Wednesday, July 10, 2013

At the Music Hall: Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland, 1910





Since we didn't get a Music Hall song last Saturday, I thought I'd offer up another  look at this American classic.




Meet me tonight in dreamland,

Under the silv'ry moon.
Meet me tonight in dreamland,
Where love's sweet roses bloom.

Come with the love light gleaming
In your dear eyes of blue.
Meet me in dreamland,
Sweet, dreamy dreamland,
There let my dreams come true.

Meet me tonight in dreamland,
Under the silv'ry moon.
Meet me tonight in dreamland,
Where love's sweet roses bloom.

Come with the love light gleaming
In you dear eyes of blue.
Meet me in dreamland,
Sweet, dreamy dreamland,
There let my dreams come true.


This popular song ranked at the very top of the charts in November 1910. Popularized by singer Reine Davies, the song was a resounding success.  Davies was known as "The New American Beauty.”  Others of you may better know the song as sung by another American beauty--Judy Garland in the 1949 movie, "In the Good Old Summertime.”   


A waltz, with emotionally-chared lyrics, the song was written by Beth Slater Whitson and Leo Friedman who saw it published in Chicago in 1909. Friedman and Whitson sold the rights to the song to the largest publisher in Chicago, Will Rossiter. 

An enduring favorite, “ Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” will forever be connected, mistakenly, with the opening of Coney Island's Dreamland.  Coney Island’s Dreamland opened in 1904, five years before the song was written.  However, the location adopted the song as its own and many a crowd was known to have filled the air of Coney Island with the poignant lyrics.  



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