Flanders and Swann: At the Drop of a Hat

travsd

Sep 30

Born 100 years ago today composer, singer and pianist Donald Swann (1923-1995). Together with lyricist, singer, and monologist Michael Flanders (1922-1975) he formed the English songwriting and musical comedy team of Flanders and Swann.

The pair first worked together as students at Westminster and at Oxford, parted to serve in World War Two, the reunited professionally in 1948. There was much to set the team apart from every other act of their day. Most obviously there was the visual impression. Flanders had contracted polio in 1943. He was seated in a wheelchair throughout their performances, even as Swann was seated on a piano bench. (Like a young Orson Welles, Flanders sported a full beard when almost no one was wearing them. From the WWI era through the early 1960s, a beard marked you as either a farmer or an egghead. Naturally Flanders was the latter.) The smart topical wit of the team's songs were not at all like populist music hall, but rather presaged latter cabaret artists like Tom Lehrer and Mark Russell. Many of them were dazzling feats of lyrical and musical craftsmanship and might be inspired by anything from the career of Charles de Gaulle, the budgetary problems of PM Harold Wilson, or the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Songs were done in every musical style you can think of, from folk to classical. There was a whole series of songs inspired by funny animals ("The Gnu", "The Hippopotamus", "the Rhinoceros", "The Sloth", "The Warthog"). They sang satires about war and nukes and imperialism.

They are especially known for their two revues, At the Drop of a Hat (1956) and At the Drop of Another Hat (1963), both of which opened in London and toured internationally, with record albums produced by George Martin. They were mainstays of British television together and apart. In the States they appeared on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. Flanders and Swann last appeared together as a team in 1967.

For more on show business history past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,