Lambeth Walk - Eddie Cantor & Ambrose's Orchestra, 1938

Two great artists: Eddie Cantor, American actor and Bert Ambrose, British bandleader are performing here in one of the musical icons of the interwar period, "The Lambeth Walk". It is a song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl (with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay) and it takes its name from a local street once notable for its street market and working class culture in Lambeth (an area of London, England). The story line of the original show concerns a Cockney barrow boy who inherits an earldom but almost loses his Lambeth girlfriend.

The choreography from the musical, in which the song was a show-stopping Cockney-inspired extravaganza, inspired a popular walking dance, done in a jaunty strutting style. The craze reached Buckingham Palace, with King George and Queen Elizabeth attending a performance and joining in the shouted "Oi" which ends the chorus.

The fad reached the United States in 1938, popularized by Boston-based orchestra-leader Joseph (Joe) Rines, among others. Rines and his band frequently performed in New York, and the dance became especially popular at the "better" night clubs. As with most dance crazes, other well-known orchestras did versions of the song, including Duke Ellington in America or Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelly in France.

A member of the Nazi Party achieved attention in 1939 by declaring the"Lambeth Walk" (which was, almost clandestinely becoming popular in Berlin, under the altered title "In Lambert's Nachtlokal" ) to be "Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping" as part of a speech on how the "revolution of private life" was one of the next big tasks of National Socialism in Germany. In 1942, Charles A. Ridley of the British Ministry of Information made a short propaganda film,"Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style", which edited existing footage of Hitler and German soldiers (taken from Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will") to make it appear they were marching and dancing to "The Lambeth Walk". The film so enraged Joseph Goebbels that reportedly he ran out of the screening room kicking chairs and screaming profanities. The propoganda film was distributed uncredited to newsreel companies, who would supply their own narration (the film can be seen in You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6vCIEG0Bxc ).

The opening verses are:
Any time you're Lambeth way,
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all
Doin' the Lambeth Walk. Oi!
Every little Lambeth gal,
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find 'em all
Doin' the Lambeth Walk. Oi!

"The Lambeth Walk" had the distinction of being the subject of a headline in The Times in October 1938: "While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to The Lambeth Walk." Today, we are listening to it as to the notes reaching us from the deck of the sinking „Titanic", which was Europe in its last „dance hall season", 1938/39.

Some other versions of that great tune are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9pnzYzvBI (Michel Flome's Orchestra, UK), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4qhsPZLu1w (Hans Rehmstedt Tanz Orchestra , nazi Germany), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFNUDjvbAMM (Adam Aston & Iwo Wesby Orchestra, Poland) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cItoqfzM99g (Dalida, French) or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2BTn7LiMB4 (a contemporary show, Tokyo). But all that beats the West End version from 1987, with Robert Lindsay starring as Bill Snibson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcCLKn6W1xk

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Eddie
• Cantor
• Bert
• Ambrose
• Robert
• Lindsay
• 1930
• London
• British
• dance
• band
• orchestra
• Lambeth
• Walk
• show
• Me
• and
• My
• Girl
• Noel
• Gay
• 78
• rpm
• record

[genia106]

Grzegorz My Darling Friend,

Thank you, I love the LAMBETH WALK!

This is a wonderful rendition! I love the COCKNEY! :-) " Oi"

The next time Rudy , YOU and I are in London , we shall have to take Rudy to the East End! We shall start the night in Mayfair of course!

[240252]

Genia, thanks! I just added some link to my info. Go there and you will see Robert Lindsay, the British genius actor, starring in "Me And My Girl" in London, in 1987! It's a MUST to see it. As for Rudy, well, we may have a probvlem with getting him to East Ham or so, to say nothing of Lambeth! He's such a delicate, or even hysterical type.... you know... afraid of all muggers, white trash nightlife individuals... He prefers more processed and canned specimens of the rawness of life

[genia106]

Grzegorz,

I thought you straightened Rudy out.

We will go to the East End ourselves, he can stay in Mayfair! "Oi"

[240252]

Genia, don't hurt me! And please, don't tell him what I told you. He's so vulnerable. I just want to protect him. Go to my link I mention above and see Robert Lindsay. It's obvious that for the upper class people London can be so unbearably lower class, sometimes!

[dfarmbrough]

I suppose this is what posh johnnies thought cockneys sounded like! Ambrose was of course a cockney himself, but some of these fellows have dreadful accents!

[jsdaniels1978]

My grandfather jack daniels arranged the music for and played the solo clarinet on the lambeth walk @100jackdaniels

[bobparis]

Whoever this "Eddie Cantor" is, it's not the American Eddie Cantor!

[bobparis]

Eddie Cantor is not on this record.

[IBetYouWillFemales]

Mah boi at 0:33

[VJSco]

palhaço chocolate é? kkkk

[chloezaz]

we had 2 sing and dance 2 this song u had 2 dance with a boy errrrrrrrrr

[RickC50]

This is not the Cantor version. The Cantor version was done on British Decca with Eddie singing about his visit to England and what he'll tell his friends. He does not do a cockney imitation at all. He even does an imitation of FDR.

[globaleye8]

A bit "different " down Lambeth way these days - what a shite-hole !

[racingrubberbiker]

What a mystery!

It really cant be the famous American - more reearch is needed, but if it really is Cantor he does a passable cockney accent.

The song was sung by Lupino Lane in the original, who was related to Ida Lupino - of Hollywood fame.