Be A Clown

You have it backwards. The song "Make 'em Laugh" was a direct steal from Cole Porter's "Be a Clown."

Jerry Jewler

Heh, I was coming on this board to post the very same thing! lol Glad to know it was answered and now I understand.

The way I heard the story, Freed wanted a movie based on songs he did with Brown in the late 20s and early 30s, which became Singing in the Rain. For the 1940s, Freed had concentrated on producing. When he was told they needed a new song for Donald O'Connor for Singing in the Rain, he and Brown sat down to write for the first time in a long time, had a lot of trouble, and finally came up with Make Up Laugh, which takes the basic melody and concept from Cole Porter's Be a Clown for the Pirate, made four years earlier. O'Connor performed the number brillantly. Everyone knew the new song was a rip-off from the Porter song, but it worked. When Irving Berlin was visiting the set and heard the song, he knew at once that it was a steal from Be a Clown, written by his friend Cole Porter. Who wrote that song? he demanded. Freed stammered and finally said, well the kids and a bunch of us got together and knocked it off. Everyone heard this and stared in disbelief. The Kids! Freed's failure to take responsibility was remembered for the rest of the decade until he stopped producing. When the boss blames others for his mistake...

i thought the smaee thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is a rather interesting thread as i had thought the two songs were quite similar as well!

cheers!

I was wondering if "Be A Clown" was written specifically for "The Pirate," or did it come from a Broadway show?

I've heard these two songs over the years. It never clicked before that they had the same tune.