Richard, that's a song, isn't it, as opposed to an instrumental waltz. I don't know what it is, but it sounds like 1900-1920, and I know a man who would.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/staff/ds/

There is no popular song of the period that this man does not know. A colleague of friend Biroc, too!

Ah yes - good luck with the gig, rb!

Richard,

I got in touch with internet colleague author/discographer Paul Charosh who immediately identified the tune as


"The Door of Her Dreams", from Rudolph Friml's operetta "Rose Marie" (1924).

(might sometimes be listed as "Door Of My Dreams")


a Paul Charosh link


John

Hi, Richard & John.     Here's my tuppenceworth; in old currency, providing John's hunch is correct.  I couldn't get the 'lead' on my PC.

I've had a look a my Kurt Ganzl's Blackwell Guide to Musical Theatre on Record for quick reference and, surprisingly, immediately traced a recommended recording of Friml's "Rose Marie", on my shelves, next to a paperback of Edmund Wilson's 'Proust' memoirs - I'll leave you to talk among yourselves about the implications!  Could it be 'The mountie always gets his man'?

This recording on RCA, from the late 1950s. has Julie Andrews, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederick Harvey - all in fine voice - but the blot on the Canadian landscape is the Mike Sammes Singers, amusingly redolent of the era of the recording.   My recording is on CD-R from a well-used LP; a real collector's item.

However, gentlemen, if you'd like a copy with my complements, please pm me.   Select CD-R, or minidisc.

             "Now at last the door to our dreams
              is swinging wide..."     

     Me - camping it up?       MOI?      Shame on you, DB.   

         "Of all the queens I ever met, I choose you,
          O Rosie, my Rose Marie."

See, this is one of the many reasons I like this board. Yesterday, Richard posts a request to identify a pretty obscure ditty. Less than 24 hours later, John has had it identified by an expert colleague. And in the last few hours tons of intriguing info about it has dribbled in from John, Don and Stanley. Astounding.   

   I did an extra recording of the 1958 "Rose Marie" earlier this evening and was delighted to remember how musicals, usually in 3 Acts, used to finish each act with an ensemble which would reprise the musical highlights and also remind the audiences of precisely the stage at where the simple-minded plots had reached.    Rather like Snooker highlights on BBC 2, followed by Snooker Extra.   Julie Andrews, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederick Harvey blend so well in these ensembles.  The two MGM film versions, 1936 and 1954, hacked several charming musical numbers;  Pretty Things, Lak Jeem and Minuet of the Minute but gave Jeanette MacDonald the Jewel Song  (Faust) as a sop.  Julie Andrews floats, quite exquistely, Door of my Dreams - she was playing Eliza Doolittle at Drury Lane at the time of this recording and the purity of her voice was at its finest.

I also recall the 1960 production at the Victoria Palace with Stephanie Voss in the title role and David Whitfield as Jim.  Oh, dear.  The mounties entered to line-up down stage but gradually decreased, in size, until the last one could have been Ronnie Corbett.    The set was a bit cluttered and, on their exit, they had to mark time to get offstage.   I hadn't seen anything so deliciously funny until a clearly camp movement group, straight out of 'Beyond Our Ken' swished onstage at the end  Act 1 of "Tristan & Isolde" at The Coli and reduced a hushed house to sheer delirium - the 'sailors' were all sacked the same night, I'm told.   Reggie Goodall was stricken with disbelief.  I still wonder who attended the run-through!