song to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." There's also a line in "Look To Rainbow" which alludes to the Yellow Brick Road: "Follow the fellow who follows a dream."

 

Spring into the Archives

 

  

There are always unique and exciting things happening at the Songbook Foundation, but this month was particularly special. Iowa PBS is currently producing a one-hour documentary on Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man. Their documentary team was here in the Songbook Foundation Library & Archives to research the Meredith Willson Collection. The Songbook Foundation has digitized over 8,200 items in the collection since 2016.

 

The Meredith Willson Collection quickly became our most accessed collection. Internationally recognized researchers have utilized the collection, including musicologist Dr. Dominic McHugh who discovered several cut numbers from The Music Man and used the archives extensively to write his latest book The Big Parade: Meredith Willson’s Musicals from The Music Man to 1491. Dominic joined the Iowa PBS team in the Library & Archives to research the collection and provide his expertise. 

 

Read more on these exciting efforts here!

  

Till there was ... Spring!

If you are a fan of the classic American musical, you may recognize this lyric from a show that is coincidentally back on Broadway this Spring, Meredith Willson's The Music Man. Although the plot seems to center around a traveling salesman conning his way into the hearts (and pocketbooks) of the stubborn residents of River City, Iowa, those who are familiar with the storyline know it has much more to do with Harold Hill falling in love with a certain Madam Librarian than his fraudulent selling of band instruments and uniforms.

 

 

 

 

The love story that unravels in The Music Man paved the way for one of the most iconic love ballads in musical theatre history titled, "Till There Was You." This tune crossed over into the pop music sphere more than once, as it was recorded by numerous artists, including Doris Day who wrote to Meredith that it "must be my favorite song in the whole world." It was also rumored to have been one of the songs that got The Beatles their first record deal when they were attempting to make their break into the American music scene. Enjoy several renditions of the tune including a sing-along led by 2021 Songbook Academy alumna, Piper Murphy, who shares her talents in Perfect Harmony.

 

Swing into Spring

Experience our favorite season wherever you are with this Swing into Spring Spotify playlist including some of the Songbook artists you can find represented in the Library & Archives!

 

 

Wishing you and yours a day, month, year, and lifetime full of Spring joy!

  

Affectionately yours,

The Great American Songbook Foundation