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It's nice to learn the story behind the lyrics in "Mack the Knife". I'm just starting to get into the music of Kurt Weill, though I've known "Mack the Knife" all my life.

The role of Contessa Magda was a bit tame in that version, compared to the play or Showtime versions of "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone". What a sad tale.

• • Unfortunately, I missed seeing "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" in the cinema. I must have been roamin' around instead of in the movie theatres, alas! I do love Tennessee Williams.
• • Does anyone remember Lotte Lenya's portrayal of the villainous SPECTRE agent Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie "From Russia with Love" brought her additional fame. (Remember the knife blades in her shoes?)
• • "Mack the Knife" is a splendid song. How lucky she was in get her name in the lyrics [since she was present in the studio when Louis Armstrong, recording "Mack the Knife," improvised the line "Look out for Miss Lotte Lenya!" and added her name to the list of Mack's female conquests in the song]. That is a case of being in the right place at the right time, eh?
• • "The Threepenny Opera" has a long, illustrious history.
• • "The Threepenny Opera" was originally written as a political satire. "MacHeath" means "the son of the heath" - - in other words, a sort of highwayman. The dramatists were poking fun, in the play, at the Lord Mayor of London, the head of their police department, and other notable higher-ups, therefore, the writers could not use the real names. British playgoers knew who "Mac" ["MacHeath"] was really supposed to be, though.
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• • Are you a fan of Lotte Lenya [1898 - 1981]?
• • Have you seen "From Russia with Love"?
• • Have you seen "The Threepenny Opera"?
• • Do you know the song "Mack the Knife"?
• • Comments, comrades? Opinions? Sharp jabs of wit?
;-D
• • come up and see Mae • •

Love those James Bond movies! Lotte Lenya played a GREAT part as Rosa Klebb in To Russia with Love. It's the only movie I ever saw her in. What a toughie!
Surely everyone (of our generation, at least) has heard the song, Mack the Knife, but until now I had made no connection with the Lotte Lenya line.

• • Mack the Knife • •
• • Words & Music by Kurt Weill
• • From "The Three Penny Opera"
• • Recorded by Bobby Darin, 1959

D D6 Cdim A7
Well, the shark has pretty teeth dear,

A7+5 A7 A7sus4 A7 D6
And he keeps them pearl - y white

Bm Em
Just a jackknife has old MacHeath dear,

G/B A7sus4 A7 D Cdim A7
And he keeps it out of sight.

When the shark bites with his teeth dear,
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though wears old MacHeath dear,
So there's never a trace of red

Sunday morning on the sidewalk,
Lies a body oozing life
And some one's creeping around the corner,
Could that some one be Mack the knife?

From a tug boat on the river
A cement bag's dropping down
The cement's just for the weight dear,
Five'll get you ten ol' Macky's back in town

Louis Miller disappeared dear,
After drawing all his cash
And old MacHeath spends like a sailor --
Did our boy do someting rash?

Suky Tawdry, Jenny Diver,
Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Well, the line forms on the right girls,
Now that Macky's back in town!
__________________________
Source for the tidbits below: www.theguitarguy.com/mackthek.htm
view link

TRIVIA: the Lotte Lenya whose name appears late in the song is, in fact, a real person -- she was an Austrian-born singer and actress with a lucrative career in the years between the world wars, and on Broadway following WWII. Fans of Broadway productions probably knew her quite well; but even if you're not a theater-goer, you've probably seen her, without know it -- she played bad-gal Rosa Kleb [sic] in the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love" who tries to kill 007 by kicking him with her shoe/knife. (She also played a masseuse in Burt Reynolds' film "Semi Tough.)
I first heard it from Suzanne Wilemon, Director of Jazz Programming at KTCU in Texas, that Lenya had another sideline I'd never known about: she was also Mrs. Kurt Weill.
In information gained since this "revelation" I have learned that she was widely-recognized as an interpreter of Weil's [sic] songs, and as late as 1975 was planning a premiere of Weil's previously-unperformed works; her ill-health prevented that performance. (And I'll bet you thought Lotte Lenya was just a name.)

Recent visitor Tom P. was able to explain the Lotte Lenya reference even more clearly:

"Lotte Lenya was appearing in the Blitzstein version of "Threepenny Opera" in New York in the 1950s when Louis Armstrong recorded "Mack the Knife." This was well before Bobby Darin's version and was also a hit, although not as big as Darin's Sinatra-style version. Lotte Lenya was in the studio for the Armstrong session and Satchmo gave her a shout out as he sang the song, "Look out for Miss Lotte Lenya." When Darin recorded the song, he kept the line in.

"All the other women's names, Suky Tawdry, Jenny Diver, Lucy Brown, etc., appear in the original German version. Since the 'Threepenny Opera' is set in London (based on the original British "Beggar's Opera" by John Gay), the names are all English."

My limited research suggests he is correct on the English names. I'm told "Suky Tawdry" is a generic name for a lady of the evening, and I've also heard that Jenny Diver is a term used for a washerwoman. . . .
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• • Lotte Lenya [18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981], was a Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated singer and actress, born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer, in Vienna, Austria.
• • Comments, comrades? Opinions? Sharp jabs of wit?
;-D
• • come up and see Mae • •

Satchmo dropped out the character "Polly Peachum" and inserted Ms. Lenya's name into the lyrics. After doing a Google search for the lady friends of Mr. MacHeath, I assume that Satchmo and Lotte had a good laugh. I wasn't able to find the background for Lucy Brown, but I assume any friend of MacHeath's is of questionable background.

Jenny Diver's real name was Mary Young but she was re-christened by her gang as she was such an expert "diver", as pick pockets were known at the time. For simplicity I have called her Jenny Diver from hereon in. She was a professional criminal who became something of a celebrity, ending her career swinging from London's Tyburn Tree on Wednesday the 18th of March 1741. It is thought that she was about forty years old at the time of her death, although there is no precise record of her date of birth.

Partridge's "Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" states that circa 1820 Sukey was a lower-class diminutive of Susan, a "name frequent among servants". This probably led to "sukey-tawdry", a slatternly woman in fine tawdry.

Lavinia Paulet, Duchess of Bolton (1708 - 24 January 1760), known by her stagename as Lavina Fenton, was an English actress.
She was probably the daughter of a naval lieutenant named Beswick, but she bore the name of her mother's husband. She was thought to have been born in Charring Cross, and had been a child prostitute before becoming an actress. Her first appearance was as Monimia in Thomas Otway's The Orphan, in 1726 at the Haymarket Theatre. She then joined the company of players at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where her success and beauty made her the toast of the beaux. It was in John Gay's Beggar's Opera, as Polly Peachum, that Miss Fenton made her greatest success. Her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her, and she was the most talked-of person in London. Hogarth's picture shows her in one of the scenes, with the Duke of Bolton in a box.
After appearing in several comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of the Beggars Opera, she ran away with her lover Charles Paulet, 3rd Duke of Bolton, a man much older than herself, who, after the death of his wife in 1751, married her. Their three children all died young. The duchess survived her husband and died in 1760 at Westcombe House in Greenwich, being buried in St Alfege's Church, Greenwich on 3 February 1760.

• • Bravo! Well done, rsb1953! Excellent.
• • Polly Peachum: well, we know her specialty. Polly was a thief.
;-D
• • come up and see Mae • •

Wow, that's why I love this group, you get to read so much information about all these interesting people from the past. thanks for all these posts.