(Note: See comments for an updated answer to the question asked in this post’s title.)
My daughter and I both had projects to work on last night and, wanting some familiar, companionable television in the background, decided to put on Season One of Downton Abbey. (Love that show 🙂 )
Around about the third episode, the one with the little fair in the village, William (the second footman) is sad because Thomas (first footman) knew he wanted to ask Daisy (kitchen maid) to go to the fair with him and thus swooped in and asked her first, just to be mean. Later in the show, William is in the servants’ hall playing a sad-sounding tune on the piano, just a few bars, before Mrs. Hughes (housekeeper) appears in the doorway and kindly offers sympathy and wise words.
As William played the tune, I realized: hey, I think I know that song! The tiny little snatch of melody he played was the only part I knew, and I was pretty sure the words were (and they were the only words I knew): “After you’ve gone.”
Was it the song I was thinking I knew? I had my phone handy so did a quick search for those lyrics and found that yes, that seemed to be the song. You can hear the original recording in the video clip below. The “after you’ve gone” lyrics don’t come until one minute and eight seconds into the song. (I’m very patient when I’m on a quest 🙂 )
But wait!
Season One of Downton Abbey ends with Lord Grantham informing everyone attending the garden party that the UK was at war with Germany. According to the Wikipedia article on “After You’ve Gone,” this song, which William plays at some point prior to the start of World War I in 1914, wasn’t published, even in sheet music form, until 1918, the year it was recorded.
Really, really surprising to me, as the Downton production team was meticulous in their historical accuracy.
Then I started to wonder: How do I even know this song?
I had this weird sensation in some cloistered alcove of my memory of a woman singing just the words “after you’ve gone.” She is kind of swaying, and her voice is nasally and loud. I was trying to describe it to my daughter, thinking maybe she could help me out.
“Somehow I associate it with ‘Hazel,'” I told her. But we knew it wasn’t from a “Hazel” episode, because we both know the “Hazel” oeuvre pretty thoroughly. (Maybe that’s a post for another day 🙂 ) “A woman is singing, and I think she’s auditioning for something, but the people don’t like her. Like ‘go away.’ And she has this really grating voice, like Ethel Merman.”
The “Ethel Merman” reference was all my daughter needed. “I think it was Ethel Merman,” she said.
But where would I have seen her singing just that line? When would she have been auditioning and nobody liked her? And why would I have associated Ethel Merman with “Hazel”? (More to the point, how did my daughter even know who Ethel Merman was?)
Then I remembered.
Sony didn’t release the “Hazel” series on DVD until really late, long after lots of other old television shows had been released. So I had my old VHS tapes that I’d recorded from TV back in the early ’90s, and when I had time I’d watch them with my girls. When I was taping them I occasionally left the VCR running and accidentally recorded whatever show followed my “Hazel” episode.
Ethel Merman was in a “That Girl” episode once. And I was pretty sure I had accidentally recorded it on one of my “Hazel” tapes.
Thanks to YouTube I was able to find that episode. Yep, it was Ethel Merman! I’ve included the entire episode here, because it’s such a cute show. Ethel Merman sings shortly after the 19:40 mark (and then again at the end of that scene). Judge for yourself how accurate my little whisper of memory/sensation was 🙂
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