One of the best things for me about writing this blog and this site* has been the feedback and response from readers and fans of Howard’s work. The impetus for Howardashman.com was my fear that Howard’s singular talents might be forgotten or marginalized – not on purpose, of course, but because he wasn’t here to make you remember. I was clearly wrong. But what knocks me out is not the general, “I really loved that show-movie,” stuff. What knocks me out are the specifics.
For instance, I got a note from Rob Shapiro – someone I don’t know – who wrote to tell me that when he took his SATs (and since he has a daughter, and has been a fan since Little Shop premiered, I’m assuming that was a while back) he proudly knew the words ‘tawdry,’ and ‘prattle,’ because of Howard.
Actually, I can’t remember where prattle comes from – sounds like Mermaid to me. Anyone have the answer?
Tawdry, of course, comes from poor Audrey, wearing low and tawdry apparel.
I have always amused myself with the idea of innocent little ones figuring out the word, “expectorating,” after listening to Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Of course, the animators made sure to give a nice visual aid to that one, as well.
So keep those cards and letters coming in, please. And if you’d like to add your own two cents about words my brother made you look up – please do.
(*I didn’t create this website – that’s a specialized skill that was outsourced to my husband and a very good web design group called Wild Frog Studio but I did provide, as they say in the biz, the content.)
Tags: Beauty and the Beast, Disney, gaston, howard ashman, Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors, musical comedy
Perhaps not as lofty as some of the other examples of vocabulary-expansion, but I learned the meaning of the word “nookie” when playing Seymour in Little Shop in high school.
Come to think, how many high school actors know who Donna Reed is without a Google search?
I love this blog! And I’m reminded that every time I go on a house or kitchen tour in the Pasadena area (which I do quite frequently) or visit a real estate “open house,” one of my favorite Howard lyrics always comes to mind: “I use antlers in all of my decorating…” (and crazily enough, lots of these people do!)
I could go on for at least an hour writing about how Ashman’s lyrics expanded my vocabulary. Starting at age 4, even though I was too young to understand the more ‘advanced’ words, I asked my mom what they meant and tried to learn them anyway. It was very important to me to know every word in my favorite Disney songs…and I’m glad since that proved to be useful when I got older. Even recently I’ve learned new things from his songs that I didn’t know before. No doubt, Howard’s lyrics are really educational!
When I studied William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Year 10 of secondary school, I immediately recognised Lady Macbeth’s line ‘Screw your courage to the sticking place’ as being also used by the character of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast during ‘The Mob Song.’ It made that quote oh so much easier to remember when writing essays on Macbeth!
Yes, Sarah, I learned ‘Prattle’ from Mermaid. And yeah, I’m not a teenager anymore! I discovered Howard’s music as a youth, I had heard that some guys had made a musical out of one of my favorite old horror movies, Little Shop. A friend got a bootleg of the cast recording on a cassette tape for me, and I was hooked. Between Howard’s lyrics and Alan’s love note to 60′s pop music, it was nothing like I had ever heard before. And yes, the lyrics were just mind blowingly clever. And though I never made it to Harvard, I thoroughly blame Howard for at least two extra points on my SAT verbal score.
You’re right that “prattle” is from MERMAID. It’s Ursula’s “After all, dear, what is idle prattle for?” in “Poor Unfortunate Souls”
P.S. This website is great.