Back in the day, Jerome Kern provided the score for what was once the most famous musical on Broadway, Showboat. He did plenty of other excellent shows, including Roberta, made into a film now (mostly) famous for being the third, and one of the best, of the eight films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did together, which I reviewed here. However, Fred and Ginger had to play second fiddle in this film to official leads, Randolph Scott and Irene Dunne. Scott, of course, was seriously non-dancing/non-singing, but Dunne, while no hoofer, had excellent pipes, which she showed off to great effect on “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
The clip shown below gives the vocal, but not the video, from the film, and the sobbing at the end comes from the fact that she thinks Randy doesn’t love her, though (of course) he does. After her vocal we hear the musical accompaniment to Fred and Ginger’s dance—rather pointless, since we don’t get to see it.
I have no idea if Thelonious Monk ever saw Roberta, but he obviously liked the sound of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” and in 1954 he recorded the remarkable version shown below (also no video, alas), accompanied by Frank Foster, tenor sax, Ray Copeland, trumpet, Curly Russell, bass, and Art Blakey drums..
