"Anatole of Paris"—The Making of a Song
The song “Anatole of Paris”—a narrative, witty, tuneful specialty song reminiscent of comic opera composers Gilbert and Sullivan—is truly indicative of Sylvia Fine’s distinctive compositional and lyrical style. Most of Fine’s music was written with Danny Kaye’s rapid-tongue vocal talents in mind and this early example was one of the lasting successes. At Camp Tamiment, in 1939, Kaye first performed the song about an eccentric milliner who makes outlandish hats for women in 1939. Soon after, it became the song that closed his act at the nightclub La Martinique in New York City. The song wove its way through his various stage shows, studio recordings, and was even featured in the Samuel Goldwyn film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).
The song “Anatole of Paris”—a narrative, witty, tuneful specialty song reminiscent of comic opera composers Gilbert and Sullivan—is truly indicative of Sylvia Fine’s distinctive compositional and lyrical style. Most of Fine’s music was written with Danny Kaye’s rapid-tongue vocal talents in mind and this early example was one of the lasting successes. At Camp Tamiment, in 1939, Kaye first performed the song about an eccentric milliner who makes outlandish hats for women in 1939. Soon after, it became the song that closed his act at the nightclub <em>La Martinique</em> in New York City. The song wove its way through his various stage shows, studio recordings, and was even featured in the Samuel Goldwyn film <em>The Secret Life of Walter Mitty</em> (1947).