Sigmund Romberg's "Fat, Fat, Fatima"

I saw a 1954 bio pic about the composer Sigmund Romberg "Deep in My Heart". Romberg was best known for writing operettas like "The Student Prince" or "New Moon"




altho, poor Romberg is not given primary authorship credits on imdb

Romberg is listed almost at the end of the very end of the page, below costume and makeup departments :-(

In addition to writing more staid, prestigious operettas, Romberg occasionally tried his hand at more light hearted comedy musicals.


"Fat, Fat, Fatima" was a song in 1921 stage musical "Love Birds" with music by Sigmund Romberg
and lyrics by Ballard McDonald:

In the film, Sigmund Romberg was played by José Ferrer, who perhaps is better known for his dramatic roles. The piano player, Ben Judson, was played by Jim Backus of "Gilligan's Island" Thurston Howell III fame:

and in case the link breaks:

The lyrics for the film adaptation seem to differ from the original stageplay's version:

In my harem, avoirdupois In my harem, furnishes joy A lady cannot qualify unless she is fat, Her market rate depends on weight, and speaking of that Chorus 1See my fat fat, fat fat Fatima, she's my favorite wife, My favorite wife You ought to see my fat fat, fat fat Fatima, She's the joy of my life The joy of my life The ladies never come too fat for me She weighs two hundred or maybe it's three That is just a guess, may be more or less, Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, My Fatima's fat and nifty, Oh, my fat fat fat fat Fatima, she's a wonderful gal, More like a pal And when I think about Fatima, My head's in a whirl, About my girl The only time we ever row or ever have a scrap Is when my fat Fatima tries to sit upon my lap, She's just a bit too fat for that love making business, Fat Fatima, My beautiful pearl.

The film version converts Fatima into the Caliph's daughter vs his wife, plus finds a rhyme for "hippopotamus":

See my fat, fat, fat Fatima
She's my favorite child, my favorite child
You ought to see my fat, fat Fatima
She is gentle and mild, and not very wild
Fatima's size is really out-of-bounds
she's a good 200 pounds
This is just a guess, maybe more or less
20, 30, 40, 50 my Fatima's neat and nifty
Oh, my fat, fat Fatima
She is very voluminous, fill-up-a-room-inous
From-top-to-bottom-ous, She's hippopotamus
so gingersnap-able, sit-in-her-lap-able
Fatima's a fabulous girl.

Upon hearing this song, I immediately thought of Sean Hannity's nemesis, Debbie Schlussel, because I'm a horrible, horrible and sophomorically immature person:

@mitchellvii Not to be totally catty 🦁 just a little catty 😼 I suggest #DebbieSchlussel's theme song should be #SigmundRomberg's Fat Fat Fatima pic.twitter.com/775jRPBtaZ

— 🎼AdagioForStrings🎻 (@adagioforstring) May 7, 2017

@U_Quack_Addict @papacass84 @mitchellvii in case you don't like to click on links - a video describing Schlussel's attributes pic.twitter.com/7oilJdLmBj

— 🎼AdagioForStrings🎻 (@adagioforstring) May 7, 2017

It's not "creepy" for people to disagree with you if you conveniently drop a zero and claim your pant size is 4 -- it just means their optic nerves properly connect their eyeballs to their brains, from "Washington Feed" blog :

Since I spent an entire post body shaming chubby people, I'll try to atone for my sins by ending with Denyce Graves singing "Ave Maria"