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How About You?

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland

I recorded this sweet song as part on an hour-long program of music written for — or strongly identified with — Judy Garland.

It was written by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed for her and Mickey Rooney to perform in the 1941 MGM movie BABES ON BROADWAY.

I learned from Wikipedia that the lyricist, Ralph Freed, was the baby brother of producer/lyricist Arthur Freed, who co-wrote the song “This Heart Of Mine” which I featured in a recent blog post,

Having spent a fair amount of time — especially during the summer — in Manhattan as a child and teenager, I savor all of the geographical references in the lyrics.

I only wish they had mentioned Chock Full o’ Nuts, my favorite place to get a burger (with ketchup, mustard and relish) plus a big orange drink — which was a mixture of orange juice, sugar and water, I think, churning endlessly in a big, glass dispenser until it was sold to thirsty customers.

Chock Full o’ Nuts started during the roaring ’20s as a chain of — no surprise — nut shops.

But when the Depression hit, the owner William Black pivoted and turned his stores into lunch counters where — according to Wikipedia — one could buy a cup of coffee and a cream-cheese-with-chopped-nuts sandwich for five cents.

Jackie Robinson with a fellow Chock Full o’ Nuts employee

And his coffee proved to be so popular that he started selling it for people to make at home or in their office.

William Black — whose last name was originally Schwartz (which means black in Yiddish) — seems to have been a somewhat progressive employer.

Most of his company’s cooks and waitstaff were African-American, and when baseball superstar Jackie Robinson retired from playing, he became a vice president and director of personnel at Chock Full o’ Nuts.

Mr. Black was married to two female singers (not at the same time…) who performed his company’s radio and TV jingles. His second wife also became very involved with their family’s philanthropic efforts.

They gave millions of dollars to medical research and helped to start the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

And there is even a William Black medical research building at Columbia University’s medical center (Mr. Black was a Columbia alum…)

But back to “How About You?”.

Burton Lane

Burton Lane was a very successful composer — originally from Manhattan — who worked at various movie studios in California.

Interspersed with his time in Hollywood, he co-wrote songs for Broadway shows including FINIAN’S RAINBOW (with Yip Harberg) and ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (with Alan Jay Lerner).

He is also one of several people who claim credit for bringing Judy Garland to the attention of the powers-that-be at MGM after he saw her perform with her two older sisters at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.

So not only do we have Mr. Lane to thank for the great songs he co-wrote, we also can (at least partially) thank him for helping to bring Judy Garland and her extraordinary gifts as a performer to a much wider audience.

I would also like to thank Doug Hammer for his playful piano impulses and painstaking production skills as well as Stephen C. Fischer for his patient and collaborative graphic design work.

If you’d like to stream our version of “How About You?” you can click here.

Every stream, every “like,” and every “save” encourages the mysterious algorithms of the digital music platforms to share a recording with other potential listeners.

Here’s the graphic for “How About You?” which features what was probably my last professional headshot as a teen performer in NYC.

One final note…

As I was drafting this blog post, the New York Knicks were engaged in an extraordinary series of basketball games which culminated in them becoming NBA champions.

I especially like New York in June when the Knicks win the NBA playoffs after a 53 year drought!

How about you?

Although I am not a big basketball fan, I became swept up in the drama and virtuosity of the NBA playoffs.

Twice I went to bed early — thinking the Knicks had lost — and awoke to discover that they had triumphed.

Wow!

Oh, me of little faith…

Since their victory, I have been savoring the enthusiasm of the Knicks’ fans — in NYC and around the country.

Jalen Brunson

And I love what one of their star players Jalen Brunson said following their record-breaking comeback from 29 points down to win game four.

“You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you gotta go out there and do something about it.”

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Those are great words to live by…

Thank you, Knicks, for bringing millions of us — from many different political and cultural and ethnic backgrounds — together during this challenging time here on planet earth.

You gave — and continue to give — us hope and joy and inspiration.

And THANK YOU to everyone who is willing to read and listen to yet another one of my blog posts.

30 thoughts on “How About You?”

  1. Good morning, Will! You covered a lot of material in this post–teenage you, Chock Full O’Nuts, Judy Garland and on to the Knicks! The song seems made for you to sing–delightful! I had no idea about the history of Chock Full O’Nuts, a fun rabbit hole. I don’t think I was ever inside one, but I do remember the coffee.

    I don’t follow sports at all, but I love how the Knicks won (after losing when you know who attended) and brought the city and some of the nation together. Heather Cox Richardson quoted some of Mayor Mamdani’s speech–as well as Michelle Obama’s–in a recent post.

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    • I look forward to hearing that particular HCR segment. I save them all and listen in clusters… Hurrah for an event (or rather a series of events) which “brought the city and some of the nation together! ps: Chock Full o’ Nuts was a big treat to indulge in after — or interspersed with — an afternoon of interviews for TV commercials, voice-overs and/or modeling jobs. Then at the end of the day, we’d hop on the #7 train to Flushing and then a bus to my grandmother’s house on the edge of Flushing and Bayside.

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      • I and my siblings were usually accompanied by an adult (mom or grandma) when we headed into the city. But sometimes we got to be independent. I spent a fair amount of time wandering around Times Square (pre-Disnification) by myself as a ten-year-old between the matinee and evening performances of PIPPIN on Wednesdays and Saturdays, for example. I saw all sorts of interesting people and ate all sorts of interesting food.

      • Although some historians speak about the early to mid 70s being a time when NYC was somewhat scruffy/dangerous (and I think it may have come close to bankruptcy in 1975), that was when I was working the most and gaining some independence/autonomy. So I think back very fondly about those years — and blessedly I was never mugged or molested.

      • You probably seemed very self-confident. I was a teen then, and I remember going to Philadelphia and walking around on my own, and sometimes no one even knew I had gone. Scary now when I think about it!

      • Yes, we had a LOT of independence — for better and for worse — in our childhood and teen years compared with most children/teens/young adults today. One of my sisters has an app on her phone which helps her to confirm where her college-attending son is located (and it even can measure how fast a car he is riding in is going…) My parents did advise me always to walk confidently and look like I knew where I was going (even if I was a bit lost…) Maybe that helped keep me from being mugged!

  2. Thanks for another rousing song and music history Will. I had no idea about Chock Full O’Nuts, other than the name. I’m glad you and others have enjoyed the knicks historic win. To diversity, sharing, and trying our best.

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  6. WHAT an awesome post! Burton Lane rented the house opposite us one summer on Fire Island. His daughter was my age. I was so in awe of his being a Broadway composer, but I got the feeling she didn’t think much of that life. I wondered if maybe that was because her parents were divorced. I guess home life isn’t always great in that world. PS Do bring Lane’s songs on tour!

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  7. Will, this was such a wonderful post! Thank you for the detailed ‘story’, especially learning about William Black and Chock Full ‘o Nuts, and his starting the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. I am overwhelmed at what he did. And thank you to Burton Lane for bringing great songs, and for bringing Judy Garland into the limelight.

    Reply

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