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rosabelle - captain howdy lyrics

[spoken word]
one of my favorite things about harry houdini was how much he hated spiritualists. he busted ’em every chance he got, and he made a promise to the world: if there were a life after death, if people could come back from the dead, he, harry houdini, would do it. he would come back to his wife, bess, and he would call her “rosabelle.” “rosabelle” was harry’s pet name for bess, from this song they sang, the first time they appeared on stage together

[first verse]
there was a maiden, sweet rosabelle
the fairest of all that i know
all the beauties of heaven
and riches here below
cannot compare with this innocent
angel of whom i shall tell
list to the tale of my first love
sweet rosabelle
[chorus]
rosie, sweet rosabelle
i love her more than i can tell
o’er me she casts a spell
my charming black*eyed sweet rosabelle

[spoken word]
most biographies of harry houdini will tell you that harry called bess “rosabelle.” they’ll also tell you that it’s from a song, but that’s about all they know. a friend of ours, theresa, decided to find out what song it was. she went through the smithsonian and the library of congress, digging around for days. and finally, in a box marked “1890s” she found a piece of sheet music: “rosabelle.” she faxed it to the penn and teller office in las vegas, and teller and i got all excited. we could use this in a show! we read the first verse, a love song, and then we read the second verse

[second verse]
’twas on a cold winter’s evening
i heard a faint cry at my door
just a wail, just a something
that i never heard before
there on the steps lay a baby
my heart at once seemed to swell
i took it in and i named it
sweet rosabelle

[chorus]
rosie, sweet rosabelle
i love her more than i can tell
o’er me she casts a spell
my charming black*eyed sweet rosabelle

[spoken word]
okay, so it’s not a traditional love song, it’s a love song to an adopted child. that’s okay, that’s fine. we could use that, we could use that. harry called bess “rosabelle” from this song but that doesn’t mean that the song had to be interpreted literally. it’s just, many adults call their lovers “baby,” and the song was popular and they’d sung it together on stage and that’s fine, and we, we looked it over and turned the page and then we read the third verse. and, well, we decided that we just couldn’t use it
[third verse]
often we speak of the incident
that cold winter’s night long ago
when i first loved the baby
and oh how it seemed to grow
i loved the child and the little miss
i then loved the woman as well
she gave her hand, soon i’ll marry
sweet rosabelle

[chorus]
rosie, sweet rosabelle
i love her more than i can tell
o’er me she casts a spell
my charming black*eyed sweet rosabelle

- captain howdy lyrics

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