1910 sheet music cover

Come Josephine In My Flying Machine is a popular song with music by Fred Fisher and lyrics by Alfred Bryan.[1] First published in 1910, the composition was originally recorded by Blanche Ring and was, for a time, her signature song.[2] Ada Jones and Billy Murray recorded a duet in November 1910, which was released the following year. There have been many subsequent recordings of the pop standard.

Background

Come Josephine was allegedly based upon Josephine Sarah Magner (April 22, 1883 – July 15, 1966), who was perhaps the first woman parachutist in America with her initial jump in 1905. She was married to early aviation pioneer Leslie Burt Haddock (April 10, 1878 – July 4, 1919), made hundreds of jumps, and assisted Haddock in the building of the first U.S. Army dirigible (Signal Corps Dirigible Number 1) designed by her uncle Thomas Scott Baldwin.[3]

The song tells of a young man bringing his girlfriend along on a flight on his personal airplane. Written in the early days of aviation, it expresses the technological optimism of the era. For example, the song mentions the couple feeling they could "hit the Moon",[4] a feat which was eventually accomplished less than 70 years after the release of the standard.

References

  1. "Come Josephine In My Flying Machine" by Fred Fisher and Alfred Bryan, (New York: Shapiro,1910)
  2. Blanche Ring video on YouTube. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  3. Barker, Jack. "Exeter Woman Wrote Aviation History Now 80, She Recalls First Parachute Jump." Portsmouth (NH) Herald, Dec. 7, 1963, p. 10.
  4. America's Songs II by Michael Lasser, (New York, NY: Routledge, 2014) p. 48.
  5. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Titanic Deleted Scenes Part 2. YouTube.
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