Mr. Cellophane

Album: Chicago (1975)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is another song from the musical and film Chicago; sung by the disillusioned husband of accused murderess Roxie Hart to her lawyer Billy Flynn, it has the same credits as the rest of the songs in this award winning show: music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb.

    The cellophane reference is because Amos Hart feels people can walk right through him without knowing he is there. The real Amos had every right to feel that way. The character Roxie Hart was based on Beulah Annan, who shot her lover dead in April 1924. Then she sat drinking cocktails and playing the record "Hula Lou" again and again before phoning her husband, Al. Mechanic Albert Annan was Beulah's second husband; in spite of her cuckholding him he stood by her, funding her defense. The day after she was acquitted, she left him because he was "too slow" and filed for divorce claiming he had deserted her.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.