Word: songful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Hall of the Realm in Stockholm's royal palace, the two houses of Parliament waited. The royal brass band struck up the Song of the King. In walked an old gentleman as precariously thin as a Nordic Don Quixote. He bowed right & left, then took his seat on the ermine-draped throne, beside a taboret bearing the crown which he had never actually worn (he disapproves of elaborate ceremonies). Then Gustaf V, King of Sweden, of the Goths and the Wends, began his speech from the throne. It was a comfortable occasion. His Majesty had delivered substantially the same...
Everybody else was singing it before Americans even heard of it. It began 35 years ago as the Swiss Cradle Song, written by an Australian. Then a Maori woman who liked the tune made up some words to go with it, sang it at a Maori festival. The natives picked it up; so did white New Zealanders who mistakenly thought it an old Maori folksong...
...Gracie Fields got hold of it. By now it had new lyrics and a new title: Now Is the Hour. Her brassy-voiced music-hall record of the catchy, draggy tune has been No. 1 on England's hit parade for 23 weeks. London Records decided that the song was just what they were looking for to crash the rich U.S. record market. Last week 24,000 records (weighing six tons) of Gracie Fields's version arrived in Manhattan, the biggest shipment of foreign records ever to hit the U.S. Gracie wouldn't have the place...
This once popular song was not popular among long-suffering customers of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway: it seemed to them the bitterest satire. The Rock Island went formally bankrupt in 1933, after years of tottering on the verge...
...road's fixed charges were cut to a mere $1.5 million a year, compared to the previous $13 million. The capitalization was scaled down from $447 million to $327 million. Farrington thought that the Rock Island was finally in good enough shape to live up to the old song...