A Symposium on Popular Songs (1962)

Paul Frees: Ludwig Von Drake, Al Jolson

Photos 

Quotes 

• [zoom in on large mansion with extensive grounds, statuary, and monuments] 

  Ludwig Von Drake : Hello there! Welcome to my modest home!

• Ludwig Von Drake : Popularity is fickle, and soon my ragtime was worn to shreds and the people shouted, "Ludwig, pay your bills!" No, that isn't what they said, that was my laundry man who said that.

• Ludwig Von Drake : Dis is my Hi-Fi studio. Now everybody knows what "Hi-Fi" stands for, ha ha: "High financing", which you better secure before you start making a studio like dis, because I'm gonna tell ya it's gonna cost you a fortune!

• Ludwig Von Drake : So dere I was, down to my last nickel. I ate it. No, what am I saying?

• Ludwig Von Drake : [showing the inside of his stereo]  You know what I got here? I got woofers and tweeters and coaxials and bafflers and crossovers and changers and washers and dryers and wa- Washers and dryers I got here? Ha ha!

• Ludwig Von Drake : And what can I do for you? Oh, yes! Ha ha ha, I forgot! I invited you here to answer in one fell swoop all da questions you've been bugging me about popular music. And, of course, you came to da right place, for dey don't call me "Pops Von Drake" for nothin'. Dey gotta pay me.

• Ludwig Von Drake : Da wireless was replacing da gramophone. Y'know something, I don't know why dey call it a "wireless", because, ha ha, look at all dose wires dere. Some nut called it a "wireless". Maybe dat's why dey changed da name to radio, which is really "oidar" spelled backwards.

• Ludwig Von Drake : Around the turn of the century, I was a starving musician, and I was down to my last rutabaga. And anybody knows what that means: I was dressed in rags all the time.

  [sobs] 

  Ludwig Von Drake : Even my clothes was in rags. And I said to myself, "That's it! I will call my new syncopation... ragtime!"