{"id":1968,"date":"2025-05-06T14:34:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:52:31","slug":"flanigan-and-allen-1937","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/2025\/05\/06\/flanigan-and-allen-1937\/","title":{"rendered":"Flanigan And Allen &#8211; 1937"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Columbia-FB1781.jpg\" alt=\"Columbia FB 1781 label image &quot;Free (Isn;t It The Way It Ought To Be?&quot; Flanigan and Allen\" width=\"475\" height=\"470\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1969\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Columbia-FB1781.jpg 475w, https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Columbia-FB1781-300x297.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Background information about the recordings can be found below the audio selections.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 31px;\">\n<td style=\"background-color: #f2ebeb; padding-left: 40px; height: 31px; width: 628px;\">\u201cFree (Isn&#8217;t It The Way It Ought To Be?)\u201d<br \/>\nFlanagan And Allen, vocal<br \/>\n1937\u00a0 \u00a0 (Columbia FB 1781 mx CA 16606)<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1968-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Free-Isnt-It-The-Way-It-Ought-To-Be.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Free-Isnt-It-The-Way-It-Ought-To-Be.mp3\">https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Free-Isnt-It-The-Way-It-Ought-To-Be.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 13px;\">\n<td style=\"height: 13px; width: 628px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 31px;\">\n<td style=\"background-color: #f2ebeb; padding-left: 40px; height: 31px; width: 628px;\">\u201cHome Town\u201d<br \/>\nFlanagan And Allen, vocal<br \/>\n1937\u00a0 \u00a0 (Columbia FB 1781 mx CA 16605)<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1968-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Home-Town.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Home-Town.mp3\">https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flanagan-And-Allen-Home-Town.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here are two recordings by the British comedy duo <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bud_Flanagan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bud Flanigan<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chesney_Allen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Chesney Allen<\/a>, who were immensely popular in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s for their stand-alone comedy act and for being members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crazy_Gang_(comedy_group)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crazy Gang<\/a> comedy troupe.<\/p>\n<p>Flanigan and Allen performed both of these songs in musicals featuring the Crazy Gang produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Black_(producer)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">George Black<\/a> at the<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/London_Palladium\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> London Palladium<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFree (Isn&#8217;t It The Way It Ought To Be?)\u201d<\/em> was performed by Flanigan and Allen in the Crazy Gang&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lovetheatreprogrammes.co.uk\/product\/1936-london-palladium-o-kay-sound\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1936 London Palladium production<\/a> <em>O-Kay For Sound<\/em>, which was subsequently made into a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/O-Kay_for_Sound\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1937 film of the same name<\/a> in which they also performed the song.<\/p>\n<p>The song&#8217;s reference to LSD, by the way, has nothing to do with the drug, which was not invented until a year later, but rather to<em> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C2%A3sd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a3sd<\/a><\/em>, a popular name for Britain&#8217;s old pounds, shillings, and pence currency which existed until 1971 when it switched to its current decimal currency.<\/p>\n<p>I think this recording is incredibly catchy and charming.\u00a0 When I first came across it in my collection, I immediately played it back several times.<\/p>\n<p>The film version of <em>O-Kay For Sound<\/em> can be watched in its entirety on YouTube<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/RrvQPVd2Oaw?si=HvhjOE-fa-3SHOAu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> at this link<\/a>. You can see Flanigan and Allen perform<em> &#8220;Free (Isn&#8217;t It The Way It Ought To Be?)&#8221;<\/em> by scrolling to 10 minutes and 10 seconds into the film.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHome Town\u201d<\/em> comes from the Crazy Gang&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lovetheatreprogrammes.co.uk\/product\/2290\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1937 London Palladium production<\/a>, <em>London Rhapsody<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Both recordings are accompanied by a studio band directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Scott-Wood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">George Scott Wood<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two 1937 recordings by the British comedy duo Flanigan And Allen of songs they performed as members of the Crazy Gang comedy troupe in London Palladium productions of <em>O-Kay For Sound<\/em>, which was also made into a film, and <em>London Rhapsody<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/2025\/05\/06\/flanigan-and-allen-1937\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":65,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,55,53,54,50,51,52],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1930s","tag-british-film-music","tag-british-recordings","tag-british-stage-music","tag-bud-flanigan","tag-chesney-allen","tag-flanigan-and-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1981,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/1981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}