April 20, 1935: Splish Splash, Snooky Was Taking a Bath

A music staple of the 40s and 50s, Your Hit Parade, made its radio debut on April 20, 1935. It lasted for nearly 25 years before being done in by rock and roll music – and perhaps Snooky Lanson. It began as a 60-minute program with 15 songs played in a random format, and eventually moved to television where the seven top-rated songs of the week were presented each week in elaborate production numbers requiring constant set and costume changes.  The list of top songs was compiled through a closely guarded top secret algorithm that involved record sales, quarters plunked into jukeboxes, shoplifted sheet music and the divination of an unidentified mystic in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dorothy Collins , Russell Arms, Snooky Lanson and Gisèle MacKenzie were top-billed during the show’s peak years. And Lucky Strike cigarettes starred throughout its run.

As the rock and roll era took over, the program’s chief fascination became seeing a singer like Snooky Lanson struggle with songs like Splish Splash and Hound Dog.

Would Snooky Make a Good Macbeth

Although Shakespeare’s Macbeth was written in 1606, the first record of a performance was at the Globe Theater on April 20, 1611, although chances are there were  a few out-of-town tryouts earlier.  Shakespeare’s tragedy is one of the most performed and one of the shortest.  It has in its 413-year history made a lot of contributions to the English culture and picked up some interesting baggage.  One of the most noted of the latter is the Macbeth curse: speaking the name of the play in the theater is inviting a grim reckoning.  It is always referred to as “the Scottish play.”  No one knows exactly why there is a curse, but it has been suggested that the witches’ spells used in the play were real. They were taken from a book on demonology written by King James I, either to suck up to the king or to poke fun at his belief in witchcraft. Were some unfortunate to slip up and utter the word Macbeth, he or she must immediately leave the room, turn around three times, spit, say Donald Trump, then beg to be re-admitted.

“Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.”  No, Snooky would make a better witch.