Getting the Right Booth Again
We’re going to continue with our Shirley Booth roundelay, because I came across another huge treat. As I mentioned the other day, though most people who know of her through her comedy series Hazel or her Oscar (and Tony)-winning performance in the dramatic Come Back, Little Sheba, she actually appeared in several musicals. I posted a piece from her last show, Look to the Lilies, the other day, based on the movie Lilies of the Field, though the show flopped on Broadway. However, she was in two very respectable hits in the early 1950s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and By the Beautiful Sea – both with music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by the great Dorothy Fields.
And totally by chance, I came across a 14-minute medley from when she appeared on The Andy Williams Show, where they sang songs from both shows. And best of all, the two she sings from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are my two favorites from the show. In fact, the first one, “Love is the Reason,’ I regularly post here on Valentine’s Day. And I’ve even posted the other, “He Had Refinement,” years ago for its very funny lyrics, as the character looks back warmly at a former beau.
One of the songs she sings in the video that's from By the Beautiful Sea is a pretty funny novelty number that the character in the show sings as part of her old vaudeville act.
I should note that they end the segment with a rousing version of the song “In the Good Old Summertime” which is not from the musical.
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