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ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm
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Subject: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: GUEST,pat w Date: 14 Sep 06 - 02:04 PM Looking for the words to a song which begins: "Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away And I never will forget it till my dying day" It is remembered by different people as a song and as a comic monologue or scene. Can anyone over here supply the rest of it? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Leadfingers Date: 14 Sep 06 - 02:08 PM It was a dark and stormy night , and the Captain said "Mate ! Tell us a story !" And the mate began . It was a dark and stormy night , and the captain said "Mate! Tell us a story !" And the mate began . It was a dark and stormy night - - - - - - - OK - I'll get my coat ! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Sep 06 - 02:49 PM In all English composition classes, 'It was a dark and stormy night' is given as an example of a bad beginning to a story (Edward Bulwar-Lytton, "Paul Clifford." Nevertheless, it is a good beginning for a parody or humorous song since everyone smiles when they hear it (I think it was a good beginning but I hated the writing class I took). You may find a smile in this link with parodies of that beginning as Gertrude Stein, Allan Ginsberg or other authors might have written it: Time honored cliches The one quoted by Leadfingers I think(?) was used in a play, "The Sweet Smell of Success. I remember the song wanted by Guest pat w as a takeoff on "My Darling Nellie Gray." I can't remember the words, and hope someone comes up with them. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:07 PM Do you mean to say that "It was a dark and stormy night" came before Snoopy? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:47 PM Charles Schulz and Snoopy are deservedly better known than Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891) although he was a popular novelist in his day. The sentence in "Paul Clifford" (1830): "It was a dark and stormy night and the rain fell in torrents-- except at occasional intervals when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." (Bulwer is the correct spelling- I made a mistake in the earlier post). |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: MMario Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:58 PM suddenly a shot rang out - the maid screamed gotta love the classics. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Helen Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:21 PM Well, I remember it as: "The night was dark and stormy..." as in: The night was dark and stormy. The billy goat was blind. He backed into a barbed wire fence and scratched his "never mind". Sorry, I think you can blame my dear departed Mum for that one! So,the little story told by Leadfingers, in my recollection, started the same way. Also told to us by our mother, I think. Helen |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: dick greenhaus Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:46 PM 'Twas a dark stormy night Not a star was in sight And a cold wind come whistlin' down the line.... (Wreck of the Cattle Train) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:52 PM Jim Dixon posted "Dark and Stormy Night" by Tampa Red in thread 42248: Tampa Red There are several threads that come up if- dark and stormy - is put in the Lyrics and Knowledge Search. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:02 PM It was a dark and stormy night, Not a streetcar was in sight, Or was that "Midnight on the Ocean"? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: GUEST,Eye Llander Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:11 PM Oh the memories... It was a dark and stormy night , and the Captain said "Mate ! Tell us a story !" And the mate began I haven't heard that in years. Oh I briefly felt young again!!! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Rasener Date: 15 Sep 06 - 02:01 AM Leadfingers Spooky that. My father used to tell us that one when we were young, some 50 odd years ago. Never heard it since. He passed away last Saturday at the ripe old age of 90. (No condolence messages please) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Jeanie Date: 15 Sep 06 - 01:17 PM Leadfingers, Eye Lander and Villan: I always used to love hearing that one, too. My mother's version (she was just a couple of years younger than your father, Villan) was: "It was a darrrrrk and stoorrrmy night, and the Cap'n said to the mate: 'Antonio, tell us a yarrrrrrn .'.....and the yarrrrn went like this........"It was a daaarrrrk and stoooormmy night...etc." I have inflicted it on my daughter, and hope she will eventually pass it on too. Ahaarrrrrr ! (and it's not even "Talk Like a Pirate Day") - jeanie |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: GUEST,anonymous Date: 15 Nov 10 - 10:00 AM I'll never forget it til my dying day She was sweet sixteen the village queen puridiest little girl that I ever had seen she left me one night (I was so forlorned) that's the blesssed night that little Doobie was born. that thar Doobie? taint no other - he's the spittin image of his good dead mother that's all I can remember - we sang it at camp - the ending had a tag - and there was granny - swingin on the outhouse door (without her nightie ) swinging on the outhouse door and she was nude! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Louie Roy Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:43 PM The first line of the tune Baggage coach ahead which was written in 1896 starts On one dark and stormy night |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Twas a dark and stormy night From: Jim Dixon Date: 16 Nov 10 - 12:36 AM 'Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away. I never shall fergit it till my dyin' day. She was jist sixteen, the village queen, The purtiest little gal I ever have seen! The farm ain't the same since Nellie went away. The hens all died and the roosters won't lay. There in my window hangs a light. Forty below zero! Gosh, what a night! Found in 2 books: Cheerleader Handbook by Carolyn Frances Bruce (Fond du Lac, Wis. : National Sports Co., 1960), page 165. Program Ideas for Senior Citizens by Gertrude Cross (Flint, Mich.: Flint Recreation and Park Board, 1970), page 36. I believe the lines above are a small part of a longer "skit" but I was unable to extract any more of the text; Google classifies these books as "snippet view." |
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Subject: Lyr Add: HE AIN'T DONE RIGHT BY LITTLE NELL From: Jim Dixon Date: 18 Nov 10 - 12:11 PM One more source: Handbook of Skits and Stunts by Helen and Larry Eisenberg (New York: Association Press, 1953), page 154. This book has gone through many printings and is available in many libraries. The whole book is viewable online at The Hathi Trust Digital Library. [The oRIGinal is PRINted with EVery OTHer SYLlable in ALL CAPS, to emphasize the rhythm, but I will spare you that detail.—JD] HE AIN'T DONE RIGHT BY LITTLE NELL FARMER: 'Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away. I never shall fergit it till my dyin' day! She was jist sixteen, the village queen, The purtiest little gal I ever have seen! The farm ain't the same since Nellie went away. The hens all died and the roosters won't lay. There in my window hangs a light! Forty below zero! Gosh, whatta night! NELLIE: K-nock, k-nock, k-nock, k-nock! (Enters carrying bundle.) FARMER: Who's that knockin' at my door? NELLIE: It's yer little Nellie. Don't ye know me any more? FARMER: Where's that acter feller that called yew honey? Did he send yew home 'cause ye ast fer money? NELLIE: He's a great big bum, and he lied with ease. He had more wimmen than a dog has fleas! He left me the night I was most ferlorn, The very same night little Dummy wuz born! FARMER: Is that there, Dummy? NELLIE: 'Tain't no other! FARMER: She's the spittin' image of yer dear old mother, But ye cain't stay here with that there cheeild. Listenin' to hit holler would jest drive me wild! VILLAIN: Hoity, toity, me proud beauty! (He wears mustache, of course.) Gimme Dummy, or I'll do mah duty! Gimme the cheeild or I'll do yew harm, 'Cause I got the mortgage on the darggonned farm! CONSTABULE: K-nock, k-nock, k-nock, k-nock! (He wears a huge badge, of course.) FARMER: Who's that knockin'? Sounds like a mule! CONSTABULE: I ain't no mule, yew dadburned fule. Cain't ye see by my badge I'm a constabule? What's goin' on here? Come an' tell! FARMER: He ain't done right by my little Nell! VILLAIN: O, yes I have.... FARMER: O, no ye ain't.... VILLAIN: O, yes I have.... FARMER: O, no ye ain't.... CONSTABULE: Yew stole his farm and ye left his daughter. That ought to cost ye 'bout a dollar and a quarter! ALL (speaking together): Which goes to show the price of sin. Come back tomorrow night and we'll play East Lynne! (ALL BOW LOW) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST Date: 30 Mar 14 - 11:49 PM This skit was taught to me by my mother in the 1960's. She had learned it long before this when she was a girl- it was a skit in a show they had put on in our town---a variety traveling type show. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST Date: 31 Mar 14 - 12:05 AM http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/queries/lostquotes/?id=191 Worth a read if you're interested in the poem/skit title. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: Lighter Date: 31 Mar 14 - 10:51 AM For literary types: Since, as Q observed above in 2006, the once enormously popular and quite competent Romantic novelist Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton never really began a novel with the despised sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night," it's surely time to let up on him. The sentence he did write nearly 200 years ago, while clumsy by modern standards, is quite a bit more interesting and promising than the bald statement he's ignorantly blamed for. Dickens, in fact, wrote many comparable sentences: "It was a dark and stormy night and the rain fell in torrents-- except at occasional intervals when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." Snoopy in the 1960s began a novel with the blah and now cliche' sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night." Bulwer Lytton in the 1830s didn't. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST,Janet potter Date: 15 Apr 16 - 12:41 PM It was a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away and I never will forgive until my dying day. The cocks won't crow and the hens won't lay, ever since the night my Nellie went away. Who's that knocking at my door? It's your little Nell; don't you love me any more? What happen to that actor guy who use to call you honey? Did he leave you all alone when you hadn't any money? He left me all alone and all forlorn and the very same night little Dumbell was born...? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST,Frankie Van Cleave Date: 30 Aug 21 - 06:09 PM Learned at Camp Dixie (north Georgia) in 1950: FARMER: 'Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away, And I never will fergit it 'til my dyin' day. She was sweet sixteen, the village queen - Purtiest little gal you ever seen. The farm ain't the same since my Nellie went away - The rooster up and died and the hens won't lay. The cat ran away and the mice are in the wheat. The dog just whines and the hog won't eat. (knocking) Who's that knockin' on my door? 'Tis your little Nellie; don't you love me no more? Whar's that actor feller called ya honey? Did he send you away when you ast him fer money? He left me the night I was mosssst ferlorn. The very next morn, little Doomie was born. That thar Doomie? Tain't nairn other. He's the very spittin' image of yer dear dead mother. Well, you cain't stay here with that there child. Father, dear, Father, dear, you're drivin' me wild! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST,fvancleave Date: 28 Sep 21 - 05:52 PM Learned at Camp Dixie (north Georgia) in 1950: FARMER: 'Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away, And I never will fergit it 'til my dyin' day. She was sweet sixteen, the village queen - Purtiest little gal you ever seen. The farm ain't the same since my Nellie went away - The rooster up and died and the hens won't lay. (knocking) Who's that knockin' at my door? NELLIE: 'Tis your little Nellie; don't you love me no more? FARMER: Whar's that actor feller called ya honey? Did he send you away when you ast him fer money? NELLIE: He warn't no actor, and he lied with ease - Got more wimmen than a dog has fleas. He left me the night I was mosssst ferlorn. The very next morn, little Doomie was born. FARMER: That thar Doomie? NELLIE: Tain't nairn other. FARMER: He's the very spittin' image of yer dear daid mother. Well, you cain't stay here with that there child. NELLIE: Father, dear, Father, dear, you're drivin' me wild! (Door is knocked open) VILLAIN: Har de har, you sad little mouse. You and your pa'll have to leave this house. And I'll take Doomie, or I'll do ye harm, 'cause I've got the mortgage on the gosh-darn farm! NELLIE: Myyyy Doomie! VILLAIN: Myyyy Doomie! NELLIE: Myyyy Doomie! VILLAIN: Myyyy Doomie! (Sheriff enters) SHERIFF: What's goin' on here, come and tell. FARMER: He ain't done me right by my little Nell. SHERIFF: Wrecked yore farm and stole yore dotter. That oughtta be about a dollar and a quarter. ALL: Just to show the price of sin, come back tomorrow and we'll do it agin.! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell From: GUEST Date: 02 Nov 21 - 09:07 AM ‘Twas a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away I never shall forget it til my dying day Forty below zero and Gish what a night And in that there a window ima gonna hang a light Oh the farm taint the same sine my Nellie went away The roosters won’t crow and the hens won’t lay (Knock knock knock) Who’s that knockin at my door%. “Hello Pap don’tcha know me I’m your little daughter Nell” “Where’s the actor guy that used to call you honey I guess he ran away when you run outta money “He’s a low down devil and a lying thief He had more women than a dog gas fleas He left me on the night I was so forlorn And that’s the very night little dumbbell was born Is that the little dummy? Taint no other I guess it’s the picture of your dear ole mother But you Caint stay in this house with that ther child Oh pappy dear pappy you’re driving me wild. |
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Subject: RE: ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm From: GUEST,Harmon MILLER Date: 18 Jan 22 - 04:05 AM Belated info This skit originated in 1932, written by my great-uncle, Bob Miller, under the pseudonym of Ella Divine. It was recorded by a half-dozen recording artists including Joe Haymes. It was also partially recited on a very early color short entitled Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove 1934 by Candy Candido.Candy sings the song Way Up Thar but in the middle he starts reciting Little Nell then finished with Way Up Thar. And as stated by others it turned up somehow in the cheerleading and camp activity books. archive.org has the Joe Haymes/Eliott Everett recordings and the Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove is on YouTube. |
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Subject: RE: ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm From: GUEST,Bubba Miller Date: 07 Aug 26 - 10:29 PM if you do a Google search for Little Nell 1932 you can hear the original recording by the Joe Haymes Orchestra at internet archive.com. https://archive.org/details/1932-USA-Archives-1932-06-23-Joe-Haymes-Orch-Little-Nell |
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Subject: RE: ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm From: Jack Horntip Date: 08 Aug 26 - 09:53 AM He ain't done right by our little Nell; Catalogue of Copyright Entries. Part 3: Musical Compositions. 1926, New Series, Volume 21, No. 5. p.473 See here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catalog_of_Copyright_Entries/ |
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Subject: RE: ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm From: Jack Horntip Date: 08 Aug 26 - 10:23 AM SAVE OUR LITTLE NELL. See sheetmusic online here: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/97229590-c591-012f-479e-58d385a7bc34?canvasIndex=0 |
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Subject: RE: ADD:He Ain't Done Right by Little Nell/dark&storm From: Jack Horntip Date: 08 Aug 26 - 10:54 AM The opening verse of the song shares a bit with "Poor Willie": POOR WILLIE See Death of Willie thread here: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=33707 |
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