Lydia the Tattooed Lady
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"Lydia the Tattooed Lady", which became one of Groucho Marx's signature tunes, was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, and first appeared in the movie At the Circus (1939). The lyrics make many contemporary references to topical personalities such as Grover Whalen.
Amongst the items, persons, and scenes tattooed on Lydia's body are the Battle of Waterloo (on her back), The Wreck of the Hesperus (besides it, referencing the poem by Henry Longfellow), the red, white and blue (above them); the cities of Kankakee and "Paree", Washington Crossing the Delaware, Andrew Jackson, Niagara Falls, Alcatraz (on a clear day), Buffalo Bill, a Picasso, Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon River, Lady Godiva but with her pajamas on, Grover Whalen, the Trylon, Treasure Island, Nijinsky, a fleet of ships (on her hips), and Lydia's own Social Security number.
- In the 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story, Dinah Lord (played by Virginia Weidler) sings the song.
- Features on a Stubby Kaye 45 from 1961 seemingly recorded live. Stubby uses the original lyrics and his cheeky delivery is closer to the Groucho style.
- In January 1976, Kermit the Frog sang this song, complete with a Muppet version of Lydia, on the second episode of The Muppet Show, which featured Connie Stevens as the guest star.
- Maxwell Klinger sang part of this song on M*A*S*H.
- The song was also sung by Robin Williams in the 1991 film The Fisher King. In that version, the reference to Andrew Jackson is changed to Michael Jackson.
- As lyricist Harburg explains, the final stanza originally contained the lyrics "When she stands her lap gets lit'ler/When she sits, she sits on Hitler"; the lines were removed because the studio feared the song would sound too dated. On some subsequent radio appearances, Groucho sang the song in its entirety.
- It has been recorded by Michael Feinstein (with the additional lyrics, i.e., "When she stands, the world gets littler; when she sits, she sits on HITLER!") and more recently by Joan Morris (accompanied by her pianist-composer husband, William Bolcom, using Harburg's lyrics as written).
- In the 1995 Disney comic “The Treasury of Croesus”[1] by Don Rosa, Donald Duck sings the song throughout the comic. This is a pun on the ancient kingdom of Lydia — as Donald asks whether King Croesus really existed, his uncle Scrooge asks him if he has never heard about Lydia, to which Donald replies that he learned all about Lydia on last night's late movie. When asked to share his newfound knowledge, he starts singing Lydia the Tattooed Lady.
- Midwesterners may note that in Groucho's New York accented way of singing the song, it sounds like he is singing, "Lydiar, oh, Lydia". It also sounds like he's saying "you can loyn (learn) a lot from Lydia."
