Elsewhere in these posts I’ve mentioned that corporate work assignments in South America in the early to the mid-Twentieth Century often included generous annual home leaves. Although my father’s point of origin was Massachussets, we usually spent his leave in Miami, visiting family; however, every two years or so, my father would take us to New York City for a few days. He knew the city pretty well as he’d attend Yankee games during his high school years in Massachussets.
On one of our visits, circa 1959, we were treated to a nice restaurant: one of those with violinists going from table to table playing diners’ requests. At our table, after Mother’s request had been honored, the violinist asked me for a favorite. I said, “Three Coins In A Fountain”!
The violinist was stunned and laughed loudly. He played it and then said, “I was not expecting that request at all!. I was expecting something like this!”
He proceeded to play an energetic rendition of “Pop Goes The Weasel”, which I also enjoyed.
Then he asked my parents about our music listening habits and they told him some of the records we had at home besides children records: music by composers such as Beethoven and Bach as well as movie soundtracks, such as my request. They told him that my favorite soundtracks were South Pacific and Around the World In 80 Days.
That was true, but it would have been more accurate to have said that whenever I thought of those, I would think principally of “Bali Ha’i” from the first and “India Country Side” from the second.
In 1986 during an audit assignment overseas, the once-pretty-good 60 Minutes broadcast a piece wherein Diane Sawyer traveled with James Michener to the island of Espíritu Santo (New Hebrides Islands, now named Vanuatu, in the Pacific) where he, forty years before, had written Tales of the South Pacific.
A little over halfway in the interview, Sawyer asked him whether his favorite tune was “You’ve Got To Be Taught” — a tune about Americans being prejudiced or racist. Typical question by a mainstream journalist which received an atypical reply: “Bali Ha’i”. I was not a fan of Michener’s politics. But I softened quite a bit towards him when he gave that answer. In that, we were united.
A few years later, in 1993, I was in Mexico City on business. After dinner on the night before my departure, I returned to my hotel room ready to hit the sack for a few hours before an early flight the next morning. But as I crossed the lobby, I saw that a television set was playing Around the World In 80 Days.
So, against my better judgment, I flipped on the set in my room and watched, looking for the scene where Cantinflas gazes out the window of his sleeper car as the soundtrack plays “India Country Side”.
The next morning, in the taxi, the driver casually commented, “Bueno, se nos fue Cantinflas.”
I had not listened to the news nor even glanced at newspaper headlines, so did not know that he had died the night before, as I watched the film that marked his American debut. To this day, I do not know whether the station knowingly broadcast that movie that night or whether it was done because they knew that Cantinflas was dying and actually passed away at 9:25.
When I think of El Pao, oftentimes several tunes invade my mind and heart. Among them, invariably, the music of “Bali Ha’i” and “India Country Side” are close to center stage.

Diane Sawyer interviews James Michener in 1986

Cantinflas about to press against the window to marvel at the India Country Side, 1956