 STRIKE UP THE BAND
Music by George Gershwin: Lyrics by Ira Gershwin: Book by Murray Riskind
Times Square Theatre 14 January, 1930 (191 perfs)
SYNOPSIS
Horace J. Fletcher is a manufacturer of chocolates who is aggrieved
that Washington has refused to raise the tariff on Swiss chocolates.
A doctor gives him a sedative to help him sleep and this he does but
the sedative also induces dreams. In his dream he sees himself at the
head of an American Army that foes to war with Switzerland over the issue
of chocolates. The war was funded by Fletcher who becomes a national
hero, but not for long. The American newspapers uncover the unsavoury
fact that Fletcher's chocolates use Grade B milk - a fact that shocks
the whole nation.
Fletcher's daughter Joan has a fiancé, Jim Townshend . Jim is
suspicious of Fletcher, and has been from the first time they met. He
threatens to expose Fletcher which causes the latter to become an ardent
pacifist. This about face comes too late, however, to stop America going
to war against Switzerland. The Swiss hotel-keepers are delighted. They
are able to raise the prices of their rooms as the American soldiers
need lodgings. The war is somewhat phoney as there is never any engagement.
The Americans sit in their hotels knitting socks and sweaters for the
folks back home.
Accidentally, the enemy's secret call to arms is discovered - a yodel
- and the American troops are able to corner and rout the Swiss army.
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