Anne Soulé: She's Gone!

 

Anne Soulé was a UC Berkeley graduate circa 1951 who wrote the music for the University's dramatic society Mask & Dagger's '51 revue "Look Out Below". That summer she joined local satirical theatrical group Straw Hat Theatre, then in their sixth year of existence, and was featured in their 1951 revue "No Strings Attached", their '52 show "No Worse for Wear", and their '53 revue "One Moment, Please!" The latter two revues were major hits, and Anne appeared with cast member John Tomaschka reprising their roles as a tourist and tour guide in Tyrolean costume yodeling while climing the Alps in the sketch "Globe-Trotter's Lament" on KPIX in June of that year. Another notorious skit from the show was "Opera Made Easy", where she accompanied William Rush on the piano as Rush lectured on "Ring of the Nibbledingunlied" to a ladies' club.

In 1953 she joined the cast of children's play "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" touring the Northwest. In 1955 she briefly joined the cast of avant-garde local troupe the New Theatre operating from the Town Hall, a 100-seat converted storefront in Oakland, performing in an e.e. cummings play, "Him", before joining the cast of the Actors Workshop production of Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real", followed by "The Rose Tattoo" at the Playhouse and "Twelfth Night" at Theater Arts, both in San Francisco.

The next year, after a solo stint at the hungry i, Anne directed and wrote the music and lyrics for "Too Much for TV", a revue at the Theater Arts Colony, San Francisco, which closed in June. In July San Francisco label New Sound released this, her only record. (I've no idea why the cover refers to her as "The Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud", but since the early 1950s a novelty song of the same name had been making the rounds recorded by multiple artists, riffing on the title song of the 1933 musical comedy "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi".) Beyond this biographical information, I've got nothing - marriage? Death? No idea.

"She's Gone" is much in the Tom Lehrer vein of the "Sick, sick, sick" school of satire, with a little blue humor thrown in. Highlights include "Oedipus" (you can't go wrong writing a comedy song about Oedipus, it's an old show-biz rule); "Raven" (a Yiddishkeit recitation of Poe's immortal poem); "Do de Do" (a song from the point of view of an obnoxious girl who can't figure out why her boyfriend left her flat); and "Alone with You" (a slightly more fetish-skewing Noel Coward sound-alike that would have been the perfect theme song to the imaginary musical "Sport-Fuckers of '33").

Angelique
Oedipus
Raven
Riding Jacket
Always a Princess
Amanda Barefoot
Do de Do
Dr. Lapdad
Myrtle Mavis & Maude
Caubel
Alone with You

 

 

 

Album audio & artwork

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