The Lambeth Walk

So my current Musings on Things Past focuses on a song with a very interesting story that continues to this day.  

In 1937, the show "Me and My Girl" opened on the West End in London to great critical and audience acclaim.  One song, in particular stood out.  

Written for a local street  that was once home to street markets and a lower socioeconomic class, the song "The Lambeth Walk" was an instant hit all over the world.   

But this song was more than just another number in a musical show.  It would pull together a nation together that was being torn apart by war.  It unified the world, as the dance became wildly popular in living rooms and ballrooms internationally.  It became the basis for a film that so infuriated the Third Reich that a certain innovative British filmmaker made it to the Nazi extermination list.  It even became the subject of a early British television in 1939 as the first televised musical ever and also the subject of the first music "remix" video!   
  
So what was it about this jaunty, rollicking tune with its simple innocent lyrics that would cause both unification and outrage?  

Other blogs have been written about the history of it, so this one will focus on the media presentations!  The most fun (I think)  version is this one from the 1987 revival of Me and My Girl.  This version stars Robert Lindsey as the main character; a cockney lad who is thrust into high society.  Just as he unifies two socioeconomic classes; the song did as well.  The joy of this rendition is absolutely contagious.  

As it would have it, art imitated life (or life would imitate art rather) and in the late 1930's, King George and young Queen Elizabeth attended a performance and even joined their voices in the cockney shouts of "Oi!" in the chorus of the song.  They confessed that they had been doing the Lambeth Walk the "wrong way - the ballroom way" and promised to do it "right" in the future! "  As you can see, the song was one of inclusion and the audience is also delighted to be included in that particular Youtube performance. 


As Germany crept through Europe, the "Lambeth Walk" took the world by storm.  Check this out!

Soldiers and their sweethearts doing the Lambeth Walk.  One signature move was a thrust of the thumb over the shoulder with an "Oi!" 

Small preschool aged children doing the Lambeth Walk and "Oi"!

The Lambeth Walk and dancers in New York City

Children in the slums of London demonstrate the Lambeth Walk for a photographer!

A French magazine taught ballroom dancers how to do the Lambeth Walk. 

Countless artists and swing bands in the United States and Europe did covers of the song. 

Here is the televised broadcast of the number from 1939 with the original West End cast!  How seriously cool is THIS!?  

The song and dance became not only a distraction as England entered the war but also lifted the spirits of a nation during a very bad time.

So now we get to the Hitler connection, as the song took on a new direction.  Hitler mentioned the song and dance in a speech as  "Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping".

In 1940, the Palace Theater where the show was still playing was bombed during the Blitz and the show was forced to close.

In 1942, Charles A Ridley, of the Ministry of Information would have a bit of sweet revenge.  He took the song and set it to footage of marching Gestapo troops and leaders and released it, uncredited, to newsreel companies, making it look like the Nazi armies were dancing the Lambeth Walk.   Decades before Youtube and Movie Maker, he had unknowingly created the first popular "REMIX" that would have gone viral had there been a Youtube at the time!  Its pretty hilarious.  When the film was shown to Nazi leaders, reportedly they cursed, shouted and stormed out of the room.   The result was that Ridley was put on a hit list for elimination should Germany occupy England.  

 Check it out!  

And since "everything old is new again" here at Kels Musings, the  Lambeth Walk story continues today.  This innovative Youtuber has created a modern version of the Ridley film starring North Korea and Kim Jong-un  doing the Lambeth Walk in the same style as the Ridley film,  This is some seriously funny stuff!  ' 

People today continue to dance the Lambeth Walk.  

So there you have the story of the Lambeth Walk.  I  hope you enjoy these videos and history of this fun song as much as I did!   If you even watched a couple of these videos, you no doubt have the song stuck in your head, so my apologies!  

Until next time.......

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Kel is the owner of SuburbanTreasure, an Etsy shop feature eclectic items celebrating the popular culture of the past decades.  Check us out at https://www.etsy.com/shop/suburbantreasure?