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"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"

In the opening sequence of Lifeboat (1944), we see various pieces of flotsam floating by from the wrecked ship, including a poster for the parlour song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", apparently performed by "The Bates Minstrels".

Jeanie.jpg

Possibily coincidental, "The Bates College Minstrels" were a revue group performing in the early 1900s in and around Lewiston, Maine and it's feasible that "Jeanie" was included in their act:

Stephen Collins Foster published the song in 1854 and it received ubiquitous radio airplay in the early 1940s, which might explain it's inclusion in the film.

"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" by Stephen Foster

I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air;
I see her tripping where the bright streams play,
Happy as the daisies that dance on her way.

Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour,
Many were the blithe birds that warbled them o'er:
Oh! I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.

I long for Jeanie with the daydawn smile,
Radiant in gladness, warm with winning guile;
I hear her melodies, like joys gone by,
Sighing round my heart o'er the fond hopes that die...

Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain,
Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
Oh! I long for Jeanie, and my heart bows low,
Never more to find her where the bright waters flow.

I sigh for Jeanie, but her light form strayed
Far from the fond hearts round her native glade;
Her smiles have vanished and her sweet songs flown,
Flitting like the dreams that have cheered us and gone.

Now the nodding wild flowers may wither on the shore
While her gentle fingers will cull them no more:
Oh! I sigh for Jeanie with the light brown hair,
Floating, like a vapor, on the soft summer air.

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