[78-L] gallagher and shean

[Ken "Silver Showcase"]

Dnjchi at aol.com wrote:
>  
> In a message dated 4/15/2009 10:20:11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com writes:
>
> I have  the sheet music somewhere around, I think.  As I recall, "Shean" 
> is  pronounced with two syllables, "She-an."  

I've got a 16mm print of the 1931 bouncing ball cartoon that Al Shean 
made of this song.  Gallagher was dead by that time so Shean sings both 
parts in the live action section in the middle of the film.  I just ran 
it to see how he pronounces his own name and the answer is sometimes 
with one syllable and sometimes with two syllables.  Where the name is 
sung in one beat he pronounces it Sheen.  Where the name is sung over 
two beats he pronounces it SHEE-an.  It is also worth noting that when 
he sings a word that rhymes with Shean and that word covers 2 beats in 
the music he does NOT pronounce it with 2 syllables.  For instance, when 
he sings "the funniest ever seen," the word "seen" is not altered to 
make it SEE-an.  So I think it is safe to assume that he preferred his 
name to be pronounced SHEE-an.

In the animated portion of this film the two men singing the song 
consistently pronounce his name in one syllable as "Sheen."  Going out 
on a limb here, but I'm thinking that he probably wasn't terribly picky 
about whether his name was pronounced with one syllable or with two or 
he would have corrected these performers. 

And anyway, Shean was his stage name.  His birth name was Al 
Schoenberg.  That might also account for the inconsistency of the 
pronunciation of Shean.  As Shean wasn't his birth name perhaps a 
specific pronunciation wasn't that important to him?

> Wasn't he the Marx boys  
> uncle?
>   

Yes.  His sister, Minnie, was their mother.  He also wrote some of their 
early Vaudeville acts.

-- Ken