From George White’s Scandals, 1930
Words and music by Walter O’Keefe
Originally published as “The Flying Trapeze” in 1868
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Once I was happy, but now I’m forlorn
Like an old coat that is tattered and torn
Left in this world to weep and to mourn
Betrayed by a maid in her teens
Oh, this maid that I loved she was handsome
And I tried all I knew, her to please
But I never could please her one quarter so well
As the man upon the flying trapeze
Chorus
He floats through the air with the greatest of ease
The daring young man on the flying trapeze
His actions are graceful, all girls he does please
And my love he has stolen away
- He’d play with a miss like a cat with a mouse
His eyes would undress every maid in the house
Perhaps he is better described as a louse
But still people came just the same
He’d smile from the bar on the people below
And one day he smiled on my love
She blew him a kiss and she hollered, “Bravo”
As he hung by his nose up above - I wept and I whimpered, I simpered for weeks
While she spent her time with the circus’s freaks
The tears were like hailstones that rolled down my cheeks
Alas, and alack, and alaska
I went to this fellow, the blackguard, and said
“I’ll see that you get your desserts”
His thumb to his nose he put up with a sneer
He sneered once again and said, “Nertz” - One night to his tent he invited her in
Filled her with compliments, kisses, and gin
That started her off on the road to ruin
She made the supreme sacrifice
But e’en tho’ l loved her, I said, “Take my name
I’ll gladly forgive and forget”
She rustled her bustle and then without shame
She said, “Maybe later, not yet” - One night I as usual went to her dear home
Found there her father and mother alone
I asked for my love and it soon t’was made known
To my horror, that she’d run away
Without any trousseau she fled in the night
With him with the greatest of ease
From two stories high he had lowered her down
To the ground on his flying trapeze - Some months after that I went into a hall
To my surprise I found there on the wall
A bill in red letters which did my heart gall
That she was appearing with him
He’d taught her gymnastics and dressed her in tights
To help him to live at his ease
He’d made her assume a masculine name
And now she goes on the trapeze.
Last Chorus
Now she floats through the air with the greatest of ease
You’d think her a man on the flying trapeze
Her actions are graceful, all girls she does please
And that’s what’s become of my love
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: