Arbor Day

Should we sing a song about the trees on Arbor Day?
Should we sing a song about the trees that proudly sway?
Should we be so simple and as sweet a story tell?
No, we yell! What’s there to tell?

We’ve got rhythm, we’ve got music flair,
All over us, come and see the sideshow!
All you gather around for we have found
That our high notes make you quiver.

One, two, three, four [unintelligible].

Shake your shoulders and shake your —

At which point the principal shuts it down: “Shocking! Positively shocking!”

That’s a great moment from the 1936 Our Gang short Arbor Day, with George and Olive Brasno singing and, briefly, dancing. The link goes to the Brasnos’ performance. (The whole short has a racialized moment that you might prefer to skip.)

George and Olive Brasno, a brother-and-sister act, were quite a dynamic duo. IMDb identifies their song as “Doin’ the Crazy Walk,” but that title would seem to cover “Shake your shoulders” — certainly not the Arbor Day content. (Very strange: there’s an Ellington tune titled “Doin’ the Crazy Walk,” but it has nothing to do with the music in this short.

Here are the Brasnos dancing in Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936). And here, from The Colgate Comedy Hour (1952) is Olive dancing with Buster Shaver.