Where did music go?

One of the welcome additions to our TV listings is PBS, although unlike the US version it carries commercials. These are actually rather more welcome  than the endless begging for charity on the original.

One programme was a lengthy documentary on entertainment for the US military during WW2, which brought home with a vengeance what a plethora of wonderful talent was about compared to what passes for celebs today.

There were Bob Hope, still with us until fairly recently; Bing Crosby; the matchless Jack Benny; Schnozzle Durante; and just about every name you can think of from our remote childhood.

Then there was the glamour.

Dorothy Lamour; Dinah Shore and other stunning beauties and all wonderfully dressed. Compared with them, the Madonnas, Gagas and other ‘entertainers’ whose artificial looks are a tribute to the embalmer’s art and plastic prostheses, and dress like ten-dollar hookers.

And if you want ‘sexy’, just watch the incomparable Frances Langford singing ‘I’m in the mood for love’; that really does have the ‘Phwoar’ factor.

After the programme, I thought to myself ‘Whatever happened to music and laughter? There used to be so much of it about!’