I just found the WHOLE song of Grandma’s Lye Soap.  I had forgotten about the first part – “It’s In the Book”.  I remember – I was in nurses training – in 1952.  It was playing on the radio all the time.

Johnny Rivers – It’s Too Late Lyrics
Album:

Lyrics provided by stlyrics.com

It’s in The Book

I have a message for you – a very sad message!
My subject for this evening will be Little Bo Peep.
It says here, “Little Bo Peep, who was a little girl,
has lost her sheep,”
“And doesn’t know where to find them.”
Now that’s reasonable, isn’t it?
It’s, it’s reasonable to assume, if Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep,
It’s only natural that she wouldn’t know where to find them.
That, that basically is reasonabl-l-le, but, uh, “leave them alone”.
Now that overwhelms me, ?, completely overwhelms me.
The man said she lost her sheep, turns right around and boldly states,
“She doesn’t know where to find them”.
And then has the stupid audacity to say, “Leave them alone”!
Now! Now, now think for a moment! Think!
If the sheep were lost, and you couldn’t find them,
You’d have to leave them alone, wouldn’t you?
So, “Leave them alone”. “Leave them alone”.
It’s in the book!

“Leave them alone and they”, they being the sheep, “they will come
home”.
Ah yes, they’ll come home.
Oh, there’ll be a brighter day tomorrow, they will come home!
It’s in the book.

“They will come home? a-waggin’ their tails?”.
Pray tell me what else could they wag?
“They will come home a-waggin’ their tales ? behind them? behind
them”!
Did we think they’d wag them in front of them?
Of course, they might have come home in reverse.
They could have done that, I really don’t know.
But, none the less, it’s in the book.

So now if you will, kindly pick up your books, and turn to page 222.
We’ll ask you all to sing.
You’ll find your books on the backs of your seats.
Are we ready?

Everyone, 222. Let’s really enjoy ourselves, let’s live it up.
All together.

Do you remember grandma’s lye soap?
Good for everything in the home,
And the secret was in the scrubbing,
It wouldn’t suds and couldn’t foam.

Then let us sing right out of grandma’s, of grandma’s lye soap
Used for – for everything, everything on the place,
For pots and kettles, the dirty dishes, and for your hands and for
your face.

So we’ll now sing the second verse.
Let’s get it with great exuberance, let’s live it up.
It’s not raining inside tonight.
Everyone, let’s have a happy time.
Are we ready? All together, the second verse.

Little Herman and brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the lye soap.
And they haven’t heard a word in years.

Then let us sing right out of grandma’s, of grandma’s lye soap.
Sing all out, all over the place.
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes, and also hands and also f?.
(clapping fades)

Well, let’s sing what’s left of the last verse.
Let’s have a happy time, everyone.
The last verse, al-l-l-l together.
Ev-v-v-very one!

Mm-m-m-m. Thank you kindly, kindly,
M-m-mrs. O’Malley, out in the valley,
Suffered from Ulcers, I understand.
She swallowed a cake of grandma’s lye soap,
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land.

Then let us sing right out of grandma’s, of grandma’s lye soap.
Sing right out. All over the place.
The pots and – the pots and pans, oh dirty dishes,
And the hands??..

from CrazyAboutTV.com

Series Description:

The Lights Out TV show was a 30 minute anthology, horror series on NBC. Each week audiences were treated to tales of terror, mystery, and suspense, often involving the supernatural.

Lights Out Cast:

Jack La Rue............... Narrator (1949-1950)
Frank Gallop ............. Narrator (1950-1952)
Arlo Hults ............... Organist (1949-1952)
Doris Johnson ............ Harpist (1950-1952)
Paul Lipman .............. Theremin Player (1949) (See Trivia Below)

Lights Out Trivia:

The Lights Out TV show was inspired by the “Lights Out Radio Show“. It was broadcast from January 1, 1934 to August 6, 1947. It began on a local radio channel (WENR) in Chicago and then after a few months, it moved to the NBC Radio Network.

If you check out the episode list below, you’ll see that only four episodes of Lights Out were broadcast in 1946 and then no more until 1949. Ironically, the TV show also broadcast those first episodes on a local NBC station (WNBT-TV) in New York City as a four episode special. Then, three years later, NBC decided to bring it back as a series that would be broadcast nationally. In 1948, ABC, CBS, and NBC expanded their programming from nearly nothing to several hours per day. The shows were mostly simply entertainers (comics, singers, etc.) performing in front of a camera, talk shows, news shows, and a few that had to be produced. In 1949, the number of produced shows (needing actors, scripts, etc.) went way up and Lights Out was one of them!

Since Lights Out was an anthology series, there were no regular cast members from week-to-week. There was a well known guest star or two nearly every week, however. To name just a few, there was John Forsythe (“Dynasty“), Jonathan Harris (“Lost in Space“), Steven Hill (“Law & Order“), Ross Martin (“The Wild Wild West“), E.G. Marshall (“The Defenders“), Burgess Meredith (“Batman“), Leslie Nielsen (“Police Squad“), and Robert Stack (“The Untouchables“).

If you look at the cast list above, you’ll notice that a musician named “Paul Lipman” is credited as a “Theremin Player”. The Theremin is one of the first electronic musical instruments. It has two antennae that sense the position of the musician’s hands. One of them varies the tone of the music and the other varies the volume. It’s “eerie” sound has made it the instrument of choice as the background music for many movies including “Spellbound”, “The Spiral Staircase”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “The Thing”, and “The Ten Commandments”. It was also used in the soundtracks of several other motion pictures.

Before each episode began, the audience saw a close up of a pair of eyes followed by a bloody hand that reached out to turn off the lights. Then there was an eerie laugh and the narrator said, “Lights out everybody” followed by a candle being blown out. This same technique of getting the audience worked up and ready to be scared to death was used later by Alfred Hitchcock (“Alfred Hitchcock Presents“), Rod Serling (“The Twilight Zone“), and Boris Karloff (“Thriller“), and others.

Lights Out had some stiff competition for viewers when it first went nationwide in July of 1949! CBS was airing “Candid Camera” in the same time slot followed by “The Goldbergs“. Both of those were extremely popular shows. To make matters worse, Lights Out was followed by “The Cities Service Band of America” which was a series highlighting a 48 piece band, vocalists, glee clubs, and baton-twirling majorettes.

Like all nationwide shows at that time, Lights Out was broadcast live to New York City and was filmed on “kinescope” for later viewing in the rest of the U.S. Kinescope refers to the filming in black & white of a show using one camera and 16mm film.