"Stanley Boy"

"Aw, whaddya wanna do, sing 'Sonny Boy?'"That is Broadway's latest wisecrack to victims who complain unduly, or to friends grown maudlin in their cups. In England, "Sonny Boy," a super-saccharine ballad of child love introduced by Blackface Singer Al Jolson in his latest sound film, is still new and popular. More, it has become a Conservative campaign song.

Last week in London's staid Albert Hall, the mournful tune poured from the throats of 1,000 solid supporters of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

The Conservatives sang words of their own, however. "Stanley Boy" the song is to them. As to how the words got changed, this story is told: One Waldron Smithers, Conservative M.P., was asked by Prime Minister Baldwin to speak at a dance given for new Conservative voters. When Mr. Smithers arrived, Conservative couples were revolving on the floor to the strains of "Sonny Boy" Suddenly inspired, Mr. Smithers stepped to the platform, asked the bandmaster to repeat the selection. Then--even as the French patriot, Rouget de Lisle, is supposed to have improvised the "Marseillaise"; upon a cafe table top--Mr. Smithers is supposed to have improvised verses, of which the following is a sample: When there are grey skies We don't mind the grey skies, You make them blue, Stanley Boy. Though foes may mistake thee We'll not forsake thee, You'll pull us through, Stanley Boy.

For the benefit of Conservatives too shy to sing "Stanley Boy," too lethargic to attend party rallies, a new poster has appeared on British hoardings. It shows a lilliputian David Lloyd George and a bandy-legged Ramsay MacDonald violently speechifying near the easy chair of an apathetic young Conservative.

"Conservatives," ran the legend, "Lloyd George won't beat us--Ramsay won't defeat us--but Apathy might! VOTE!"