I first met Danielle Gilman when I picked her up hitchhiking on Fordham Road in the Bronx. Our relationship was every bit as unlikely. We were lovers for a while, but we morphed into movie buddies, and she introduced me to the wonderful world of American Movies which we saw religiously each weekend at the Theater 80 St. Marks. I had been brought up mostly on foreign film but watching Astaire and Rogers with Danielle was a game-changer for me. There actually was a Margaret Elinore Chessington from Baltimore whom I met and had a brief conversation with around that time. I had no romantic interest in her but I thought her name scanned wonderfully well, it stuck in my head and emerged in this song. I played this song for Danielle; she was unimpressed (and I suspect did not like the way I portrayed her).
Lyrics
Margaret Elinore Chessington
Have you met the girl next door
Late arrived from Baltimore
Though she’d left four year or more before
Doesn’t get along with cats
You’d never catch her wearing hats
Or sitting with her legs crossed on the floor
She finds great warmth in cathedral bells
Is put off by a cloudless sky
Staring down the wind with stained glass eyes
Margaret Elinore Chessington from Baltimore
You’ll find you’re missing her before
She is even gone
Margaret is working on her doctorate
She won’t deny her habits for her health
She bears scars from times when she was rocked a bit
Like a Modigliani, stare at her and only see yourself
If you are the kind whose mind
Is metered off in ¾ time
You and here would probably disagree
She won’t waltz or pirouette
You’ll find her powder’s never wet
Although she’s dressed like Madame Bovary
If you don’t take a side
She’ll contradict herself
A potted plant upon a bedroom shelf
Margaret Elinore Chessington from Baltimore
Is always absolutely sure
Before anybody else
Margaret has hung around New York too long
Searching for her star in smoggy skies
There is much of her that will elude this silly song
Like a Modigliani, she can melt or freeze you with her eyes
Margaret Elinore Chessington from Baltimore
Reigned there twenty years or more as queen
Left the throne they say for love
Put on her own white satin gloves
And for a year was neither heard nor seen
That made a lot of people think
About their younger days
The 5th Street winos sang and danced her praise
Margaret Elinore Chessington from Baltimore
Decided she’d be 24
Until her dying day
Margaret has never lost an argument
Agree with her and she will change her mind
And although she seems immune to sentiment
Like a Modigliani, Margaret goes very well with wine.