CDs: Senator Claghorn Takes Broadway

Johnny Mercer has the odd distinction of having written the lyrics for two Broadway musicals with the word "l'il" in the title. In 1956, it was the hit Li'l Abner, with music by Gene de Paul. Seven years earlier, it was the moderate success Texas, Li'l Darlin', which played 293 performances at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.

The 1949 show was a spoof of politics and romance set in present-day Texas, and its star was Kenny Delmar, known throughout the country as Southern Senator Claghorn, a fictional character on Fred Allen's popular radio show. Claghorn's catchphrase: "It's a joke, son." In Texas, L'il Darlin', Delmar played a similar role, Texas Senator Hominy Smith, who campaigns on a platform of state pride. Things get complicated because Hominy's eldest daughter, Dallas Mary Hatcher, is romantically involved with Hominy's election rival, war veteran Easy Jones Danny Scholl. Inserted in the Texas, Li'l Darlin' Playbills was a flyer urging audience members to vote for Easy Jones, "not that he's such a wonderful candidate, but he's sure a lot better than that slippery old crook Hominy Smith." Also involved in the antics is a Life-type magazine publisher Loring Smith who is scouting Hominy as a possible Republican candidate for President.

Something of a combination of Of Thee I Sing-style satire with the rural charm of Oklahoma!, Texas, Li'l Darlin' had a book by John Whedon and Sam Moore, who had written another popular radio program, "The Great Gildersleeve." It was the first musical for composer Robert Emmett Dolan; Mercer had already written St. Louis Woman with Harold Arlen. Fifteen years after Texas, Li'l Darlin', Mercer and Dolan would reunite for the nifty score for the Bert Lahr vehicle Foxy.

Texas, Li'l Darlin''s romantic leads each had one previous Broadway outing: Scholl had sung in Call Me Mister, while Hatcher had played Laurey on tour and in the New York version of Oklahoma! Texas, Li'l Darlin' had an unusual genesis for the time: It was first produced in summer stock, at the Westport Country Playhouse, where flop-prone producer Anthony Brady Farrell Ankles Aweigh saw it and picked it up for Broadway, putting it into the theatre he owned.

Reviews were mixed. But the show, which managed to earn quotes like "a bright, cheerful, entertaining show" Watts, Post and "a big, brash, bountiful musical carnival" Barnes, Herald Tribune, became a sleeper success, managing to survive almost long enough for Broadway to welcome a better political romance, Call Me Madam.

Decca's cast album of Texas, Li'l Darlin' did not preserve all of the show's songs. Like the last Decca Broadway cast recording release, Mexican Hayride, Texas, Li'l Darlin' was an eight-number album, originally issued on four 78s, later on a ten-inch LP, and still later as one side of a Columbia Special Products twelve-inch LP combined with Mexican Hayride.

The recording opens with a catchy title song, followed by a cute counterpoint duet for the senator and his daughter, "The Yodel Blues." Next are three numbers for Scholl: a pleasant romantic duet with Hatcher "A Month of Sundays"; the amiably jaunty cowboy ditty "Hootin' Owl Trail"; and a showstopper, in which the afterlife is depicted as "The Big Movie Show in the Sky."

Delmar's senator and Smith's magazine publisher offer a cynical comment on "Politics." Daughter Hatcher has a comic courtship number with the publisher's aide Fredd Wayne, who went on to play Luther Billis in the London South Pacific, "Affable, Balding Me." And the finale introduces the upbeat "It's Great to Be Alive."

One of the more obscure Broadway titles in the show catalogues, Texas, Li'l Darlin' may not be particularly distinguished, but it's quite pleasant. And Hatcher's singing is an intriguing combination of soprano and belter.

For its CD premiere, which comes out tomorrow, Decca Broadway has paired Texas, Li'l Darlin' with another Johnny Mercer item, the soundtrack album from You Can't Run Away from It, the rarely seen 1956 CinemaScope/technicolor remake of the classic It Happened One Night. Taking the roles played in 1934 by Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were Jack Lemmon and June Allyson, with Jim Backus and Stubby Kaye also present, under the direction of Allyson's husband, Dick Powell.

The songs for You Can't Run Away from It were by the Li'l Abner team of Mercer and composer Gene de Paul, who had already written the songs for a superior film musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The brief soundtrack album features several versions of the title song; a ballet; and three numbers featuring Allyson and Lemmon, the best of which is led by Kaye, of Li'l Abner. Curiously, Lemmon's singing voice is more appealing than that of musical regular Allyson.

This extremely obscure mini-album makes a fine Mercer bonus. Coming in a month's time from Decca Broadway: another one of its brief, ten-inch-LP titles, Nancy Walker in Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!

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