The Happy Time

    I'd like to mark the sad death of Robert Goulet this week, and though his signature song is If Ever I Would Leave You, I have chosen instead the title tune from The Happy Time, for which Goulet won a Tony.  It opened in 1968 and was Goulet’s first Broadway appearance after his triumphant debut as Lancelot in Camelot some years earlier.

      Based on two brief meetings, twenty-four years apart, and a single phone call, I have long referred to Goulet as my buddy Bob.  The full story, if anyone is interested can be found in a little piece I wrote called Bob and Me, which is in the Archive Columns. In any case, The Happy Time was the first show I ever saw on Broadway.  As I recall, it was a little gem.  It offered a Kander and Ebb score, choreography by Gower Champion, a star turn by David Wayne and simple yet ingenious staging.  Since it is family fare and not topically obsolete, I am surprised that it seems not have had a life after Broadway.  Maybe it wasn’t as good as I remembered. 

     The Happy Time is a pretty little waltz that Goulet sang, and its melody remained in my head long after the other songs faded.  I will remember Goulet happily.  Click on the red title to hear it.  The lyrics are below.

 The Happy Time

Remember the Christmas morning long ago

The frosted glass, the dancing snow

The happy time.

Remember the painted horse, the carousel,

The chocolate kiss, the caramel

The happy time.

Remember a pale pink sky

Your first Easter hat.

And if you should ask me why

The reason I ask you this; is that

I want to remember you

Remembering

The happy time.