A popular song from 1905.
Words and music by George M. Cohan.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- The West, so they say, is the home of the jay
And Missouri’s the state that can grind them
This may all be, but just take it from me
You don’t have to go out West to find them
If you want to see the real jay delegation
The place where the real rubens dwell
Just hop on a train at the Grand Central Station
Get off when they shout “New Rochelle”
Chorus
Only forty-five minutes from Broadway
Think of the changes it brings
For the short time it takes, what a difference it makes
In the ways of the people and things
Oh! what a fine bunch of rubens
Oh! what a jay atmosphere
They have whiskers like hay, and imagine Broadway
Only forty-five minutes from here
- When the bunco men hear that their game is so near
They’ll be swarming here thicker than bees are
In Barnum’s best days, why he never saw jays
That were easier to get to than these are
You tell them old jokes and they laugh till they sicken
There’s giggles and grins here to let
I told them that one about “Why does a chicken”
The Rubens are all laughing yet
Chorus
Only forty-five minutes from Broadway
Not a cafe in the town
Oh! the place is a bird, no one here ever heard
Of Delmonico, Rector, or Browne
With a ten dollar bill you’re a spendthrift
If you open a bottle of beer
You’re a sport so they say, and imagine Broadway
Only forty-five minutes from here
Sung here by Fred Feild: