Mr. Cellophane

Album: Chicago (1975)
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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.

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