making sense of a classic

 "She gets too hungry for dinner at eight

She likes the theater but never comes late

She never bothers with people she hates

That's why the lady is a tramp!"

Wait! Stop the music. I have a confession to make: I don't "get" the song "The Lady Is a Tramp." Never did. There, I said it. And, yes, I know, I know. The Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers 1937 collaboration is a classic.

The song is a much-revered standard that has been interpreted by some of our most intuitive vocal stylists, both men and women - from Sammy Davis Jr. to Peggy Lee. It was a staple of Buddy Greco's nightclub act. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performed a recent duet of it. Lena Horne sang it in "Words and Music" (MGM's 1948 biopic about Rodgers and Hart) and Frank Sinatra sang it perhaps most famously in 1957's "Pal Joey."

Sinatra directs his rendition of it at Rita Hayworth, seemingly calling her a slut. That would be bad form even in the pre-Political Correctness of 1957.

For her equally popular version of it, Ella Fitzgerald sang it in the first person:

"I like the free, fresh wind in my hair

Life without care

I'm broke, it's oke

Hate California. It's cold and it's damp

That's why the lady is a tramp!"

Turns out, that's the way Lorenz Hart wrote the lyrics - for them to be sung by a woman ... about herself. Which may make the song less sexist but not any more coherent. I mean, "California cold and damp"? Since when? And the fact that the lady doesn't bother with people she hates or that she never arrives late at the theater hardly qualifies her as a tramp.

She seems pretty balanced to me.

But wait! Both the Sinatra and Fitzgerald takes on the songs (as well as all the other recordings of it) are truncated versions of what Rodgers and Hart wrote. The song is from the 1937 Broadway musical, "Babes in Arms," which was staged just as the Great Depression was winding down, and several passages in the song, missing since '37, refer to that event.

"Babes in Arms," as originally staged, is about a group of teenagers, the children of vaudeville stars, left to their own devices when their parents go on the road. They've been abandoned and, rather than be sent to a work farm for orphaned kids, they elect to support themselves by staging shows and are joined by a new kid, Billie Smith, when her car breaks down.

Billie - who was played by 17-year-old Mitzi Green, a former child actor - is a teen drifter, a directionless kid with seemingly no family, who likes living on her own terms, coming and going as she pleases. She is a transient, a nomad, a bohemian, a young hobo.

A tramp, if you will.

It is this little teenage guttersnipe, Billie, who first sang "The Lady Is a Tramp" and she sang it as a defiant anthem because she had no interest in social rules or playing by any rules or being a hoity-toity society dame. And Green apparently sung it with a healthy dose of sarcasm, a Depression-era kid poking fun at fake adult decorum and sophistication.

Originally, "The Lady Is a Tramp" opened with this verse by Hart: 

"I've wined and dined on Mulligan stew

 And never wished for turkey.

As I hitched and hiked and grifted, too

 From Maine to Albuquerque.

Alas, I missed the Beaux Arts Ball

 And what is twice as sad,

I was never at a party

Where they honored Noel Ca'ad.

But social circles spin too fast for me.

My Hobohemia is the place to be... "

Then, the familiar strain of the song begins:

"I get too hungry for dinner at eight

I like the theater but never come late

I never bother with people I hate 

That's why the lady is a tramp!"

 
And, so, on its road to become incredibly popular, iconic even, "The Lady Is a Tramp" was robbed of its original meaning and intent. It was reduced, bastardized. And the way it's been sung for decades, it simply doesn't add up. Only an unformed teenage cynic would call California cold and damp.

When MGM filmed "Babes in Arms" two years later, in 1939, "The Lady Is a Tramp" was deleted from the score, although if you listen closely, you can hear an instrumental version of it. No surprise here. Typical of an MGM adaptation of a Broadway musical, several of the original Rodgers and Hart compositions were deleted and replaced with songs by other composers. (See Metro's "On the Town." Or, rather, don't see it.)

Also eliminated was the character of Billie Smith.

Hence the unnecessity of "The Lady Is a Tramp."

After too many decades of listening to a song that truly annoyed me, it's terrific to discover that Rodgers and Hart had something else in mind when they wrote it.

"Babes in Arms" opened in New York at the Shubert Theater on April 14th, 1937 and then transferred to the Majestic Theater on October 25th, 1937. It closed on December 18th, 1937 after playing 289 performances. The production was directed by Robert B. Sinclair and choreographed by George Balanchine.

Note in Passing: Here is the complete "The Lady Is a Tramp" as originally conceived by Lorenz Hart and as sung by Mitzi Green at the Shubert. The song was performed twice by Green in Act II - in scene two and as a reprise two times in scene four.

Verse
"I've wined and dined on Mulligan stew
And never wished for turkey
As I hitched and hiked and grifted, too
From Maine to Albuquerque.
Alas, I missed the Beaux Arts Ball
And what is twice as sad,
I was never at a party
Where they honored Noel Ca'ad. *
But social circles spin too fast for me.
My Hobohemia is the place to be..."

Refrain #1
"I get too hungry for dinner at eight
I like the theater but never come late
I never bother with people I hate
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I don't like crap games with Barons and Earls
Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls
Won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I like the free, fresh wind in my hair
Life without care
I'm broke, it's oke
Hate California, it's cold and it's damp
That's why the lady... that's why the lady...
That's why the lady is a tramp!"

Refrain #2
"I go to Coney - the beach is divine.
I go to ball games - the bleachers are fine.
I follow Winchell and read ev'ry line.
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I like a prizefight that isn't a fake.
I love the rowing on Central Park Lake.
I go to opera and stay wide awake.
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I like the green grass under my shoes. What can I lose?
I'm flat! That's that!
I'm all alone when I lower my lamp.
That's why the lady is a tramp!"

Encore refrain/reprise #1
"Don't know the reason for cocktails at five.
I don't like flying - I'm glad I'm alive!
I crave affection, but not when I drive.
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"Folks go to London and leave me behind.
I'll miss the crowning, Queen Mary won't mind.
I don't play Scarlett in 'Gone With the Wind' *
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I like to hang my hat where I please.
Sail with the breeze.
No dough - heigh-ho!
I love La Guardia and think he's a champ.
That' s why the lady is a tramp!"

Encore refrain/reprise #2
"Girls get massages, they cry and they moan.
Tell Lizzie Arden to leave me alone.
I'm not so hot, but my shape is my own.
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"The food at Sardi's is perfect, no doubt.
I wouldn't know what the Ritz is about.
I drop a nickel and coffee comes out.
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"I like the sweet, fresh rain in my face.
Diamonds and lace
No got!
So what?!
That's why the lady... that's why the lady...
That's why the lady is a tramp!"

* Noel Ca'ad is Noel Coward. And the word "wind" in "Gone with the Wind" is pronounced "wine-d" (in keeping with the song's rhyme).

And here is pared-down Sinatra version:

"She gets too hungry for dinner at eight
She likes the theater but never comes late
She never bothers with people she hates
That's why the lady is a tramp!



"Doesn't like crap games with barons or earls
Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls
Won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"She likes the free, fresh wind in her hair,
Life without care
She's broke and it's oke
Hates California, it's cold and it's damp
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"She gets too hungry to wait for dinner at eight
She loves the theater but never comes late
She'd never bother with people she hates
That's why the lady is a tramp

"She'll have no crap games with sharpies and frauds
And she won't go to Harlem in Lincolns or Fords
And she won't dish the dirt with the rest of the broads
That's why the lady is a tramp!

"She loves the free fresh wind in her hair
Life without care.
She's broke but it's oke
Hates California, it's cold and it's damp
That's why the lady... that's why the lady...
That's why the lady is a tramp!"

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~images~

(from top)

~Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald performing "The Lady is a Tramp" on the TV special, "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim "

~Photography: NBC 1967©

~Rita Hayworth with Sinatra in "Pal Joey"

~photography: Columbia Pictures 1957©

 ~The teenage Mitzi Green

~photography: Paramount Pictures 1936©

 ~Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

~photography: Sony Music Entertainment 2011©

~Frank, again

~photography: Reprise Records 1974©