(01/16/2020)


"(I'll See You In) C-U-B-A", Bing Crosby - Decca 23646-B (07/24/1946)

This week's theme: The 100th Anniversary of the Start of Prohibition in the 
U.S. (January 17, 1920)

I'll drink to that - or I guess not :-)

Actually "wartime" prohibition started July 1, 1919, but now the 18th 
Amendment makes it permanent.

This Bing Crosby song is from the 1946 movie "Blue Skies" which is basically 
a bunch of old Irving Berlin songs strung together.

The song was originally from the early 1920s and is about Prohibition and 
going to Cuba to escape it.

American businessmen (read that gangsters) turned Havana, Cuba into the 
1920s version of Las Vegas (on steroids). They ran steamships to there from 
Miami and had gambling and booze and whatever else you can think of - all 
just outside American jurisdiction. Fidel Castro booted them all out in the 
1950s after the Cuban revolution - which is why the mob helped the CIA in 
attempts to overthrow him - which in turn may have been a factor in the 
assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Blue Skies (Decca album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Skies_(Decca_album)

"I'll See You in C-U-B-A" (Billy Murray, 1920)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUSElG3VeU

Jack Kaufman -"I'll See You In C-U-B-A" (1920)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODW7ThUfbA

I'll See You In C.U.B.A. - Mezcla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZjKsHsl9I

I Love Lucy - I'm on my way to Cuba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSSXDUd9I-o

Memory trick: 18 and 21 are the two drinking ages we've had - makes it easy 
to remember - the 18th Amendment started Prohibition and the 21st repealed 
it.

Stay Jazzed!
--Tom Swezey