There's a Small Hotel

"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson. Betty Garrett sang it in the 1948 film Words and Music, and it was interpolated in the film version of Pal Joey (1957) with a Frank Sinatra-Nelson Riddle collaboration.

"There's a Small Hotel"
Song
Published1937
Songwriter(s)Lorenz Hart
Composer(s)Richard Rodgers

Background

According to the biography of Lorenz Hart by Frederick Nolan (Lorenz Hart - A Poet on Broadway, 1994; Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-510289-4),[1] the song was inspired by a visit that Richard Rodgers made to the Stockton Inn,[2] in Stockton, New Jersey. Hart reputedly found the melody insistently cloying and often ad-libbed raunchy parody verses, much to Rodgers' chagrin.

Another claimant to be the inspiration for the song is the Belmond El Encanto in Santa Barbara County, California.[3][4] Renovations to the hotel in the 1950s replaced the wishing well, mentioned in the song,[5] by a floral fountain.[6]

Notable recordings

References
  1. Nolan, Frederick (2 November 1995). Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway - Google Books. ISBN 9780195356113. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  2. "Stockton Inn". Stocktoninn.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  3. Trzebinski, Errol (17 March 1995). The Lives of Beryl Markham. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 343–. ISBN 978-0-393-31252-2. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  4. California business. California Business News, inc. 1983. p. 81. Retrieved 10 October 2011. For rejuvenation, pick the Montecito Inn, a 60-room hostelry that inspired Rodgers and Hart to write "There's a Small Hotel." Built by Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle...
  5. Wallace, David; Miller, Ann (23 September 2003). Hollywoodland. Macmillan. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-312-31614-3. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  6. White, Robert; White, Phyllis (March 2011). Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles ... - Google Books. ISBN 9781588432865. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  7. Le Front populaire – Paris 1934–1939, Fremeaux.com. Retrieved 26 February 2012.


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