A popular song from 1911
Words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Mabel Brown came to town
All dressed up in her gingham gown
And a ribbon in her hair
In her eyes a vacant stare
Joined a show, wrote her beau
Mabel wanted to let him know
She was earning, so to speak
Twenty dollars a week
Her beau came down to New York town
To see his Mabel dear
The minute that he saw her flat
He whispered in her ear
Chorus
How do you do it, Mabel
On twenty dollars a week?
Tell us how you are able
On twenty dollars a week
A fancy flat and a diamond bar
Twenty hats and a motor car
Go right to it, but how do you do it
On twenty dollars a week?
- Mabel’s beau couldn’t go
Hung around for a week or so
Till he’d written on a pad
All the things that Mabel had
When he’d spent every cent
Right to Mabel he quickly went
For a small financial loan
Then he started for home
Each girl he met down home, you bet
He told them all he saw
Next day a mob were on the job
At Mabel’s flat to roar
Chorus
How do you do it, Mabel
On twenty dollars a week?
Tell us how you are able
On twenty dollars a week
We’d like to work in the chorus, too
Earn our twenty the same as you
If we knew it, we’d willingly do it
On twenty dollars a week
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: