The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53297   Message #3216700
Posted By: Jim Dixon
01-Sep-11 - 05:51 PM
Thread Name: Burlesque/vaudeville joke routines
Subject: RE: Burlesque/vaudeville joke routines
Speaking of the song MISTER GALLAGHER AND MISTER SHEAN—the lyrics of which were posted in this thread back on 06-Nov-2002—did you know Gallagher and Shean were real people? (OK, you would have known that if you had read the byline.)

More trivia: Al Shean (real name: Abraham Schönberg) was the uncle of the Marx Brothers. Gallagher and Shean's legendary backstage fighting was the inspiration for Neil Simon's play The Sunshine Boys (1972; film version 1975 starring Walter Matthau and George Burns).

You can see the sheet music at the web site of the Archive of Popular Music at UCLA. (Click for a PDF.) I suspect that's where Joe_F got the lyrics.

You can hear Billy Jones & Ernest Hare (The Happiness Boys) sing it at The Internet Archive. They stick very close to the original lyrics (which is unusual for them).