The credence to the story that US Supreme Court Justice Willam O Douglas had a role in "Passengers will please refrain" comes for Douglas' own autobiography "Go East, Young Man" (pp171-172). This information was cited in Cray's book "The Erotic Muse". According to Douglas, he and another Yale Law School professor, Thu4rman Arnold, were riding on the New Haven Railroad in the early 1930's and were inpired by the sign:

"Thurman and I got the idea of putting these memorable words to music, and Thurman quickly came up with the musical refrain from Humoresque:
Passengers will please refrain
from flushing toilets while the train
is standing in
or passing through
a station.
Thurman at once addressed the passengeers in the parolor car and taught them to sing this song in unison. After many attempts, they were able to make a perfect rendition. Thereafter it was common on the New Haven to hear people singing the song."

Cray goes on to say that the song spread quickly and cites another source who claimed to have heard it on college campus in the 1930's and there is a WWII air force version. Brand's text was published in 1960, but I think he recorded it before that. Cray includes 4 text versions that have some of the elements in the text added above, but also has some other bawdier lines.

rich r