0:09

This is Side Door, a podcast from

0:11

the Smithsonian with support from PRX. I'm

0:13

Lizzie Pilotti. Every

0:24

year on December 31st, many of us gather

0:26

with loved ones to watch a clock, a

0:29

phone, or, you know, some timekeeping device, and

0:31

count down to the new year. And

0:34

as the clock strikes midnight, countless parties

0:36

across the country sing together

0:38

this song. Old

0:54

Lying Sign. It's

0:56

a song we've come to associate with the new year.

0:59

But… Wait

1:01

a second, wait a second. What

1:03

the heck is Old Lying Sign? Do you

1:05

have any idea what this song is about? It's

1:07

funny you asked that question because that's

1:10

exactly what Harry asks Sally

1:12

in the 1989

1:15

film When Harry Met Sally. This is curator

1:17

Jim Deutsch. He says, what does

1:19

this song mean? My whole

1:21

life, I don't know what this song means. I mean,

1:23

should all the acquaintance be forgot? Does that mean that

1:25

we should forget all the acquaintances? It doesn't mean that

1:27

if we happen to forget them, we should remember them,

1:30

which is not possible because we already forgot them. To

1:33

which Sally, played by Meg Ryan, replies, well,

1:35

maybe it just means we should remember that

1:37

we forgot them or something. Anyway,

1:40

it's about old friends. And

1:43

I think that's the key, is that

1:45

what's important is not so much the

1:47

actual words, but rather the emotions that

1:49

the song conjures, especially

1:51

at this moment

1:53

of transitioning from one

1:56

year to the next. season

2:00

and then it means we find

2:02

ourselves doing all sorts of things

2:04

without always knowing exactly why or

2:08

how we started doing them. What

2:10

does old Lang sign mean? Literally

2:14

old long since. And

2:16

what is it about?

2:18

It's about remembering

2:21

the past, remembering your friends

2:25

and I think what's most curious

2:27

is how did it become the

2:29

standard for New Year's Eve. This

2:33

time on Side Door we're doing a

2:36

little musical sleuthing into the rise of

2:38

one of these New Year's traditions through

2:40

some old newspapers, a Canadian

2:42

orchestra conductor, and one of America's

2:44

most beloved movie stars. Tune

2:48

back in to our holiday special after

2:51

the break. Want

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contribute and thank you. Old

3:44

Lang sign is one of those so

3:46

old songs that nobody can say for

3:48

sure exactly when it dates to but

3:50

we do know it comes from Scotland. People

3:52

there have been singing it for ages and

3:55

in 1788 Scottish Poet: Robert

3:57

Burns wrote the words down as. Of

4:00

an effort to document and preserve

4:02

Scottish traditions in the face of

4:04

growing British influence. As.

4:06

For how I became a New Years

4:08

tradition, well, I called up Gym deutsche

4:11

Curator of Folk Life in Popular Culture

4:13

with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and

4:15

Cultural Heritage and he had a theory

4:17

to share. So. I invited him

4:20

into the studio to talk about it. So.

4:22

I've done some historical research on

4:24

this and looking at old newspapers.

4:27

this is one from the newspaper

4:29

The Scotsman. January first eighty ninety

4:32

are and it describes what is

4:34

happening on New Year's Eve and

4:36

Edinburgh. Bottles. were

4:38

much evidence the swing of

4:41

the crowd the new year

4:43

was pledged. The steeple bells

4:45

afterwards time. Portland,

4:48

Say. Oh.

4:52

And here's one from the New York

4:54

Times just to see years later it's

4:56

in Ninety Five where he talks about

4:58

the the times they were wrong On

5:00

New Years Eve at the various Churches

5:03

Weymouth, the Times reported on what the

5:05

different church times were ringing. Yes, Okay,

5:07

I guess I'll have. Ah

5:10

yes, New York Times, January

5:13

First, Eighteen Ninety Five. So

5:15

at the Trinity Church. Which.

5:17

Is what are the most famous churches

5:19

in Lower Manhattan. For the final four

5:21

songs are A Little Maggie May, The

5:24

Bluebells of Scotland, Old. Length

5:26

sign and home. Sweet Home.

5:31

He does that percent. Online

5:33

sign was sort of in circulation

5:35

here in United States, but it

5:37

wasn't synonymous with the dropping of

5:39

the ball. Exactly right. It was

5:42

one of many songs that

5:44

were signs. Are

5:46

on New Years Eve as a stroke

5:48

of midnight but I wasn't v one

5:51

song. and

5:53

if you google five years old

5:55

my son so popular in the

5:57

united states the answer inevitably looks

6:00

to Guy Lombardo. Guy

6:03

Lombardo. Yeah. Guy

6:06

Lombardo was a band leader, a Canadian,

6:10

and his band was known as

6:12

the Royal Canadians, and

6:14

he grew up in Western

6:17

Ontario, where there's a

6:19

large Scottish population. And so the

6:21

story is that Guy Lombardo heard

6:24

this song. It was a

6:26

song that would mark the end of a dance.

6:28

Now we know that it was also used on

6:31

New Year's Eve, but not specifically

6:33

New Year's Eve. But every

6:35

New Year's Eve in New York

6:38

City at the Roosevelt Grill

6:41

in Manhattan, Guy Lombardo

6:43

and the Royal Canadians would

6:45

mark the stroke of midnight

6:48

by playing this song. And starting

6:50

in 1929. So

7:08

it was Lombardo, a Canadian, who

7:11

created this American tradition. A Canadian

7:13

living in the United States and

7:15

being on American radio

7:18

and then transitioning

7:21

from American radio to American

7:23

television and watched by millions

7:25

of people at the stroke of

7:27

midnight. So

7:31

that's the answer. That's it.

7:33

That's how the song came to

7:36

be played at New Year's. If

7:38

you look at what's on the internet,

7:41

yes. Do you have another theory? I

7:43

have another theory. I

7:46

do have another theory because four

7:48

years before Guy Lombardo came to New

7:51

York in 1929, in 1925,

7:55

Charlie Chaplin released a film

7:57

called The Gold Rush, which has

8:00

a remarkable scene set on

8:02

New Year's Eve. So

8:06

before we get into that scene, can you give me

8:08

just a brief synopsis of the movie, which by the

8:10

way has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes? Oh,

8:14

okay. And there's 53 reviews, so it's

8:17

not just like one person ranked it 100%. It

8:19

is a well-regarded film. I

8:22

have very high regard for that

8:24

film. The

8:26

Gold Rush is quintessential Chaplin

8:29

because he plays the underdog,

8:31

the character of the tramp,

8:35

with a mustache, bowler,

8:38

cane, oversized floppy shoes,

8:41

baggy pants, tight jacket. The

8:44

character that you picture when you thank Charlie Chaplin.

8:46

Yes, and very much the

8:48

underdog. Charlie

8:50

Chaplin was the most popular American film

8:52

entertainer of the time, but

8:54

he was born in London. 1889

8:58

would have been familiar with traditions in

9:01

London and the British Empire. He would have been hearing

9:03

those church bells. He would have been hearing those church

9:05

bells and grew up very,

9:07

very poor. Not

9:09

unlike the character he often played on screen,

9:12

the tramp. When he is

9:15

introduced in the film, he's introduced as

9:17

the lone prospector, who

9:19

is somewhere in the North Yukon,

9:22

Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush of

9:24

the 1890s. And

9:27

he is trying to find his fortune. And

9:29

like almost all of Chaplin's films, he's

9:32

searching for love. So

9:35

as occurs in many of Chaplin's films,

9:38

he is smitten with a woman. He's

9:41

stricken by a woman he meets in the dance

9:43

hall, whose name

9:45

is Georgia. He admires her

9:47

beauty, he admires her personality.

9:50

He's just in love with her, but

9:53

he is invisible to her. And

9:57

I can't see him. all the

9:59

time, several of her friends end up in

10:02

his cabin. And she jokingly says, oh,

10:04

why don't we come back here on

10:06

New Year's Eve? Having

10:09

no intention, absolutely no intention of

10:12

visiting his cabin on New Year's Eve because

10:15

she's the most popular woman in this town.

10:17

Why would she do that? Just to be mean? Just to be

10:20

mean. But

10:22

of course he doesn't know that. We

10:25

see him going out and shoveling snow to

10:27

earn money, to be able

10:29

to provide food and the decorations

10:32

for the party. Oh, to save money just to

10:34

throw the party? Just to throw the party. Wow.

10:37

At eight o'clock, he's got everything

10:39

ready. The table is set. He's

10:41

dressed beautifully, but no Georgia and

10:44

the other women that he had invited. In

10:48

the film, we see Chaplin's character, the lone

10:50

prospector, sit down at the dinner table to

10:52

wait for his guests. He waits,

10:55

watches the clock, and eventually

10:58

the candles burning

11:00

down. He falls asleep at the

11:02

table and starts to dream. And we

11:04

see what he's dreaming about. Or

11:07

at least we will when we

11:09

rejoin the lone prospector after the

11:12

break. We're

11:22

back and we're talking about a scene in

11:24

one of Charlie Chaplin's early films, The Gold

11:26

Rush. Curator Jim Deutsch has

11:28

a theory that this scene might

11:30

be responsible for making Old Line Sign

11:32

the New Year's classic it is today,

11:34

nearly a hundred years later. In the

11:37

movie, Chaplin, who plays a prospector in

11:39

the Klondike Gold Rush, waits in his

11:41

little cabin for the beautiful Georgia and

11:43

her friends to come to dinner, as

11:45

they've promised to. But

11:48

as he waits for them, he falls asleep at

11:50

the table and starts to dream. We

11:52

see him sitting around at a table

11:54

surrounded by ladies, these ladies in party

11:57

hats and they're laughing and they're dressed

11:59

to the nudge. and they're asking

12:02

him to give a speech. Yes, and

12:04

Georgia plants a kiss on him, which

12:07

sends him falling to the floor

12:09

because he's so overcome with emotion,

12:13

and then fade to black and

12:15

fade in to people

12:17

in the dance hall. We see signs in

12:19

the background saying, Happy New Year, and

12:22

that's Georgia who's given two guns. It's

12:24

the stroke of midnight. She shoots the

12:26

gun. Blam, blam. Everybody

12:29

cheers. Everybody cheers. Cut back

12:31

to the cabin, the lone

12:33

prospector waking up and goes

12:35

to the door. Oh, yeah,

12:38

he's standing at the door. He's sort

12:41

of gazing out into the night, and

12:43

he looks heartbroken. Yeah, he

12:46

is heartbroken. And

12:48

cut back to the scene in

12:50

the dance hall where everyone is

12:52

holding hands, singing, and

12:55

he's so old, old line of sight. Chaplin

13:10

knew how to just connect. Oh,

13:13

gosh. Oh, his body

13:15

language is just so dejected. Right,

13:18

and the silent film, it's all body

13:21

language. It's body language, it's gesture, it's

13:23

expression, audiences in the theater. Remember, in

13:25

a theater, it's different from

13:28

us watching it on a small screen

13:30

laptop. You would have been surrounded by

13:33

hundreds of people, many

13:36

of them crying, I think.

13:39

The film elicits emotions, which is, and

13:41

again, you don't have to watch this

13:44

in English. But the film

13:46

is wonderful around the world.

13:48

We're watching this and connecting in 1925,

13:50

four years before Guy Lombardo ever

13:52

came to the Roosevelt Grill in

13:56

Manhattan. So

14:00

Nineteen twenty five. with this is years

14:02

before Guy Lombardo started playing his famous

14:04

New Years Eve concert in New York

14:07

City? So how much of the American

14:09

population would have seen this. Movie And

14:11

Eighty Twenty Five. I

14:13

would say least South or

14:15

Com And then the film

14:18

was released in Nineteen Forty

14:20

Two with her Synchronize soundtrack

14:22

I see of and with

14:24

the Synchronize soundtrack we can

14:26

hear them singing old Lang

14:28

Sun So people would have

14:30

seen this film and it's

14:32

Mood Sisters singing of the

14:34

song it's the places and

14:36

the melancholy in the emotions

14:38

that Chaplin and Is tramp

14:40

character bringing to the screen.

14:43

That would have been so memorable. So.

14:47

The song itself. You. Know.

14:50

It. Has. It

14:53

has particular quality to it. Do you

14:55

think that there's something about this song

14:57

that that gives it particular staying power?

15:00

Whether it's the words or this, the

15:02

actual know, it's. Just

15:05

ah. The words

15:07

are relatively few, and I

15:09

I should note that most

15:11

people here only the first

15:14

verse should old acquaintance be

15:16

forgot and never brought to

15:18

mind. Should. Auld Acquaintance

15:20

be forgot in the days of Auld

15:23

Lang Syne. I. Don't think it's

15:25

it's the words that are so important as

15:27

the emotions and are inherent. Yeah.

15:29

There's something in this song that makes

15:31

you want to wrap your arm around

15:33

someone shoulder and sing along with that

15:35

might even if you don't know them,

15:37

even if you don't know the words

15:39

on your is there in this moment,

15:41

inhabiting it together. And it's. I

15:43

don't know, I guess. In any

15:46

moment of of real presence.

15:48

You. Are consenting this sense as.

15:51

Of communion but also the

15:53

fleeting Nasa's any. gathering of

15:55

people have any. Of

15:58

time. And

18:01

it's not insignificant that the first

18:03

month of the new year is

18:06

January, which is named

18:08

for the Roman god Janus, who

18:10

was two-faced, one

18:12

direction looking back and one direction

18:15

looking forward. You

18:18

know, this may not be the last song that

18:20

our listeners hear this year, but it is the

18:22

last side door episode that they will hear in

18:24

this calendar year, so I feel that this is

18:26

a nice note to go out on. No

18:30

pun intended. Yeah, oh, pun, well,

18:32

I'll pretend that I intended the pun. Thanks

18:37

so much, Jim, for talking with us. You're

18:39

most welcome, Lizzie. It's always a pleasure

18:41

to be on one of our side

18:43

door podcasts. And Happy New Year. And

18:45

Happy New Year. And

18:48

Happy New Year to all of

18:50

you, side doorables. And

18:52

because Old Lang Syne does have a bit

18:55

of a melancholy edge to it, I wanted to

18:57

end this episode with one of my favorite

18:59

recordings of it. This is

19:01

from the Folkways catalog, and it's

19:03

a bluegrass banjo recording from the

19:05

1970s. This

19:08

is a version that makes me want to start

19:10

the new year dancing. So if

19:12

you want to, you can get up and boogie with me. You've

19:28

been listening to Side Door, a podcast

19:30

from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

19:34

Longtime listeners might recognize the singers you heard at

19:36

the very beginning of the episode and again at

19:38

the end. That's our

19:40

very own food historian, Ashley Rose

19:42

Young. We're her friends, Steven Worth and

19:44

Emily Howell. They

19:47

provided some music for us last year in

19:49

our episode, A Very Merry Side Door, which

19:51

is definitely worth checking out if you haven't

19:53

heard it. And especially if you

19:55

have any questions about Ziggy Pudding. Special

19:59

thanks to this episode today. Jim Deutch at the

20:01

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural

20:03

Heritage. Other music you

20:05

heard in this episode comes from the Library

20:07

of Congress and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

20:09

We'll link to those in our newsletter.

20:11

You can subscribe at si.edu. Slash.

20:15

Side door. Our

20:17

podcast is produced by James Morrison and

20:19

me, Lizzie Peabody. Our associate producer is

20:22

Natalie Boyd, who really loved the charge

20:24

on this episode. Executive

20:26

producer is Ann Canannan. Our editorial

20:28

team is Jess Soddick and Sharon

20:30

Bryant. Tammy O'Neill writes our

20:32

newsletter. Episode artwork is by Dave

20:35

Winard. Our show is mixed

20:37

by Tarik Suda. Our theme song

20:39

and episode music are by Breakmaster Cylinder.

20:42

Extra support comes from PRX. If

20:45

you have a pitch for us, send us

20:47

an email at sidedoor at si.edu. If

20:50

you want to sponsor our show, please

20:52

email sponsorship at prx.org. I'm

20:55

your host, Lizzie Peabody. Keep

20:57

felling. GBRX