Ben Franklin, The Three Stooges, and Ancient Rites of Printers - the Inky History of Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu

In the Three Stooges’ short, Violent is the Word for Curley (1938), the Stooges blow up a car carrying three professors to Mildew Academy; assume the professors’ identities; and teach a class to a room full of co-eds.  The lesson consists of one of the best bits the Stooges ever put on film, the catchy song, Swingin’ the Alphabet; with the co-eds swingin' along like the Andrews Sisters.

The lyrics are simple; they start with “B-A, BA, B-E, Be” and continue through all of the vowels to “B-U, Bu,” and then cycle similarly through all of the consonants:

You can watch the song on Youtube.  Listen at about 1:42 of the video, where the girls replace the expected line, “licky li lo lu” with “Curley’s a Dope.”

In 2005, film historian Richard Finegan discovered a nearly identical song published in 1875 by Septimus Winner, the same man who penned the perennial favorites, “Ten Little Indians” and “Where o’ Where Has My Little Dog Gone?”   Septimus Winner's song, The Spelling Bee was, in turn, based on an even earlier song with lyrics that date back to at least 1740 – and may be even further.

In 1938, the brothers Herman Timberg and Sammy Timberg teamed up to write, Swingin’ the Alphabet, which appeared in the Three Stooges’ short, Violent is the Word for Curly.  Sammy Timberg is a musician and composer known for writing music for Fleischer Studios’ cartoons, such as Popeye, Betty Boop, and Superman; his brother Herman was a vaudeville performer.

Although they teamed up to write Swingin’ the Alphabet, they did not create the song from whole cloth.  It is nearly identical, rhythmically and lyrically, to Septimus Winner's 1875 song, The Spelling Bee.  But the melody is different, the arrangement was jazzed up, and the rhythm of a few of the bars were modified.

So the Timberg Brothers deserve at least some credit for spicing up an old song into a pretty cool swing song and memorable Three Stooges bit.

The Spelling Bee

Swingin' the Alphabet borrowed heavily from Septimus Winner's, The Spelling Bee (1875).  But like the Timberg Brothers, Septimus Winner borrowed heavily from an earlier song.

The lyrics of The Spelling Bee are identical to the earlier song, Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu, with the exception that Winner deleted the word "Bi" from the second beat of the third measure, moved up the rest of the lyrics, and replaced, "ba be bi'" with "bicky bi."  As a result, Septimus Winner achieved perhaps his biggest contribution to the song; fitting the lyrics comfortably into a more standard eight bar format.  The earlier song, Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu, had been stretched awkwardly into nine bars, with a hold on the last eighth-note of the sixth measure; it definitely did not “swing.”   

C. Wistar Stevens, College Song Book, Boston, Henry Tolman & Co., 1860.

Swingin’ the Alphabet and its predecessor The Spelling Bee are clearly based on Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu, which appeared in a book of college songs published in 1860, with musical accompaniment credited to C. W. Stevens[i].  The song was included in a group of songs traditionally associated with Harvard.  But Harvard was not the only school to sing the song; it also appeared in a collection of music for “day and Sunday schools,” in 1866, and in numerous college songbooks and other songbooks throughout the second half of the 19^thcentury, including, for example, the Princeton University songbook (1869) and the University of Michigan songbook (1875). The song was included in a compendium of traditional songs published as late as 1918.  

Septimus Winner, The Timberg Brothers and the Three Stooges may well have been exposed to the original version long before updating it for the ‘swing’ generation in the thirties. 

While it is possible, if not probable, that the song’s close association with several influential universities may have helped popularize the song, or at least keep it in the public eye for decades, the song did not originate with Septimus Winner or Wistar Stevens.  The song dates back to at least 1740, and is likely even older than that.  The song was reportedly sung as part of the initiation ceremony for new apprentice printers at printing houses in London.

The Gentleman’s Magazine (London), Volume 10, May 1740, page 240.[ii]

These Chapellonian initiation lyrics of 1740 are identical to the Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bulyrics as published in 1860 and in 1918.  The song remained unchanged for nearly two-hundred years – until they were jazzed up for the Stooges in 1938.

It is impossible to know how ancient the printers’ rites were in 1740, but it is easy to imagine that they were already well-established by 1740, and had been around for decades.  If so, it is possible that a young Ben Franklin sang the song in 1718 when, at the age of 12, he became an apprentice printer under his brother James.

I wonder what Ben would have made of the Three Stooges singing essentially the same song more than two hundred years later?  As the writer of humorous bits for his own newspapers, perhaps he may have appreciated the image as much as I do. 

And Ben Franklin would have been a more suitable replacement for Curly than the dreadful Curly Joe – but Ben was no dope.