Weekend Onesie: We Danced Like Kings...

Weekend Onesie: 

We Danced Like Kings...

"As the world the world around us fell apart... we danced like kings!"

Did you know that April is National Afternoon Tea Month?

Given that, I thought, what  better time to celebrate that ritual of old, the tea dance!

Originating in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, Sunday afternoon tea dances played a very important part in the gay community. They served as an almost-formal means of finding romance. And failing that, at least you got to dance in the arms of another.

This came about because, until the mid-1960's, it was illegal for bars to serve gay folk alcohol. So community leaders began organizing Sunday afternoon tea dances outside city limits in order to skirt the issue. Cherry Grove, The Pines, and Fire Island were popular locations for such events and the practice quickly spread to other major metropolitan areas throughout the country.

As the gay community became more accepted and legally-protected, these dances morphed into other events, such as circuit parties. 

But for a time... tea dances were the place to dance for a chance at romance.

And we danced like kings!

  

I Hope You Dance - Lee Ann Womack

We Danced Anyway - Deena Carter

Wonderland Burlesque's The Twelve Days Before Xmas - Day Eight: The Mistletoe Kiss Polka - Margaret Whiting

Wonderland Burlesque's

The Twelve Days Before Xmas

Day Eight:

The Mistletoe Kiss Polka - Margaret Whiting

Who doesn't love a little holiday romance? Meet me under the mistletoe!

Today's song is sung by a performer whose own love story melts my heart - the lovely, ever-classy Margaret Whiting.

You see, when Margaret Whiting was 70 years-old, she married the love of her life - 48 year-old former gay porn star Jack Wrangler. They made quite the couple. Together as a couple throughout the 1970's and 80's, they made it official in 1994. One would like to believe that during the holidays they spent plenty of time doing The Mistletoe Kiss Polka!

The Mistletoe Kiss Polka - Margaret Whiting

The Mistletoe Kiss Polka, written by Jimmy Kennedy and Constance Palmer is a 1949 song by Margaret Whiting with The Mellomen and Frank De Vol and His Orchestra. Recorded in Los Angeles September 2, 1949, it was released by Capitol Records as the B-side of a one-off single, 57-9033.

Jack Wrangler and Margaret Whiting

Day eight! Only four more, my dears.

Friday Fun: It's National Romance Awareness Month!

Friday Fun:

It's National Romance Awareness Month!

That  last kiss you gave me? I keep hitting rewind.

Yes, August is National Romance Awareness Month.

Are you aware?

Do you allow tenderness to enter the picture?

Let's face it, with all that can go on between two people, it's easy to skip over the basics, what with this going in there and that sticking up there. 

All I'm saying is...

Don't forget to kiss. 

After all, a kiss on the lips is quite continental.

And if you want to be staying for that free continental breakfast the next morning?

Then pucker up, honey!

Muh-wah! To each and everyone of you.

What can I say?

I gotta lotta love and I like to spread it freely.

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

Save A Kiss - Jessie Ware

Champagne Kisses - Jessie Ware

Wednesday's Question Of The Day: Love

Wednesday's Question Of The Day: 

Love

Hump day? Well, I'll give you something to ponder.

Yes, it's time for Wednesday's Question Of The Day.

Each Wednesday, a new question to give you the opportunity to do a bit of self-examination.  Think of it as a way of getting to know all about you and a chance to learn a little more about me. 

That's right. You know me; spill that tea! For I am the king of over-sharing!

Oh, and please leave your responses in the comments section. 

Why, think of this as a little blogging kiki!

Okay! Ready, set... 

Here's today's question:

What does love feel like?

Solid. Solid as a rock. A foundation you can build something upon. 

Like everyone, I used to think it was a rollercoaster. But rollercoasters are scary and unpredictable and designed so, eventually, you must get off. An ending is guaranteed. And if you want to ride again, you have to go back, buy another ticket and wait in line.

When you're young? Take all the rollercoaster rides you want. After all, there's a reason they call them amusement rides.

But once you mature, trust me... your taste will change. You'll tire of the drama. The uncertainty. The ups and downs. It'll become enough to make you sick!

Now, being something solid and firm doesn't necessarily mean it's not also fun. There is something giddy about the prospect of future success, but to experience it you have to have a reason to believe it's possible. And you have to have something solid on which to base such a belief.

I enjoy the comfort. I get to relax and be myself - done with the idea of twisting myself into someone I'm not or expected to be. 

I like the certainty. He's always there, in everything I do now. When the chips are down, he can be counted on to come through, and I am more than capable of doing the same for him. We have each other's backs. I have no doubt there's anything we can't weather - with humor, kindness and consideration. 

It's far from boring. Conversation becomes important. And there are fireworks... especially in the beginning, but one can't live a live a life of explosions and sparks - why, everything around  you would eventually catch fire.

It took me a long time to adopt this attitude. 

But, unless you want to squander your life, time, and energy on nonsense, you'll end up doing the same.

If you're smart? You'll save your last two tickets for that balloon ride.

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End Of The World - Matt Alber

Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: All The World Is A Stage - Part 7 of 12

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

All The World Is A Stage

Part 7 of 12

This is the seventh of a twelve-part series of posts dealing with show business, be it the stage or soundstage.

Yes, show people, their tawdry little lives - in the theatre or movie studio - in all their glory, projected up there on the big screen, bigger than life; and they wouldn't have it any other way. For you see, they live for the stuff; the imitation glamor, the insufferable players, the exhausting rehearsals, and the oh-so important reviews - but above all else - they do it for the applause.

So hit the lights, for today, all the world is, indeed, a stage!

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The Butter And Egg Man

(1928)

Peter Jones is a young man who arrives on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, hoping to invest $20,000 in a play and turn a profit sufficient to buy a local hotel back home. He is conned by Joe Lehman and Jack McClure into backing their play with a 49% stake. The play opens out-of-town in Syracuse and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out, revamps the play, and turns it into a huge hit. After learning of claims the play was stolen, Jones then sells it back to Lehman and McClure at a huge profit, returning home to buy the hotel he wanted in the first place.

Based on the play of the same title by George S. Kaufman, this American silent comedy was directed by Richard Wallace and stars Jack Mulhall, Greta Nissen, and Sam Hardy.

   

It was remade by the studio's successor company Warner Brothers as a sound film Hello, Sweetheart in 1935.

A 1920s slang term popularized by Texas Guinan, a butter-and-egg man is a traveling businessman eager to spend large amounts of money in the big city, so someone wealthy and unwary.

Sadly, this film is presumed lost.

Jack Mulhall, and Greta Nissen

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Broadway Scandals

(1929)

When the road-show that Ted Howard, a singer, and Mary, a chorus-dancer, goes broke and the company is stranded in the sticks, Ted Uses his own savings to get them all back to New York. Ted and Mary form a team and are doing well when Valenska, a musical comedy queen, asks Ted to join her as an act. Since the offer doesn't include Mary, Ted refuses. But, Mary, who loves Ted, knows this is Ted's big chance, and she instigates a situation that leads to the break-up of their team. Ted does do well, but is also used by Valenska as her boy-toy. When they open a big show, Mary is there as a member of the chorus. This does not set well with Valenska and a whole lotta drama ensues.

This American Pre-Code musical was directed by George Archainbaud and stars Sally O'Neill, Carmel Myers and Jack Egan.

Photoplay Magazine was unenthusiastic in its review of Broadway Scandals: "If this picture appeared six months ago, it would have looked better, for it is a late entrant in the line of love stories back of the theater curtain." Egan and Myers did well in their roles, while "Sally O'Neil tries hard."

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God Diggers Of Broadway

(1929)

Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.

Based on the 1919 play The Gold Diggers (which was also turned into a silent film of the same name in 1923), this American pre-Code musical comedy was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas.

Gold Diggers of Broadway became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th-century standards: Tiptoe Through the Tulips and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine.

This was Warner Bros.' second 'All Talking, All Singing, All Color' musical, the first being On With The Show! (1929).

It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by Film Daily. As with many early Technicolor films, no complete print survives, although the last twenty minutes do, but missing are a bridging sequence and the last minute of the film. The film was remade in 1933 as Gold Diggers of 1933.

Winnie Lightner became one of Warner Bros. biggest stars in 1930. She starred in two lavish Technicolor features in that year: Hold Everything and The Life of the Party. Her flapper, care-free demeanor became decidedly dated as the conservatism of the 1930s took its course and this probably explains why she retired from films in 1934.

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I'll Love You Always

(1935)

Nora Clegg, an actress, marries Carl Brent, an unemployed young engineer, whose estimation of his worth and ability keeps him from getting a job. He finally acquires a position that will require him to go to Russia for a period of time, while Nora goes back to the stage during his absence. But he loses out on the job at the last minute, and rather than tell Nora he has failed again, he steals a roll of money from his prospective employer to buy some things for Nora and go out and have a good time before his supposed departure. He ends up taking a trip to jail instead of Russia and hides the truth from Nora by having an acquaintance mail his letters from Russia. But everything changes when he finds finds out that Nora is pregnant!

This American drama was directed by Leo Bulgakov and stars Nancy Carroll, George Murphy and Raymond Walburn.

In the supporting cast of this film, you will find Lucille Ball, Jean Dixon, and radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

Nancy Carroll and George Murphy

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Bowery To Broadway

(1944)

In the Gay 90s, Michael O'Rourke (Jack Oakie) and Dennis Dugan (Donald Cook) are owners of rival night spots in the Bowery. They both move uptown and continue to compete in establishments, each tossing many trials and tribulations and dirty tricks each other's way, before joining forces to produce a long series of hit Broadway shows.

This American musical film was directed by Charles Lamont and stars Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, Susanna Foster. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan.

The movie was made to showcase the singing talent at Universal Studios. And even though she receives top billing, Montez has only a small role.

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time.

Same place, same channel.

 

Bowery To Broadway - Movie Trailer