I'll Take Manhattan 1929 song from Rodgers and Hart

[@Demendred]

I want to thank you for uploading this. It’s people like you that help keep the old music alive and well for newer generations to check out. Again, thank you.

[@citrine65]

Thanks for posting this! This song has been on my mind for the past few weeks. I sing it to my Mom who was born in 1916, it makes her smile. Sometimes I add different lyrics to make her laugh. Brings a tear to my eye when I imagine her a young girl in the NYC shown in this film .Classier times.

[@celestialskye1]

Deb Kelly God bless you! 👼

[@gerriepieters9033]

Theres this tv film called...MANHATTEN with the wife of Eddie van Halen..

[@jamespfitz]

​@@gerriepieters9033 Valerie Bertinelli

[@arthurharrison1345]

Whenever I'm in Manhattan, seeing many of the places mentioned always remind me of this song.

[@jimmeven1120]

I've never been closer than 3000 miles from Manhattan and I've always wondered what happens in Mott Street in July that makes it so special.

[@653j521]

@@jimmeven1120 Everyone out with their wares? I gather from Wikipedia it was Chinatown's main street.

[@Ryan-on5on]

@@jimmeven1120 In those long forgotten days of olde, 'Mott Street in July' would've been bustling with hundreds of street vendors selling their assorted wares from pushcarts.

[@cookieceo3938]

love this song. It was way before I was born. I am 76. I always sing this song when I miss NY. Live in FL now.

[@GeorgeTennesseeWiseman]

I have long adored the great Ella Fitzgerald's version of this wonderful tune but I was curious about it's inception and had read about the Garrick Gaities but couldn't find anything audio, or video, with Sterling Holloway and June Cochrane yet I am imagining that probably this is at least close to the way the song was originally staged. No matter, this version is utterly charming and a lovely glimpse of a New York City that has long since vanished.

[@feurigerStern]

The woman's voice is beautiful ❤

[@tracyfleming6331]

"Manhattan" was actually written for the stage revue The Garrick Gaieties in 1925, from which it emerged as Rodgers and Hart 's first big hit song.

[@tourguideStan]

Who was Garrick?

[@blanchdub]

@@tourguideStan It was actually the name of the theatre where the revue was staged: the Garrick Theatre, named after English actor David Garrick.

[@ElliotNesterman]

The song was introduced by the wonderful Sterling Holloway, best remembered by younger generations as the voice of Winnie the Pooh. Holloway also introduced their next big hit, "Mountain Greenery," in Garrick Gaieties of 1926.

[@androo4519]

Funny to hear this comedic version. Classic song. I'm used to Blossom Dearie's intimate and dreamy rendition which remains my favourite.

[@chuckhansen]

Abie’s Irish Rose is with more than 2300 performances still broadway’s longest running show, hence the joke that perhaps their newborn babies will finally see it close.

[@Jimbo700]

When I hear this song, all I ever think of is: "Seventy Seven, W A B C". This tune was the source of that famous radio jingle. In fact, the jingle company (Pams of Dallas) paid royalties to Rodgers for years and years, but none to Hart since they only used the melody, not the lyrics. Still, this IS a great tune!

[@rr92067]

The reference to Mott Street in July, aside from rhyming with "what street", was a reference to the fact that almost no one was in the heat of NYC in those July days. Even the poorest went to the beaches or the Catskills. The various locations mentioned were a form of nostalgia. The song appealed to rich and poor alike. I remember singing it during WWII, and was homesick for NYC for the first time, only because of the song.

[@jjakiefte2165]

That's quite touching!

[@jamesmcinnis208]

The "poorest" took vacations too? How lovely. I hope they brought along at least one servant.

[@Jasper7182009]

@@jamesmcinnis208…. Not funny.

[@jamesmcinnis208]

@@Jasper7182009 No, it's ludicrous. "The poorest" most certainly couldn't afford to go to the Catskills or Jones Beach for the day. That was sarcasm.

[@billsav57]

Ruth Tester is really cute in this; she has a little Gracie Allen in her here (see "Lambchoos") and she sings in that 1920s vaudeville style that is sassy yet endearing.

[@MrCrowebobby]

I thought it was like Gertrude Lawrence, but don't want to argue.

[@brentg3707]

truly charming couple singing a great song. thanks for posting

[@misterlarryb]

Wow, what a find! Classic! Landed here surfing for more info about the song "Manhattan," a.k.a. "We'll Have Manhattan," and how "I'll Take Manhattan" seems to be a variation on the original lyrics. I never knew the lyrics or the origin of this tune until today, only knowing the melody as a jazz standard from the proverbial Great American Songbook. Very funny lyrics, quite ironic! Wikipedia presents several of the inside NYC jokes as well. Oh yeah, "balmy breezes" wafting up from the subway?! Priceless! LOL! (2:58) "Why don't you go where you're looking?!" Thanks for this treasure!

[@morqavisstudios2937]

The Empire State building didn't even exist yet. The Woolworth building though.. beautiful ❤️

[@joybreeden366]

How fun...thanks for sharing this terrific song... I can't imagine seeing and hearing this for the first time....love it!

[@jurgenmartis6925]

The Supremes version is the best

[@insomniatique4214]

Seems that a lot of folks miss the irony and humor: shellfish don't have fins, Canarsie has no lakes, Delancey St. is far from fancy, Mott St. in July is hotter than hell etc. This lovely couple ends up in Flatbush hoping their future babies will outlive the eternally running Abie's Irish Rose. "The dreams of a boy and girl" is the same as original but the preceding line is changed to "the city's noises cannot dispel."

[@MichealHardy]

:')

[@wadelewis737]

​@@MichealHardy thought it was supposed to be "boy and goil" at the end. At least the girl actually sang. The guy needed to drop that feigned British accent. Doesnt work in the context of this song.

[@mayrakauffman634]

This song enchanted me since the first time I heard it.

[@florinaioneseu9269]

Love it love love it. I wish we get back in time ❤

[@joybreeden366]

I find this not only a good song but historical... thanks for this.

[@eddihaskell]

This video brings a tear to the eye of any real New Yorker. I am used to the Ella Fitzgerald version, which is wonderful -- but this version is perhaps more authenic to the heart. By the way, if you listen, the line about "Carnrasie Lake" is a riot -- Canarsie was a sewer dump back in the 1920's. As for an upper class British put-down, back in 1929, New York was a very attractive and fun destination for any Londoner-- I would not call it a put down, but perhaps, something that brings a smile.

[@tagetallqvist1296]

Great

[@ltrin1969]

Gênios da música: Rodger e Hart. Letras e músicas lindas.

[@carolbradshaw6105]

This chestnut has lasted nearly a century , first introduced in The Garrick's Gaieties by the wonderful Sterling Holloway.

[@markmiller9579]

I saw Sterling Holloway in My Fair Lady on Broadway, 1957

[@bryankesselman]

You saw Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady, Sterling Holloway was a different actor - he provided the voice for Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

[@jerryhagen5926]

Talking pictures came in being in October 1929. One of the first then! How quickly it progressed with synchronized sound and cutaways like this also in 1929.

[@BarryMoreno-zx4dc]

Came in a trifle earlier, you’ll find.

[@tadimaggio]

Ever since 9/11, this song brings tears to my eyes when it reaches the line "We'll turn Manhattan/Into an isle of joy." On that terrible day, .my first phone call was to an old and dear friend -- 68 years old then, and a lifelong New York theater artist, who made his Broadway debut at the ripe age of seven. When he picked up the phone, his first words, delivered at white heat: "HOW DARE THOSE BASTARDS DO THAT TO MY TOWN?" The flip side of the affection for New York reflected in Rodgers' and Hart's little gem.

[@pennypiper7382]

Love this song. It’s timeless and nostalgic.

[@afterthefox]

just take a walk up and down the canyons of NY and you feel like you're in a movie...i've been all over the world and very very few places have that affect like Manhattan...

[@CliffMcAulay]

Absolutely delightful. Thank you for uploading.

[@factsandfancies77]

Am enjoying the comments. Amazed at the deep comments about what is, essentially, a witty comic/ironic song.

[@critter7052]

What a great Rodgers and Hart song! Thanks for posting!

[@Plattensammler88]

I wish, they had recorded this tune. A really charming Interpretation :-)

[@arrigoriccardoagosti9834]

whatta sensation Whatta atmosphere ! Whatta feeling! THANKS SO MUCH!!!

[@RaysDad]

Great video! Great clothes! Why did men stop wearing hats?

[@uhclem]

Because they blew off in horseless carriages?

[@lisathuban8969]

@@uhclem Is your middle name Leroy? Do you have a kid named "Porgy"?

[@uhclem]

@@lisathuban8969 Actually, Porgy was my name when I was a kid. Go back and listen to High School Madness again.

[@mzmiller52]

Gotham joke, “ what is the Puerto Rican national anthem?” God bless Lorenz Hart. Nice to hear clever, sophisticated lyrics with Rodgers music instead of the schlock and messages of Hammerstein.

[@UglyChileanDoorman]

Each could only be what he was. It's true, Hart was better.

[@JosephineMiller]

amazing clip

[@jimmyswaggard1581]

What hats they have!!

[@princeandrey]

But the song is supposed to be sarcastic. It pretends to glamorize the banal to show that a staycation is not a vacation. Over the years folks became less discriminating as listeners. But the people in the song are broke & they pretend to be making the most of it, sweet pushcarts gently gliding by and all. NYC was gritty. Neither wealthy suburbanites nor movie stars would have dreamt of living in Greenwich Village.

[@jhbmusic1957]

Classic Larry Hart lyric. Master lyricist. “Brilliant with words, rhyming things other people wouldn’t touch” (Richard Rodgers) Summer journeys to Niag'ra and to other places aggra- vate all our cares. We'll save our fares! I've a cozy little flat in what is known as old Manhattan we'll settle down right here in town! We'll have Manhattan the Bronx and Staten Island too. It's lovely going through the zoo! It's very fancy on old Delancy street you know. The subway charms us so when balmy breezes blow to and fro. And tell me what street compares with Mott Street in July? Sweet pushcarts gently gli-ding by. The great big city's a wonderous toy just made for a girl and boy. We'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy! We'll go to Yonkers Where true love conquers In the whiles And starve together dear, in Chiles We'll go to Coney And eat baloney on a roll In Central Park we'll stroll Where our first kiss we stole Soul to soul And "My Fair Lady" is a terrific show they say We both may see it close, some day The city's glamour can never spoil The dreams of a boy and goil We'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy

[@TheGodsrighthandman]

Thanks, Boss. Never seen this version, thanks for the U/L xXx

[@billbrimmer1739]

Interesting recording. The show actually opened 4 years earlier, and was the first big success for Rodgers and Hart.

[@robertobordino7141]

What a great find... Thanks

[@matthewzisi300]

This song will forever be associated in my mind with Broadway Is My Beat, CBS's haunting murder mystery radio series of the 1950s that had this as its theme.

[@WarrenWebber]

Lol one of the earliest music videos!

[@BarryMoreno-zx4dc]

Marvellous!

[@BenjaminWirtz]

I'm Impressed by the sound quality.

[@boltsyllable]

This is awesome!!!

[@Janine11155]

Sweet

[@kuwabatakesanjuro1453]

Almásy was singing this in 'The English Patient,' so happy I finally find the source.

[@chem100]

Nice travel log beginning at 1:50. Nothing has changed, and everything has changed.

[@StevenTorrey]

That was charming. I wonder who staged this? The staging is truly phenomenal.

[@gjspaceman]

I would travel back to that time, so much energy and creativity. You tube says I'll take Manhattan, I remember... we'll take Manhattan. Mandela Effect...? The old Earth is much better than this timeline.

[@malcolmlewis6014]

Ella's version will never be surpassed.

[@scotnick59]

It was my mom's favorite recording.

[@calvinjackson8110]

I agree with you completely. Whenever I want to hear it I always go to her version. Mickey Rooney sang it in one of his movies and I enjoyed it there also.

[@almeggs3247]

Beautiful thanks!

[@cha5]

@atmanman My pleasure, N.Y.C. history has always interested me even though I don't live there. I haven't yet been to Yonkers I'm afraid, the farthest north I've been is The Bronx although I did get up to Woodlawn Cemetary years ago.

[@ortcutt]

@atmanman They aren't an uppity British couple. They're a New Yorker couple singing an ironic song about doing inexpensive things in New York rather than taking a vacation in "Niagara". It's a lyrical masterpiece by Lorenz Hart for that very reason. That sort of midatlantic accent was common in the theater in that period. It's sometimes called American Theater Standard. Watch any newsreel with FDR and you'll hear someone with the same accent.

[@ktkat1949]

he song appears to describe, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple in love who are blissfully unaware of their surroundings. The joke is that these "delights" are really some of the worst, or at best cheap, delights that New York has to offer; for example, the stifling, humid stench of the subway in summertime is described as "balmy breezes", while the noisy, grating pushcarts on Mott Street are "gently gliding by". A particular Hart delight is the rhyming "spoil" with "boy and goyl". In the lyrics' first stanza, the couple is obviously too poor to afford a honeymoon to the popular summertime destinations of "Niag'ra" or "other places", so they claim to be happy to "save our fares". In the second stanza, they settle for a walk down Delancey Street, which was in the 1920s a boisterous commercial strip, part of the working-class Lower East Side. In the third stanza, they plan to go to Greenwich, to watch "Modern men itch to be free". In the fourth stanza, it is revealed that the only rural retreat they can afford to go to is "Yonkers", and the only restaurant they can afford to go to is where they will "starve together in Childs'" - a popular discount cafeteria. These were all working-class places that attracted the poor, the unemployed, and gays and lesbians, along with other denizens of the Prohibition-era demimonde.[1] In later stanzas, other places they will go to are likewise free - Central Park, "the Bronx Zoo", Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and to view the much-criticized statue of "Civic Virtue". In sum, this poor young couple in love can only afford the cheapest places to visit and the dreariest experiences that New York City can afford, and it is not clear they understand their predicament, so the joke's on them.

[@JoeHarkinsHimself]

the "boy" does an excellent delivery, even though he is not a singer. His range is less than an octave gut he skillfully ovoids trying to sing the notes that are out of that range by speaking them as if he is singing. Clever trick, well executed.

[@uhclem]

Allan Gould was actually born in Hell's Kitchen to Jewish, Hungarian dressmakers. They were dirt poor, and he worked his way into vaudeville. He actually was a singer and a dancer, but wasn't really into "talkies" and preferred to work the stage. To Joe, the style of singing was scripted by Rodgers and Hart.

[@jackdnoe]

@@uhclem Allan Gould later found some success as a photographer, and wrote a food column for The Miami News in the 1960s.

[@uhclem]

@@jackdnoe You are correct. He also had a successful wholesale business in Coral Gables called Now Things, Inc. PS, he was my father.

[@bratschekind]

This is great. You wouldn't happen to have the entire film would you? I've only seen clips and would love to see the entire thing someday.

[@petejaye9177]

+bratschekind You can watch it on dailymotion

[@uhclem]

I linked it above.

[@AvitalShtap]

Her voice reminds me of Betty Boop:)

[@mileswrich]

Delancy Street was the center of the Jewish Lower East Side. Both Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were children of Jewish immigrants. Mott Street was the center of Little Italy.

[@lindacantwell-lum3855]

And Mott near Pell was Chinatown. My great grandparents lived there about 1900 at #3

[@MoiAussi18]

@@lindacantwell-lum3855 I love that #3 reference and the fact that you are a repository for your family's history. There won't be many people who will be aware of such things 120 years after the event.

[@tourguideStan]

Less than a block from Mott, closer to Bowery on Pell Street, young Izzy Baelin worked his first job as a singing waiter. He did much better after changing his name to Irving Berlin.

[@tourguideStan]

Nearly all these places are gone now, but Inspiration Point is still here thanks to decades of it having been impossible to get to. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJTYXmOoa6aod7M A short vacation On Inspiration Point we'll spend And in the station House We'll end

[@atmanman]

The poor guy who sings with her looks madly in love, but he never goes anywhere. She marries a rich man, according to what I read.... I looked at your fav videos...and see you made your "Easter Duty"... in Latin, no less. I do the first part of the mass in Latin on one of me videos here...as a joke...I don't think you can post a link here, but click me if you want to hear my pronunciation which is better than most priests...lol

[@atmanman]

@cha5 Thanks for the comment...I did go to Hunter Park Ave, but don't really know Manhattan...I am South Yonkers Photos on Facebook, so wanted it back up on for the reference, but I really like it. The poor guy looks like he is in love with her, but she marries a lawyer and lives to be 87, while he just disappears into obscurity

[@uhclem]

He was born in NY (Hell's Kitchen) on March 1, 1904 and died in South Miami Hospital of pneumonia on August 8, 1982. He was an actor and not in love with his costar.

[@uhclem]

He married a hot NY model and moved to Miami in 1953.

[@frankwhelan1715]

The girl is/was cute.

[@cha5]

Well they do have gentrification to an extreme these days in chunks of SoDel such as a big massive parking lot where alot of the historic character of TLES has been bulldozed and paved over, not to mention architectural wonders (eyesores IMHO) in NoDel such as The Rivington over looking dear old Delancy St, although I'm not sure I'd call that hotel any sort of actual improvement. But TJMO, I'm kind of sentimental about old Delancy, even with the grunge and the grit of the place

[@tourguideStan]

We'll always have Inspiration Point. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJTYXmOoa6aod7M

[@ZXC5000]

Brilliant

[@Bobbybabybobbybubbie]

Clicked here to say the same thing!

[@MosheFeder]

I love this - it’s one of my favorite songs - thanks for sharing it. I watched it twice before I noticed the costume change. A shame there doesn’t seem to be a recording of Sterling Holloway singing it, since he introduced it.

[@cha5]

@atmanman Well I'd say, that's pretty much on the money, I mean take the lyrics "It's very fancy, on old Delancy Street you know" Delancy St back in the 1920s was the center of N.Y.C.'s Lower East Side immigrant community, and it's never been what you would call "fancy". Back in those days it was crowded with tenement buildings in which immigrants were packed like sardines, and the whole street wasn't fancy or even sanitary.

[@ykqyt819]

大好きな「Manhattan」45曲も！　いいね！

[@billsav57]

That should have said "Lambchops," which I believe was made the same year.

[@SamSkii14]

wow!

[@hey_joe7069]

Inspector Luger brought me here!

[@StevenTorrey]

Inspector Luger from Barney Miller? WHy?

[@10skylark]

very enjoyable

[@moo639]

It's called MANHATTAN, not I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN.

[@yarnover]

Would you accept "(I'll Take) Manhattan"?

[@yankee2666]

What??????

[@moo639]

@@yarnover No! As I said, "I'll take Manhattan" is nowhere in the lyric!

[@tomdegan6924]

Does anyone know if it's possible to see Makers of Melody in its entirety?

[@petejaye9177]

+Tom Degan I have the movie on dvd or you can watch it online on a website called dailymotion

[@uhclem]

Linked above

[@papagen00]

They altered Larry Hart's words from "boy and goil" to "gal and boy". No bueno.

[@jacobjinglehymer8789]

Where's the proverbial posting the lyrics in the comment section? I could really use it here.

[@atmanman]

We'll go to Yonkers/ Where true love conquers...lol or The city's glamor can never spoil/The dreams of a boy and goil" The original posting had a comment saying the song was an ironic put down of low class locations by an uppity British couple

[@rondaleroi]

There is NO WAY an "uppity British couple" would know of these lower-class places in Manhattan, never mind "lowering" themselves to go to them. This is a pair of young New Yorkers who know how to have a good time on the cheap.

[@liviolivon]

My favorite song, mainly with Sally Baldwin.

[@alnitaka]

This is the official John Kasich New York Republican Primary song.

[@TigerRocket]

@ortcutt Better known as "King's English" at the time. The taught and expected standard of the day with those rolling 'R's and wide 'A's in speech. Probably the last social/cultural vestiges of a decidedly enforced "propriety." I prefer an 'oithy' Bronx or Brooklyn lilt, myself. Let's me know I'm in New Yawk, even wid my eyes closed.

[@patecavanaugh]

Mott Street is Chinatown, not Little Italy. Many Jewish families went to Chinatown for some meals.

[@vincentdaly78]

Chinatown has grown exponentially in recent decades, taking over much of what used to be Little Italy and the Jewish Lower East Side.

[@yankee2666]

Mott street's iconic identity was established by Italian immigrants as part of Little Italy. Today it's predominantly Chinese, but they have no claim on its renown, which, again, was established by the Italians. ...You're wrong., Cavanaugh. You need to get out of your own way and your prejudices and get accurate information.

[@dbfs5381]

Has anybody viewed There’s a small hotel sung by Jack Whiting ?

[@leeannep.7652]

Wow, is this actual 1925 footage?

[@jblue705]

The original music composition from the 1925 show, filmed 4 years later in 1929.

[@jblue705]

They were still doing silents in 1925. This came out the very next year after 1928's extremely successful talking film "The Jazz Singer". In 1929 all the studios decided to move to sound and this film was among the first sound films released that year.

[@LazlosPlane]

Anyone understand the reference to "Abie's Irish Rose"? ??

[@cinemascoper7628]

"AIR" was an insanely popular play the hip elite hated. For awhile it looked like "AIR" might run forever. He hopes their kids will live as long as the play was predicted to run.

[@LazlosPlane]

Cinema Scoper Very good!

[@kristenprice6565]

@@cinemascoper7628 ..." Isn't it more " We hope it will close one day "? Also, note the reference to an early low-price//" fast casual"/mass market restaraunt, Child's.

[@cinemascoper7628]

@@kristenprice6565 Yes, they hope the show will close. Hip types hated it: Robert Benchley was forced to write about it for years -- this at a time when hit plays usually only ran a few months -- in his weekly 'New Yorker' pieces. The lyric's joke is the exaggeration that this hated play will run virtually forever. We can only wish our children live that long.

[@trumbulld]

Of course, from Robert Benchley’s weekly negative reviews of the show.

[@mrbissonet]

The correct title is "Manhattan" so you might think about removing the "I'll Take" part as the heading for your video.

[@dennisgreene1095]

Inspector Luger from BARNEY MILLER brought me here

[@ferociousgumby]

Ah, the early talkies! Two singers riveted to the stage (all motion resricted to turning their heads) with badly-filmed stock footage providing the only movement. No doubt the microphone was nailed in place. But the song is great.

[@スコブル-u9n]

収録日は世界恐慌が起こる前か後か？カポネが捕まる前か後か？ 私のような未来人にはそこが気になる

[@jamesjordan5214]

Manhattan: the greatest island on Earth.

[@MrVidaeverdade]

Try telling that to the British!

[@rerenaissance7487]

MrVidaeverdade No, he's right - it's the only bit we want back... But they can clean it up a bit first.

[@error.418]

+rerenaissance No, it belonged to the Dutch. Also, the joke was that Great Britain is also an island, so saying Manhattan is the greatest island would be contentious. So even if the British had Manhattan, they would still consider Great Britain to be the better island.

[@rerenaissance7487]

+Anonymous User You underestimate the madness. The English, Welsh and Scots each consider their own country an island. Ireland IS an island and they manage to look at it as TWO Islands (though the English and Scots keep that one bubbling away). As for the Dutch, over the imperialist centuries the British and Dutch have swapped dominions around the globe like cigarette cards.

[@error.418]

rerenaissance That's great, they would all still consider their own islands to be greater than Manhattan.

[@barnegatshoals]

The ghost of Lorenz Hart speaks out: The words "I'll take Manhattan" do not appear anywhere in this song. The title is simply "Manhattan."

[@ktkat1949]

Sorry they are the very first line in the song. go back and listen again.

[@AeolianHall1]

Please change the incorrect title of your video. The song's title is "Manhattan". The lyrics are "We'll have Manhattan" and your title is one of those popular urban myths that refuse to die. Thanks for posting the video, however.

[@eslermanu47]

Proper songs and singers not like today's rubbish

[@ykqyt819]

45曲？ないの？どうして！

[@princeandrey]

@ishouldntbeyoutubing You're right in your interpretation and of course, sadly, Ella knew nothing about lyrics; she just bounced prettily along with neither irony nor poignancy nor wit. But--though it's a send-up of the idea of glamorous New York--it can't help being a fabulous tribute to it banal if inelegant pleasures, known only to the "real" New Yorkers, of which Hart was one, if anyone was. The secret of great art lies in its layers!

[@matheus5230]

Ella sings this catchy song perfectly and divinely. I love the prettiness and joy of her version and her singing overall. Ella is awesome and she knows how to enhance the beauty of every song's melody like no one

[@princeandrey]

@@matheus5230 Bubbly Ella just loves to sing. But there's never much feeling anywhere, alas.

[@matheus5230]

@@princeandrey A lot of the feeling is the music, melody and singing themselves

[@princeandrey]

@@matheus5230 Perhaps! But.... How could Delancey be fancy?

[@gemoftheocean]

@@princeandrey it isn't. It's wit.

[@jamesjordan5214]

MANHATTAN: No other place like it on Earth. I might add: there are only three great cities on Earth: New York, London, and Paris.

[@error.418]

+James Jordan I guess you haven't traveled much.

[@jamesjordan5214]

Anonymous User I have travelled all over my great country several times and have seen and absorbed much. New York, London, and Paris embody the history and culture of humanity and if one has remained in these three cities over many years, then there need be no elaboration on having travelled much: one has seen all there is to know.

[@error.418]

James Jordan Yep, painfully clear you haven't travelled much.

[@thecitizenjoan]

I agree they are the greatest of great. Paris is my favorite.

[@thecitizenjoan]

Oh Zip it I bet he's been more places than you. I've been to all three and I agree with with him

[@calvinjackson538]

Anybody who want to really hear someone do this song justice listen to ELLA!!!!

[@jurgenmartis6925]

No listen to the version of The Supremes

[@moo639]

The song is called simply "Manhattan." "I'll take Manhattan" is not even part of the lyric.

[@calvinjackson538]

I can't believe that people looked at this kind of stuff. Don't mean to be a critic, but the singing of that woman is horrible and the man is not much better. The film is not clear and the photography is so poor. All I can say to excuse it is well, it was 1929 and perhaps this was all there was.

[@tourguideStan]

That's what it was. Sound in films had just come out in 1927. Any musical was a novelty. I think the first Hollywood musical was about performers on Broadway. It's called Broadway Melody, and also came out in 1929. They're being no Empire State Building yet, they open with an aerial shot of the Woolworth tower.

[@lisathuban8969]

The film degraded through the years. It was not that blurry originally.

[@blakemcnamara9105]

This was vaudeville. There's a comedic element to the song and the performance and thus it was intended not to be very good by technical standards.

[@LarsCarlsen-or6ky]

For elucidation : Abie's Irish Rose was a sentimental. play and no doubt sneered at by Columbia. grads. >>>