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Roaring 20s: Nat Shilkret's Orch. - Where Is My Meyer? 1927

1,360 views · Published 27 December 2018 · 3:07 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2018 · Music

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Where Is My Meyer? (A.Profes – L. Wolfe Gilbert) Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orch. Vocal refrain by: Arthur Hall, Victor 1927 (USA)

NOTE: This great German hit of 1927, belonging to the array of very popular in the late 1920s in Europe so called “nonsense song” ( – the Original German title: Was macht der Meier/ In Himalaya? Meaning: What’s doing my Meier in Himalaya? ) was presented in the USA by Russian theatre wandering troupe “Le Chauve-Souris” (French: The Bat). The revue was created in early 1900s in Moscow by the Armenian dancer and actor Nikita Balieff. 

In 1906 Nikita Balieff joined the famous Moscow Art Theatre led by  Constantin Stanislavski, yet after a couple of years of receiving only non-speaking roles, and with a desire to perform comedy rather than drama, Balieff created his own theatre group in a basement near the Moscow Art Theatre. He named the cabaret The Bat, after a well-known cabaret in Vienna called Fledermaus.  The Bat enjoyed much popularity until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Balieff then went into exile in Western Europe, and began performing for the Russian émigrés in Paris in 1920, then in London and in 1922 La Chauve-Souris made its first tour to America. The revue was performed on Broadway from February 1922 to June 1922 (153 performances) and January 1925 to March 1925 (61 performances). In following years, Balieff traveled to America 4 more times, appearing on Broadway with a final show in 1931. In 1927 Balieff was featured on the cover of Time magazine. 
The shows consisted of songs, dances, and sketches, most of which had been originally performed in Europe; Balieff, as master of ceremonies, delivered his monologues and introductions in a mix of Russian, French, and English language and slang coupled with much gesticulation. However, in private Balieff's English was much better than that of his stage persona. One of La Chauve-Souris's most popular acts, The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, which used the delightful Leon Jessel tune "Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten" ("The Parade of the Tin Soldiers"), referenced a story regarding Tsar Paul I, who one day left his parade grounds without issuing a "halt" order to the marching soldiers, who then kept marching and marching as far as Siberia before being remembered and ordered back. The Chauve-Souris "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" was also filmed in 1923. In 1934 Balieff created a new Chauve-Souris production, which however proved to be his last theatrical venture.

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