{"id":1690,"date":"2007-02-27T01:20:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/02\/steyns-song-of-the-week-buttons-and-bows\/"},"modified":"2007-02-27T01:20:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-27T01:20:00","slug":"steyns-song-of-the-week-buttons-and-bows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/02\/steyns-song-of-the-week-buttons-and-bows.html","title":{"rendered":"Steyn’s song of the week: ‘Buttons and Bows’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Growing up, my favorite Bob Hope movie by far was Son of Paleface<\/a><\/i> (1952) \u2014 which, as I discovered years later, was directed by Frank Tashlin, a former animator at Looney Toons<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t too surprised when I found out about that. The film is sort of a sequel to The Paleface<\/a><\/i> (1948), but it\u2019s also something of a lampoon of the earlier film, and of westerns in general. The first film was a straightforward comedy that happens to be set in the wild wild west, but the second film is an out-and-out spoof of the genre, and indeed of the very nature of filmmaking itself, with animated and pseudo-animated sight gags, star turns by Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger, a cameo by Cecil B. DeMille, various gimmicks that break the fourth wall, and \u2014 in the scene depicted above \u2014 a parody of the song that made the first film famous.<\/p>\n

The song in question won the Oscar for Best Song in 1948, and one of its composers \u2014 lyricist Ray Evans \u2014 died recently, so the combination of obituary and the past weekend\u2019s Oscars prompted Mark Steyn to devote this week\u2019s \u2018Song of the Week<\/a>\u2018 column to \u2018Buttons and Bows\u2019, and I love some of his insights, e.g.:<\/p>\n

So instead of pondering the thin gruel of this year\u2019s nominees let\u2019s turn, as promised a few days ago, to a multi-Oscared songwriter who died just a week and a half before this year\u2019s show. Ray Evans and his partner Jay Livingston wrote three Academy Award winners (and another four nominees). \u201cQue Sera, Sera\u201d (Song Of The Week #17), and before that \u201cMona Lisa\u201d, and before that their very first Oscar-winning song:<\/p>\n

East is east
And west is west
And the wrong one I have chose
Let\u2019s go where
They keep on wearin\u2019
Those frills and flowers and Buttons And Bows
Rings and things and Buttons And Bows<\/i> . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The clippetty-cloppy rhythm was just right for the movie \u2013 Hope sings it in a covered wagon, and the song alludes directly to his predicament:<\/p>\n

My bones denounce
The buckboard bounce\u2026<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can hear the buckboard in the tune. It\u2019s a simple song, but written in the jaunty buckboard bounce of a wagon rumbling westward across a bumpy trail and strung around an Americanized take on \u201cEast is east, and west is west, and ne\u2019er the twain\u2026\u201d Hope likes his gals citified and refined, not in chaps and buckskin. \u201cButtons And Bows\u201d is a \u201cbouncy lament\u201d (in Stanley Green\u2019s phrase), which is perfect for a western number that\u2019s anti-western. There used to be a whole bunch of those \u2013 \u201cWay Out West,\u201d wrote Rodgers and Hart, \u201cwhere seldom is heard an intelligent word\u201d. But \u201cButtons And Bows\u201d isn\u2019t about snobbery. It\u2019s a man pining for femininity. If you pick up the CD he made with Michael Feinstein right at the end of his life, you can hear Jay Livingston giving a marvelously heartfelt rendition of the verse:<\/p>\n

A western ranch
Is just a branch
Of Nowhere Junction to me
Give me the city
Where living\u2019s pretty
And the gals wear fi-ne-reee<\/i> . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was so big they reprised it in Son Of Paleface<\/i>, with Hope as Painless Potter\u2019s son and Jane Russell squeezed into the kind of get-up he wanted her in all along. When she descends the staircase of the saloon shoehorned into a scarlet bodice, steam begins to rise from Bob\u2019s pipe. Standing alongside, Roy Rogers is completely unmoved. \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter?\u201d asks Hope. \u201cDon\u2019t you like girls?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll stick to horses, mister,\u201d says Rogers \u2013 which more or less confirms Hope\u2019s general view of the neighborhood:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t bury me
In this prairie
Take me where the cement grows\u2026<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The song put in a third appearance at Paramount \u2013 in Billy Wilder\u2019s Sunset Boulevard<\/i>. William Holden sneaks out of Gloria Swanson\u2019s mausoleum and heads off to a party with all the young movie crowd. Livingston and Evans are in there, seated at the piano and playing \u201cButtons And Bows\u201d. They\u2019d written another number for the scene, \u201cThe Paramount Don\u2019t Want Me Blues\u201d, but Paramount thought it was too in. . . .<\/p>\n

The close of the lyric has one of my all-time favorite couplets from the entire American songbook:<\/p>\n

Gimme eastern trimmin\u2019
Where women are women
In high silk hose
And peek-a-boo clothes
And French perfume
That rocks the room
And I\u2019m all yours in Buttons And Bows\u2026<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFrench perfume that rocks the room\u201d: lovely example of how one word (\u201crocks\u201d) can freshen up even the most familiar image. Ray Evans did that in his songs for half a century. Rest in peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s funny, BTW, that this song should have popped up in both Son of Paleface<\/i> and Sunset Boulevard<\/a><\/i> (1950), since both films have cameos by Cecil B. DeMille in common, too!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, my favorite Bob Hope movie by far was Son of Paleface (1952) \u2014 which, as I discovered years later, was directed by Frank Tashlin, a former animator at Looney Toons. I wasn\u2019t too surprised when I found out about that. The film is sort of a sequel to The Paleface (1948), but it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSteyn's song of the week: 'Buttons and Bows'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Growing up, my favorite Bob Hope movie by far was Son of Paleface (1952) -- which, as I discovered years later, was directed by Frank Tashlin, a former\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/02\/steyns-song-of-the-week-buttons-and-bows.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steyn's song of the week: 'Buttons and Bows'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Growing up, my favorite Bob Hope movie by far was Son of Paleface (1952) -- which, as I discovered years later, was directed by Frank Tashlin, a former\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/02\/steyns-song-of-the-week-buttons-and-bows.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-02-27T01:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/x\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/323131\/sonofpaleface.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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