Source of "Play, Don!" quote?

[sethb]

In the concluding opera house scenes of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, Groucho Marx says "Play, Don!" to the orchestra leader. I always figured this was just a throwaway line, until I heard it said again in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

It appears to be a topical reference to something -- but what? SETH

[Paul Penna]

In the concluding opera house scenes of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, Groucho Marx says "Play, Don!" to the orchestra leader. I always figured this was just a throwaway line, until I heard it said again in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

It appears to be a topical reference to something -- but what? SETH

Catchphrase from Jack Benny's radio show, him introducing his then-bandleader, Don Bestor.

[boblipton]

Along with "Sing, Dennis!".

Bob

[entredeuxguerres]

It appears to be a topical reference to something -- but what? SETH

Being no follower of Benny (though overly-familiar with his TV show because my mother insisted on watching it), this phrase was also meaningless to me. I never cease to be amazed, however, by the number of similar topical references in pictures of the '20s & '30s--immediately understood by contemporary viewers--that either pass unnoticed, or seem irrelevant, to those, today, not steeped in the popular culture of that time.

One of my favorites is "monkey glands," cropping up in more pictures than I can remember.

[Harold Aherne]

Don Bestor was a very active presence in the dance band scene, serving as leader of the Benson Orchestra of Chicago by early 1923 and recording with his own orchestra between 1925 and 1937. His Victor of "42nd Street" is filled with sound effects that reflect the energy and chaos of a city street. Unlike most dance band records of the time, It begins and ends quietly, as if one were arriving at and then leaving a big-city street.

-HA

[s.w.a.c.]

"'Zat you, Mert? How's every liddle ting?" It was years before I figured out where this frequent Looney Tunes line came from.

("T'ain't funny, McGee...")

[BixB]

Don Bestor was a very active presence in the dance band scene, serving as leader of the Benson Orchestra of Chicago by early 1923 and recording with his own orchestra between 1925 and 1937. His Victor of "42nd Street" is filled with sound effects that reflect the energy and chaos of a city street. Unlike most dance band records of the time, It begins and ends quietly, as if one were arriving at and then leaving a big-city street.

-HA

That "42nd Street" side features a vocal by composer Dudley "Dud" Mecum, who wrote "Angry". His daughter Ginny is a good friend.

[sethb]

Thanks, folks, for solving the mystery. I was familiar with the Benson Orch, but would never have made the connection. SETH

[JFK]

Google's book digitalization department has "succeeded" to the point where certain non-fiction titles are no longer bought (or sought out in libraries) .... why buy a book for a 2 page anecdote when those same two pages can be found online as free sample pages?
(If publisher’s were smart, they’d only allow the index pages of their non-fiction books to be digitalized by Google.)
Anyway, Google is also likely digitalizing the dialogue in old films and radio programs, which will allow such “play Don” puzzles to be more easily explored. Soon enough, we'll be able to click a button and find when the words "computer" "zipper" or "twerk" first reached the mass media,
or when the "555" phone number first appeared on screen..

Silent films and the early talkies, old radio shows, and pre-21st century non-fiction, to be fully understood, if not enjoyed,
may eventually require as much annotation as Shakespeare’s plays. And digitalization will make the process easier.
For example, an annotated copy of The Groucho Letters, one day, could be published online with
1. explanations of what, even now, are arcane bits of vaudeville minutiae, and
2. revelations of what was altered, left out, or "disguised" before the book's original publication.

But, until full digitalization occurs , we are left with such "dialogue origin" mysteries as the one below
(were the "man said" lines really first heard on the Jack Benny Show?):

The Big Sleep
MARS
All right. Outside.
MAR'S BOY 2
A shamus.
MARLOWE
The man said "outside."
MARS BOY2
He said that. That's what the man said. He said that.
MAR'S BOY1
He kills it.
MARLOWE
Is he any good?
MARS
Who? Sydney? He's company for Pete. All right. Now you talk.

Baseball Bugs
The Gorilla batter arrives by stairs just as the umpire (apparently no longer intimidated) climbs over the ledge and yells, "Yerrr OUT!"
The Gorilla yells back, "I'm OUT?!" to which the Statue of Liberty (voiced by an uncredited Bea Benaderet) comes to life, saying
"That's what the man said, you heard what he said, he said that!" (a popular line from a {Jack Benny} radio show)
with Bugs echoing her words as the iris closes around Bugs

[entredeuxguerres]

Silent films and the early talkies, old radio shows, and pre-21st century non-fiction, to be fully understood, if not enjoyed, may eventually require as much annotation as Shakespeare’s plays.

Can't truly be fully enjoyed until fully understood; I believed I'd "fully enjoyed" Lewis Carroll until I read an annotated ed. & learned that practically every sentence is a topical allusion to something going on in Victorian England.