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I see your I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo and raise you Chattanooga Choo Choo
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 01:44PM 
Glenn Miller.I'm pretty sure I was born at least 25 years too late.
My blogging buddy, JT (a/k/a OldController) a stand-up conservative American woman and smart, witty scribe who opines on subjects of local, national, and indeed global importance from her lofty perch down the road from me in Sumter, South Carolina, yesterday posted a YouTube of the remarkable Glenn Miller number I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo.
Featuring an over-the-top dance routine by The Nicholas Brothers, this part of the movie Orchestra Wives (1942) is seven-plus minutes of sheer cinematic bliss.
Oh how I wish they still made films like this. Until they do, I'll just keep Turner Classic Movies as my power-on channel.
Unless you count my stunning personality.
So this post is my "answer" to JT's post ... the number her post made me think of: Chattanooga Choo Choo performed by Glenn Miller (class, class, pure class ... and a bona fide American Hero to boot) and his orchestra and Tex Beneke with The Modernaires (who are still performing, by the way ... with newer, younger voices, I imagine) in the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade.
How about Milton Berle over there clowning around for a bored Sonja Henie Lynn Bari*? Hilarious.
This clip includes the adorable Dorothy Dandridge and -- yet again! -- the energetic duo of Fayard and Harold Nicholas, tapping to beat the band. Good heavens. I hope they had twin chiropractor brothers on retainer.
Reminds me of when, as a kid, I affixed bottle caps to my shoes (the bottoms) solely (heh heh) for the clickety effect.
And yes ... I performed (on the sidewalk, for no audience except a few bored mosquitoes) with a parasol as my only prop. Unless you count my stunning personality.
As a prop, that is.
Which I'm sure you don't.
Just watch the clip! I'm nowhere to be seen, having been born too late.
Kalamazoo via JT today ... Zuzu via yours truly tomorrow. Or the next day. Either way, you don't want to miss it.
Jennifer
*I stand happily and gratefully corrected by astute IHATH reader John Cooper. The actress silently rebuffing Milton Berle in the clip is the glamorous Lynn Bari ... not, as I stated, the perky Miss Henie, who was apparently keeping John Payne busy on the slopes during this excellent musical number! Hat tip and deep curtsy, John!
Reader Comments (7)
I've always said I was born in the wrong decade. I should have been born earlier too. Great clip!
PS - I live about 1 1/2 hours from Kalamazoo. They have a great Air museum there, which we have visited several times.
Awesome. The athleticism of those dancers is just amazing. And they couldn't make movies like this anymore, no one would go. No special effects, no "adult content," (or at least not the kind there used to be, left to the viewer's imagination), nobody getting blown up or eviscerated.
Just talent and years of hard work and dedication, which people don't seem to appreciate anymore.
*sigh*
And on that cheerful note, I'm linking back to your post on my blog 'cause the video is stupendous.
The actress by the window is Lynn Bari, not Sonja Henie.
Bari is irked b/c Henie and the band 'pianist' John Payne are out skiing somewhere.
However, with John Payne out of this scene, the Miller band's real pianist Chummy MacGregor gets to play the big number.
@ Mari ... "Kalamazoo" ... such a fun word to say! LOLOLOL ... I wonder what they call the zoo in Kalamazoo ... is it the Kalamazoo or the Kalama Zoo? *chucklesnort*
@ JT ... Agreed on all counts! Simply all! We need to get together and watch a few of these with loads of popcorn!
@ John ... Ahhhhhh thank you so much for keeping me honest! Last night as I watched this clip again I had a niggling suspicion that i had messed something up -- I do know what Sonja Henie looks like -- but I apparently didn't have the wherewithal to do more thorough research! Can you tell it's been ten years since I've seen that movie? Thanks so much for dropping by and adding a much-needed comment!
Alan said that he has liked the song, Chattanooga Choo Choo , for fifty years.
I can't say that it rings any bells for me. Hahahaha!
Thank you for the flashback to my childhood! No, I wasn't even born during this era, but I did grow up in my grandparents' home. It took years for me to realize that these musicians, actors and performers we always watched weren't this age at the time I was watching them. They are still close to my heart, and I'll always stop to watch when I come across them on telelvision. I appreciate the memories of two of the sweetest people in my life with your one blog post!
I love this stuff! They sure could sing and dance. This may have been before my time, but I enjoy these old clips and movies so incredibly much!
I liked John Payne in the original Miracle on 34th Street.