Lyr Req: Hello I Must Be Going ('Animal Crackers')

Subject: Lyr Add: HELLO I MUST BE GOING ('Animal Crackers')
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 01:54 PM

In the film, HELLO I MUST BE GOING is continuous with HOORAY FOR CAPTAIN SPALDING, so I present them both.

Most of the following script is from Animal Crackers, book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1929, 1956), page 18ff – but I added a few lines from Groucho: a Life in Revue by Arthur Marx, Robert Fisher (New York: Samuel French, 1988), page 37ff – to make the script agree with the film clip at YouTube.

CAPTAIN SPALDING (Groucho Marx):
Hello—I must be going.
I cannot stay.
I came to say
I must be going.
I'm glad I came,
But just the same,
I must be going.
La, la!

MRS. RITTENHOUSE (Margaret Dumont):
For my sake you must stay.
If you should go away,
You'd spoil this party I am throwing.

SPALDING: I'll stay a week or two.
I'll stay the summer through,
But I am telling you,
I must be going.

ENSEMBLE: Before you go, will you oblige us
And tell us of your deeds so glowing?

SPALDING: I'll do anything you say.
In fact I'd even stay.

ENSEMBLE: Good!

SPALDING: But I must be going.

[SPALDING STARTS TO EXIT. JAMISON BRINGS HIM BACK.]

JAMISON (Zeppo Marx): There's something that I'd like to say
That he's too modest to relay:
The captain is a moral man.
Sometimes he finds it trying.

SPALDING: This fact I'll emphasize with stress:
I never take a drink unless
Somebody's buying.

ENSEMBLE: The captain is a very moral man.

JAMISON: If he hears anything obscene,
He'll naturally repel it.

SPALDING: I hate a dirty joke, I do,
Unless it's told by someone who
Knows how to tell it.

ENSEMBLE: The captain is a very moral man.
Hooray for Captain Spalding,
The African explorer!

SPALDING: Did someone call me schnorrer?

ENSEMBLE: Hooray, hooray, hooray!

[SPALDING DANCES]

JAMISON: He went into the jungle
Where all the monkeys throw nuts.

SPALDING: If I stay here, I'll go nuts.

ENSEMBLE: Hooray, hooray, hooray!
[SPALDING DANCES]
He put all his reliance
In courage and defiance
And risked his life for science.

SPALDING: Hey, hey!

MRS. RITTENHOUSE: He is the only white man
Who's covered every acre.

{SPALDING: I think I'll try and make her.}*

ENSEMBLE: Hooray, hooray, hooray!
[SPALDING DANCES]
He put all his reliance
In courage and defiance
And risked his life for science.

SPALDING: Hey, hey!

ENSEMBLE: Hooray for Captain Spalding,
The African explorer!
He brought his name undying fame
And that is why we say:
Hooray, hooray, hooray!


[* make = seduce. This line was used in the 1928 Broadway musical, but the studio censors objected to it, so it was omitted from the 1930 film, leaving "acre" without a rhyme. Do you suppose the writers and actors deliberately left the "acre" line unchanged, to make the omission more obvious to those who knew the play? I can imagine them doing this as a subtle protest against censorship.]

Subject: Groucho Marx
From:
Date: 05 Mar 97 - 01:28 PM

Can anyone save me the price of renting the old Marx Brothers movie to get the lyrics for "I Must be Going"? Thanks in advance,

I must be going,

Scott