Dark Monday • Aba Daba Honeymoon

There are certain break-out performances that manage to put a performer in a different light, and one can be found in the movie 'Two Weeks With Love'. The 1950 film starred Jane Powell & Ricardo Montalbán, both fairly big names at the time. But as you can see in the poster above, there is one young lady, in only her second movie appearance for MGM, who didn't make it on to that poster. Young and brunette, Debbie Reynolds was just finding her way in Hollywood.She was singed under contract to Warner Brothers at 16, appearing in two films before she was signed by MGM. Still working her way up the ladder, her role in 'Two Weeks With Love' was a second-tier lead, playing the sister of the star, Jane Powell. In the movie, Debbie had a song that pretty much stole the film. Debbie sang "Aba Daba Honeymoon", a popular song written and published by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan in 1914, with Carleton Carpenter, and it became a sensation. In fact, the recording of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" by Debbie and Carleton, went to #3 on the Billboard charts in 1951. The song has a silliness that must leave you with a smile.

You can purchase "Aba Daba Honeymoon" on iTunes and Amazon. Two years later, Debbie would appear on the poster of another MGM musical, her fourth film. She would costar with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in a little musical you might know, 'Singing In The Rain'.