Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy

Subject: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: TenBears
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 08:06 PM

Any of you good mudcatters able to supply the lyrics of this song?

Dates pre-War as far as I know and was sung to me as a child in the Fifties but I can't remember much!

Thanks

tenbears

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:35 PM

No joy. Just found references to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 01:52 AM

Google for "Olga Pulloffski". Or the authors, Len Bermon and Henry Hall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 02:02 AM

BTW, can you favor us with the tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 02:16 AM

A footnote: Bermon (Hall's drummer) began singing novely songs in the latter part of 1932, so the song would date a bit after this time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 02:35 AM

I got the attribution wrong: "Olga Pulloffski" was written in 1935 by R.P. Weston and Bert Lee. Hall & co. recorded it. It's on at least two compilations, "Somewhere at Sea" (of Hall recordings) and "You Must Remember This" (various artists.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Polovsky the beautiful spy
From: Flash Company
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 11:43 AM

Only bit I remember Gran singing was:-

Shame on you, shame on you,
Oh Fie Fie,
Olga Polovski, the beautiful spy.

There was a women in our street who smoked cigarettes in a long holder who always brought it on.

FC

Subject: Lyr Add: OLGA PULLOFFSKI, THE BEAUTIFUL SPY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 12:09 AM

Copied from Lyrics Playground:

OLGA PULLOFFSKI, THE BEAUTIFUL SPY
(Bert Lee / R. P. Weston)

(Voice announcing arriving guests:)
Colonel and Mrs Mango-Chutney
Major Curry of the 19th Member Force
Their Highnesses the Raja and Rani of Mesomethuselum
Mademoiselle Olga Pulloffski

(Voice in alarm:)
By Gad, get onto the War Office at once; it's Olga Pulloffski!

(Music begins:)

The scene is a military ballroom.
The gallant and fair are the dancers;
But who's the brunette,
Who with eyes black as jet,
Fascinates all the guards and the lancers?

She's Olga Pulloffski, the beautiful spy,
The gay continental rapscallion.
Some say that she's Russian
And some say she's French,
But her accent is gin and Italian.

Shame on you, shame on you! Oh, fie, fie!
Olga Pulloffski, you beautiful spy!

She waltzes around with the general,
And while on the floor they go whirling.
She robs the old sport
Of the plans of the fort
And she'll sell them for ten-million sterling.

Olga Pulloffski, the beautiful spy
Will soon make him know what disgrace is.
She'll leave him with only
His top boots and spurs
And his pair of red, white and blue braces.

Shame on you, shame on you! Oh, fie, fie!
Olga Pulloffski, you beautiful spy!

(Bell chimes once)
(Voice announcing the time in ringing tones:)
Twelve o'clock and all's well.

(Voice echoing the other voice:)
Twelve o'clock and all's weeeeeellll!!

The secrets of our Tower of London
She sold to some great foreign power.
It was not Anne Boleyn
Who at midnight was seen
Walking round in the Adjective Tower.

'Twas Olga Pulloffski, the beautiful spy.
The Beefeater she bribed with kisses
Would willingly've given her all the crown jewels,
But he'd lent them that night to the missus.

Shame on you, shame on you! Oh, fie, fie!
Olga Pulloffski, you beautiful spy!

At last she was caught and court-martialled.
The Colonel said, "We hate to hurt you.
Of course, it's all rot,
But you've got to be shot."
And she powdered her nose and said, "Good show!"

She's Olga Pulloffski, the beautiful spy.
The firing squad tenderly kissed her.
Then the Captain said, "Fire!"
When the smoke cleared away,
They hollered, "Hooray! We've missed her!"

She is too young and too fair to die,
Olga Pulloffski, the beautiful spy.

Shame on you, shame on you! Oh, fie, fie!
Olga Pulloffski, you beautiful spy!

{As sung by Len Bermon & Henry Hall.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,tenbears
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 12:56 PM

You folk are wonderful - I've been after the song for thirty years!
I know the tune but have no way to communicate it, I'm afraid! Thanks yet again!

Tenbears

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 03:55 PM

tenbears, check out the ABC format, a simple way to specify tunes in plain text.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Flash Company
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 09:41 AM

Nice to see the whole of the thing, puts a chidhood memory into focus, and that is going back a loooooong way!

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 06:42 PM

I was searching for America, the Beautiful and ended up with this thread. I thought it deserved to be refreshed. Anybody know where I can find a recording of this song?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,Karen Anderson
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 04:25 PM

I do have a recording of it, if only I can find it. It's a CD from a tape, possibly sung onto that tape or possibly recorded from a 78 disc -- the singer is a Dane, Jens Christian Hostrup, who was a cousin of my late mother-in-law.

There are quite a few songs on the CD that I want to hear again. I'd better get started. Real Soon Now.

--Karen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 02:20 PM

What a treasure!

Anyone else curious about this line:

"Walking round in the Adjective Tower."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 03:17 PM

Charming song, I like it. It is not difficult to find an MP3 of it in the 'net.

"Adjective" normally stands for some unsingable adjective of two syllables, but here it takes three notes. Also, what is so adjective about the Tower? There are lines in the lyrics that are much funnier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 03:55 PM

It's a 'polite' version of The Bloody Tower, which is part of The Tower of London.

Weston and Lee also wrote "With her head tucked underneath her arm" in which Anne Boleyn "walks the Bloody Tower". Reportedly, the BBC were happy to hear it sung with a northern accent, but got hot under the collar when it was sung in a Cockney accent because it sounded like the swearing they heard in the London streets. So 'Adjective' is an in-joke by the writers.

Georgina

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 06:10 PM

I see, Georgina; thanks for putting me/us on the track! Perhaps one could speak of a "mock bowdlerization".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 06:21 PM

Thank you Grishka - "Mock bowdlerisation" sums it up perfectly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 10:42 AM

Georgina and Grishka-

Excellent "case" presentation!

Thanks for the clarification of "Adjective."

Weston and Lee were quite the team and probably deserve their own dedicated thread. I suspect they were also responsible for one of my other favorite songs "The Pearl Diver" which shares a chorus with "'While the Rich Man Drives By" which is definitely composed by them.

I'm surprised that I've not been able to find a photo of the two of them in my searches of the internet.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jan 18 - 11:33 PM

I found a recording of Olga Pulloffski, the Beautiful Spy" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lsM3TNj9EU

It's downright inspiring.

There's a better recording, but it probably won't play in the UK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUVJQf7jxgI

-Joe-