Ella Shields | Ella Shields: Burlington Bertie from Bow / 1929

when royalty gets hurt

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ella Shields: Burlington Bertie from Bow / 1929

 

The first of these short films, with Shields performing her signature song, is perhaps the least memorable. The full song, which has numerous stanzas, not all of them equally clever, ends rather successfully:

 

… I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten thirty

And Buckingham Palace I view.

I stand in the yard while they're changing the guard

And the queen shouts across "Toodle oo"!

The Prince of Wales' brother along with some other

Slaps me on the back and says "Come and see Mother"

But I'm Bert, Bert, and Royalty's hurt,

When they ask me to dine I say no.

I've just had a banana with Lady Diana

I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow.

 

    The song influenced many other performances, including Julie Andrews’ performance of Bertie in drag in Star! and, more importantly, Irving Berlin’s “A Couple of Swells” performed most memorably by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade (1948).

 

Los Angeles, November 5, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (November 2023).