A fine bunch of reubens by Jongsstraw

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A fine bunch of reubens

POSTED BY: JONGSSTRAW
UPDATED: Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:57
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Friday, March 22, 2013 10:51 AM

The other night I'm watching James Cagney as George M. Cohan in 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on TCM. At one point he composes and then sings a new song for his musical that had a line in it that I knew I had heard before........

"Forty-five Minutes From Broadway" (1906)

Only forty-five minutes from Broadway
Think of the changes it brings
For the short time it takes
What a diff'rence it makes
In the ways of the people and things
Oh, what a fine bunch of reubens
Oh, what a gay atmosphere
They have whiskers like hay
And imagine Broadway
Only forty-five minutes from here

Now it all makes sense, Serenity that is.

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Friday, March 22, 2013 12:33 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

We know Joss is fond of musicals, so that is probably where he got that phrase.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Friday, March 22, 2013 1:39 PM

WISHIMAY

Reubens?? Mmmmm. I'll take mine with mustard, minus the Thousand Island, and NO to the darn caraway seeds, thanks!
Om nom nom....

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Friday, March 22, 2013 3:27 PM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Oh, what a fine bunch of reubens

It is also about the biblical tragedy of being unloved. Reuben sounds like the Hebrew for he has seen my misery. In Hebrew, a play on the words re'u ben: "See, a son!"

Genesis 29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.

32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. {Is this Simeon our Simon?}
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+29&version=NIV

The Bible shows Leah's illusion that bearing four sons would bring her Jacob's love was painfully disabused four times.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, March 23, 2013 8:24 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
We know Joss is fond of musicals, so that is probably where he got that phrase.

Perhaps, but it seems pretty obscure to me. And if Joss did use that phrase from that song, then what did George M. Cohan mean by it back in 1906 when he wrote it? Must have been a fairly common phrase for the time. The song and musical 45 Minutes From Broadway refers to how long the train took from Broadway to New Rochelle, NY. Was Cohan calling those suburbanites unsophisticated? Was Capt. Mal calling his crew the same? Somebody out there knows this, I'm sure.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013 8:48 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
We know Joss is fond of musicals, so that is probably where he got that phrase.

Perhaps, but it seems pretty obscure to me. And if Joss did use that phrase from that song, then what did George M. Cohan mean by it back in 1906 when he wrote it? Must have been a fairly common phrase for the time. The song and musical 45 Minutes From Broadway refers to how long the train took from Broadway to New Rochelle, NY. Was Cohan calling those suburbanites unsophisticated? Was Capt. Mal calling his crew the same? Somebody out there knows this, I'm sure.

Absolutely! That's also where the expression rubes comes from, unsophisticated folks who live out in the country, far from the bright lights of civilization.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013 9:10 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Thanks. Yes, the meaning of the phrase is clear now! The remaining question is where did Joss get it from? It isn't used in the present vernacular, so was it taken from the slang of the 1900's? If so, I find that remarkable, but not inconsistent with the olde-time themes of Firefly.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:39 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Remember that Mal had read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Wash and Mal apparently knew the lyrics to the Beatles song "Cry, Baby, Cry." It is logical to assume other entertainments from Earth-That-Was survived too.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013 10:57 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Remember that Mal had read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Wash and Mal apparently knew the lyrics to the Beatles song "Cry, Baby, Cry." It is logical to assume other entertainments from Earth-That-Was survived too.

Excellent points, worthy of a musical tribute.....

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