[78-L] Chalking up a "borrowed" song idea (was: Kate Smith stamp)

[David Lennick]

So were there support groups for secret chalkers? Is there a deeper meaning to 
"Blackboard Jungle"? (The lust that dares not speak its name.)

dl

Craig Ventresco wrote:
> Billy Murray (Victor) and Fred Whitehouse (Olympic?) also recorded "She
> Gives Them All the Ha Ha Ha). I wouldn't call Cantor's Emerson material
>  trivial....lots of classic stuff.
> There is a song called "Bill Was There" from 1905 (American record) sung by
> Billy Hines that has a verse about hugging/"chalking" his girlfriend. THere
> must be lots of other references to this strange activity, not only in early
> songs but also in period skits and comics.
> 
> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Bertrand CHAUMELLE <chaumelle at orange.fr>wrote:
> 
>> The older song is trivial (as usual with Cantor material), the newer
>> song is poetic. Praise Hayes and Goell instead.
>>
>> BC
>> Le 9 janv. 10, à 05:19, David Lennick a écrit :
>>
>>> Don'tcha go a-blamin' Hoagy..the song was written by Clancy Hayes and
>>> Kermit
>>> Goell, and was also a hit for The Old Professor.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> Michael Biel wrote:
>>>> I've been trying to figure out who accidentally merged my paragraph
>>>> about "She Gave Them All the Ha Ha Ha" with the statement "That's a
>>>> line
>>>> from "Huggin' And Chalkin" (1946-7)." as if I said it. (Could it have
>>>> been  "L78rpm at aol.com" aka "pc" whoever he is??) I didn't add that
>>>> sentence because I don't know the later song.  So I checked it out and
>>>> it seems that Hoagy Carmichael STOLE the idea from the song I
>>>> discussed
>>>> that was written and recorded twenty five years  earlier!!  I see it
>>>> listed as recorded by Eddie Cantor, but I have it on a Phantasie
>>>> Concert
>>>> pasteover label (the original might have been a Lyric (?)).
>>>>
>>>> Hoagy put it in the 40s:
>>>>
>>>> "You have to take a piece of chalk in your hand
>>>> And hug a ways and chalk a mark to see where you began
>>>> One day I was a-huggin' and a-chalkin' and a-chalkin' and a-huggin'
>>>> away
>>>> When I met another fella with some chalk in his hand
>>>> A-comin' around the other way over the mountain"
>>>>
>>>> The older song from 1920 goes:
>>>>
>>>> "I never get my arms around her,
>>>> But one night I tried.
>>>> I got three-quarters way around her,
>>>> Then I almost died,
>>>> For I met another fellow coming 'round the other side,
>>>> And she gave us both the Ha Ha Ha,
>>>> The Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha."
>>>>
>>>> So somewhere in the deep recesses of Hoagy's mind was this earlier
>>>> song
>>>> which he unconsciously stole, er, borrowed from.
>>>>
>>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> mbiel at mbiel.com writes (all but the final line, of course):
>>>>
>>>> Just before Kate's stardom and during the era of Vaughn DeLeath, there
>>>> was a popular song in the 20s "She Gave Them All the Ha Ha Ha" about a
>>>> lovable "girl about 5'4" who weighs 200 pounds or more", who when the
>>>> singer hugged her "met another fellow coming 'round the other side".
>>>> That's a line from "Huggin' And Chalkin" (1946-7).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> pc