It is beautiful 😭.

Then you have never heard Ann Southen’s singing of this most heartfelt sentiment of Paris before the very worst happened - or at least to one side of humanity for there were others who accommodated the Nazis than ever their ancestors did to the English of previous centuries, but that’s another story as another very popular singer - this time from France - who would accompany non other than Tom Jones in a quite superb duo each in his/her own linguistic version of the same song... Ann Southen sang this very beautiful Song when the evil deed had been done and the Capital of France of times before 1939 became but distant memories...and Ann Southen in her most poignant rendering of the Poem Sung captured the hearts of millions of courageous stout-hearted men and women throughout the Free World which in European terms meant only Britain ie England, Scotland, Wales AND Ulster aka Northern Ireland and a handful of neutral Countries some Democratic eg Sweden and Switzerland, others hardly democratic eg Spain and Portugal, and another which democratic yet anti-British ie the Free State of Ireland, and worse the sole self-governing aka of dominion status of the free British Commonwealth of Nations that had chosen NOT to join the Cause of Freedom Against the Curse of Fascist/Nazi Imperialism....But I digress but my point being neither Elizabeth Taylor, Dinah Shore nor Julie Andrews could ever have the pretension age-wise no fault of theirs of course to communicate by song the anguished suffering mental and physical of decent hearts of courageous men and women engaged in the fight to defend their freedoms and in the words of the GM the Saviour of Good Men and Women “Never to Give in...!” Julie Andrews was ill-advised to sing this beautiful song, and she certainly could not act the part, what the hell did she know about WW2? But then I am no admirer of hers maybe because her wedding was in my own Church, either that or because her smile in the Song remains terribly unconvincing.

@@dennisroyhall121 - an awful lot of blether. Paris was declared an open city in 1940 to avoid destruction and the French troops abandoned it. What did Julie know about WW2? Well she was certainly young but kept watch/listened out for incoming V1 flying bombs as they dropped on the London area where she was living, and blew a whistle to warn the neighbours to take shelter as the bombs destroyed various parts of London - no open city there (referenced in her memoir Home). Others have already pointed out how Oscar Hammerstein, the lyricist of the song, talked to her about his reasons for writing it. She must have gained some insight into what he felt.

Julie Andrews was waiting in the wings for “Cinderella” and she started to whistle this and Oscar Hammerstein said “You know I meant every word of that when I wrote it.” I’ve always meant to listen to it, but hadn’t till today.

This is a WWI song, not WWII.

​@@quietpickle4549- definitely WW2. The Germans never reached Paris in WW1. Are you getting confused with Julie's WW1 film Darling Lili?

It talks about Paris after the Great Depression in 1929. This song from British short story “ Babylon revisited” .

+Stephen Woehr I heard this same story on a PBS documentary last week...so I'm keeping it as factual.

:-)

Ah. I've just been reading Julie's memoir (which brought me to here) and it is she recalls that once whilst waiting in the wings of "My Fair Lady" she was whistling the tune to this song when Hammerstein himself walked up behind her and said something along the lines of: "When Paris fell to the Germans during the war, and remembering the city as I once knew it, I felt compelled to write that lyric." Although, given that Hammerstein and Kern worked together on this pieces, perhaps its a little of the two.

stottie92 it was at the rehearsal of Cinderella, written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, that this exchange occurred.

Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the lyrics for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in June 1940, when he heard the news that Paris had fallen to the Germans. He wanted to write a love letter to the city he remembered. He read the lyrics over the phone to his collaborator, composer Jerome Kern, who immediately composed a "sprightly and lilting melody" to accompany the "wistful words". That's from a biography of Hammerstein, "Getting To Know Him", by Hugh Fordin.

Not me, but that is interesting. Does the book reference the song or the movie? My husband is a big Clive Cussler fan.

@@abrock4052 spoiler "The bartender was gone, probably gawking with the others outside, but a blond-haired woman with long bare legs, narrow waistline, and bronze-tanned skin sat at a baby grand piano that was covered in gleaming brass. She wore a seductively tight, black sequinned mini dress. She was playing a moody rendition of “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” and was playing it badly while singing the words in a throaty voice. Four empty martini glasses sat in a row above the keyboard. She looked as if she had spent the entire day since sunup drowning in gin, the obvious cause behind her sour performance. She stopped in mid-chorus, staring in hazy curiosity at Pitt and Giordino through velvet green eyes, bleary and barely half open."

The movie is worth watching if you like old movies. It was on TCM a day or two ago - which brought me here