Irving Berlin‘s song “Easter Parade” talks about finding yourself in the rotogravure.
What?
“The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re
In the rotogravure.”
Rotogravure. Merry-go-round? Snooty name for restroom?
Rotogravure \ˌrō-tə-grə-ˈvyur\
Rotogravure is a method for printing or etching your text or images onto a surface … way-back-when. The pictures, designs or words were engraved onto a printing plate or printing cylinder and then stamped into the medium.
In the Easter Parade song, rotogravure referred to the section of the newspaper where images were featured—a section devoted entirely to photographs.
Charles Darwin. Printed using the rotogravure method. Library of Congress. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Bain News Service, publisher.
You may remember the popular Easter Parade song (below) and if you REALLY remember, you may have seen it on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1973. (For those of you who need a refresher.) And yes, I really did watch Lawrence Welk with my grandmother. It was her FAV and to this day I still enjoy re-runs. Honest. I do. Love the piano player.
Guy & Ralna, Easter Parade, 1973 Lawrence Welk.
The Easter Parade
By Irving Berlin
Never saw you look quite so pretty before
Never saw you dressed quite so lovely what’s more
I could hardly wait to keep our date this lovely Easter morning
And my heart beat fast as I came through the door
In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade
I’ll be all in clover and when they look you over
I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade
On the Avenue
Fifth Avenue
The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re
In the rotogravure
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet
And of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade
Ha! I always thought that line was “And you’ll find that you’re on the road to grandeur.” 🙂
I grew up watching Lawrence Welk on TV too! My Mother was a soloist in a lot of productions around Spokane and directed choir at our church. She and my Father used to dance around the house with Lawrence Welk and sing along with all the songs. I loved it when they sang the Easter Parade especially when I came out of the bathroom dressed in my Easter pretties.