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[0:00] Paul Lazarus: Hi, this is Paul Lazarus. In the 1980s, I produced and hosted a radio series called Anything Goes, a celebration of the American musical theater. Now, the Broadway Podcast Network is bringing back these shows. This is the fourth of a five-part program paying tribute to composer Harold Arlen. Arlen wrote the classic movie score to The Wizard of Oz and composed countless unforgettable melodies like Stormy Weather and Get Happy. This program was guest hosted by Ken Bloom and featured commentary by Arlen biographer Ed Jablonski. It originally aired in July of 1982.

[0:44] ♪ Musical number: "Get Happy" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[1:32] ♪ Musical number: "I Love a Parade" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[2:22] ♪ Musical number: "Let's Fall in Love" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[2:44] ♪ Musical number: "Paper Moon" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[3:12] ♪ Musical number: "One for My Baby" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[3:46] ♪ Musical number: "Stormy Weather" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[4:32] ♪ Musical number: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[5:13] ♪ Musical number: "That Old Black Magic" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[6:42] ♪ Musical number: "The Man That Got Away" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[9:57] Ken Bloom: As anything goes, Paul Lazarus isn't here today, and I'm here with Ed Jablonski, Harold Arlen's biographer and author of Happy with the Blues, which is soon going to be republished by DeCapo Press. We're going to be playing many rare tapes.

[10:11] Ken Bloom: Many of them haven't been heard before, and we'll be playing a couple of better-known recordings, but mainly we want to play you songs from Harold Arlen's own archives that have never before been heard on radio, and actually not heard since they were made. Because of the age of some of these tapes and the home recordings and the glass discs that we're going to be playing, the sound may be somewhat lacking in high fidelity, but we think that the material more than compensates for any lack of fidelity in the original recordings. The last Arlen show we concentrated on his Hollywood period, and today we're going to concentrate on his Broadway period with a couple of his later Hollywood movies, and some songs that don't really fit into any category.

We're going to start with "What Can You Say in a Love Song?" And we're going to go on to "Bloomer Girl" and a demo tape from "Bloomer Girl" that he and Yip Harburg did. You youngsters are always saying tape. These were glass-based discs, and it was made for, what, John Wilson, who was to be the producer. And so Harold and Yip were stuck out in Hollywood for some reason, and of course Wilson was working in New York raising possible money. So for some reason, Yip Harburg didn't want to do the show, but I think Harold managed to talk him into it. And boy, of course, it turned out to be quite an interesting project. After all, it was one of the earliest attacks on bigotry, and it was a step in the right direction about women's liberation way before its time.

So while they did these songs, they felt they would have to let people know what they would sound like. So they just sat down and made a whole bunch of these. They all sound rather scratchy because the glass makes more noise. So they mailed these off to Wilson in New York to give his people, the backers, some idea of what the score was, and Harold always felt the records were responsible for the backing they got for "Bloomer Girl" because they had no chance to come in as they usually do where the composers hang around and play and whatnot. They had no problem raising the money, and it turned out to be really one of his tremendous successes. It's interesting that now when you hear demo tapes, composers go into studios with orchestras, and there's a whole coterie of singers that only do demo tapes. Well, this was done in his house.

[12:55] ♪ Musical number: "What Can You Say in a Love Song" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[14:29] Ken Bloom: Listening to Anything Goes, featuring a tribute to composer Harold Arlen. Jack, this is incomplete, but we thought you'd like to know where we're heading. I hope you understand.

[14:40] ♪ Musical number: "Right as the Rain" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[16:10] ♪ Musical number: "Handsome Young Man with the Whiskers" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[18:47] ♪ Musical number: "The Farmer's Daughter" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[20:23] ♪ Musical number: "The Farmer's Daughter" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[24:59] ♪ Musical number: "Evelina" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[27:34] ♪ Musical number: "When the Boys Come Home" — performed by Harold Arlen ♪

[29:08] Ken Bloom: That was selections from the demo discs of *Bloomer Girl*, and the songs you heard were "Right as the Rain," "Handsome Young Man with the Whiskers," which later in the Broadway show became "Rakish Young Man with the Whiskers," which is interesting to see how Harburg's changed in words. You can see what a much better word "rakish" is than "handsome." "The Farmer's Daughter," in which Arlen was accompanied by Yip Harburg, "Welcome Hinges," "Evelina," and "When the Boys Come Home." All of them had Harold Arlen piano and vocals.

[29:44] Ken Bloom: Oh, what joy when the boys come home.

[29:47] Ken Bloom: The glorious sound of the tramping feet will echo down the winding street.

[29:51] Ken Bloom: You've been listening to Harold Arlen 4, the fourth of a five-part series. *Anything Goes: Backstage with Broadway's Best* is produced and hosted by Paul Lazarus. This episode was guest-hosted by Ken Bloom and featured commentary by Arlen biographer Ed Jablonski. For more information, visit anythinggoespl.com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us. Thanks for listening.