Today’s Doonesbury, with a musical allusion:
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Every little breeze seems to whisper “Louise.”
Birds in the trees seem to twitter “Louise.”
Each little rose
Tells me it knows I love you, love you.
Maurice Chevalier’s signature song, from the Paramount Picture The Innocents of Paris (1929), which you can listen to here (in is original version).
From Wikipedia:
“Louise” is a song written by Leo Robin & Richard A. Whiting for the 1929 film Innocents of Paris, where it was performed by Maurice Chevalier. The song was Maurice Chevalier’s first hit in the United States, and was among the best selling records for 10 weeks in the Summer of 1929.
Ben Pollack & His Central Park Orchestra and Bing Crosby also recorded the song in 1929. Crosby’s version was also a hit in the Summer of 1929.
(Over the years it’s been recorded by a great many others.)
On Chevalier, from Wikipedia:
Maurice Auguste Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including “Louise”, “Mimi”, “Valentine”, and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” and for his films, including The Love Parade and The Big Pond. His trademark attire was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo.
Chevalier was born in Paris. He made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age [12 or 13] before working in four menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic and a singer in l’Alcazar in Marseille, for which he received critical acclaim by French theatre critics. In 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre.
… When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris.
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