You're gonna whimper like a pup the day I catch up with you

Wallflowers looking, and smelling, gorgeous.

After another busy weekend's humping and shifting [oo-er, Missus!], including plants, pots, troughs, clods of earth, and two loads of compost and a big bag of gravel from the shops, the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers are progressing nicely - but I am aching like bugger, and in no mood to haul my carcass off to work.

Hey ho - some things are destined to cheer us up, such as the weirdly amusing news that a man in Indiana [where else? This could only happen in the USA] is suing his parents for $87,000 because they threw out his porn collection...

...and, on this Tacky Music Monday, a song-and-dance number from the original pin-up girl [a not-quite-appropriate-link to the above story, but it'll do], Miss Betty Grable!

Betty Grable (with Hermes Pan) - Once Too Often (from the film Pin Up Girl)

Have a good week, dear reader.

Diamond Horseshoes a-go-go

Bloody Mondays. Hate them - and even more so when one's journey to work is impeded by a combination of mad people going shopping in rush hour, children and broken-down buses (wrong kind of fog, or something, I expect).

Let's get something jolly on, and forget all about it for a moment...

...on this Tacky Music Monday, how about a bizarre number by tomorrow's birthday girl Miss Betty Grable?!

Betty Grable - Welcome!

That'll do nicely.

Have a good week, dear reader!

Down boy

Groan. I am aching in places where I didn't even realise I had places - after a busy weekend of scrubbing, sorting, boxing-up, and making a start on clearing out the excess stuff in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

Now, as we awake in the darkness, it is pissing with rain, which makes getting up for work just that little bit more joyful. Sigh.

Never mind, eh? - on this Tacky Music ("Blue") Monday, let's cheer ourselves up with dear Betty Grable, living out every gay boy's fantasies (dressing outrageously, behaving even more so), as she dreams of "A dozen husbands":

Betty Grable - Down Boy

Note to self: must get my hair done like that for our housewarming party.

Let Me Make You Smile

We really do need something to make us smile, after the horrors of this weekend.

What could be more diverting on this Tacky Music Monday than the combination of Miss Betty Grable, a bevy of loincloth-clad Muscle Marys and a rendition of Let Me Entertain You from Gypsy..?!

Betty Grable and Muscle Men - Let Me Entertain You (1959 TV special)

Diverting, indeed.

Have a good week!

Winter is freezing time, teasing time and squeezing time

It is the final countdown to the dreaded Festering Season, and still a whole week in work to go...

Let's get ourselves in the mood to get out there - in the full and certain knowledge that all week the shops will be rammed with panicked faces, there'll be queues everywhere, shelves will be cleared of all mince pies (good! - they are horrid) and tinsel, zillions of overpriced box sets of scent'n'soap will be lying damaged on the floor of Superdrug, and on every tannoy Mariah Carey will be playing. I hate this time of year.

Never mind - on this Tacky Music Monday, we have something far better to ease our jingling nerves (see what I did there?) - it's yesterday's centenarian Miss Betty Grable and her Winter Show!

Betty Grable - Winter from Coney Island

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable (18th December 1916 – 2nd July 1973)

A lovely Dick

It would have been the birthday today of Mr Dick Haymes.

Who? I hear the youngsters out there ask...

Mr Haymes was quite simply one of the most popular singers of the Big Band era and beyond - in his day he was a genuine rival to the likes of Bing and Frank. As this clip proves, he certainly had the looks and vocal tone of what would latterly become known as "a heartthrob":

Dick Haymes - Do You Love Me?

Unfortunately, plagued by drink problems (and seemingly, a wandering eye - he married six times, once to Rita Hayworth), his career was never a straightforward success story, and, despite several attempts at "comebacks" in Europe and America, he died a largely forgotten man.

Such a shame.

But he and Betty Grable made a good go of it when they got together again on a 1970s variety TV show:

Dick Haymes and Betty Grable - The More I See You

Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes (13th September 1918 – 28th March 1980)

We're not lost at sea, dear

Another day, another centenary...

One hundred years ago, the dancer, singer and actor Dan Dailey was born. Largely neglected in many a list of famous Hollywood "names", nevertheless he had a pivotal role in many of the big musical films of the 1940s and 50s.

He performed with a glittering array of our icons, including the Andrews Sisters, Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Merman, Mitzi Gaynor, Dolores Grey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Eve Arden, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner - but it is his enduring on-screen partnership with Miss Betty Grable to which we turn to cheer us up on this Tacky Music Monday. Here's a double-bill of their numbers...

We're a Couple of Broadway Brothers and Kokomo, Indiana (from Mother Wore Tights):

Dan Dailey and Betty Grable in And Mother Wore Tights

Don't Rock The Boat, Dear (from My Blue Heaven):



Daniel James "Dan" Dailey, Jr. (14th December 1915 – 16th October 1978)

Shimmy!

On this day, 105 years ago, Miss Betty Grable - the original "Forces Sweetheart", the pin-up that every GI in the Second World War lusted after, was born.

On this Tacky Music Monday, we celebrate the divine Miss G with one of her typically risqué numbers, from a long-forgotten film called Wabash Avenue:

Betty Grable - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Have a good (last) week - the big break is on its way!

Betty Grable on IMDB

Down Mexico way...

Ah, the discoveries I make when trawling the delights of the interwebs!

On this Tacky Music Monday, here's a real treat to brighten the start of another week of work-type drudgery - it has it all! Betty Grable, cha-cha music, dancing boys, and the most remarkable Hollywood-does-Mexico fashions this side of Busby Berkeley... Enjoy!

Betty Grable - In Acapulco

[Thanks to the lovely Thombeau for this one.]

I can change your temperature from hot to cold

As we celebrate the 90th birthday of the phenomenal legend George Shearing (read my blog for the great man's birthday last year), I have discovered a most spectacular version of one of the jazz standards that George made his own.

I'm sure he was quite happy when Miss Betty Grable decided to put some of her singular va-va-voom into How come you do me like you do?...

Betty Grable - How come you do me like you do?