"But Beautiful": Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This sheet music is for the song “But Beautiful,” with lyrics by Johnny Burke and music by James Van Heusen. It was published by Burke and Ban Heusen in New York, New York in 1947.

"But Beautiful" was featured in the 1947 Paramount Pictures comedy film, Road to Rio, directed by Norman McLeod and starred Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The cover features an image of the film’s stars on a burro and an inset of the Andrews Sisters.

Materials, dates and provenance

• publishing date: 1947
• depicted (sitter): Lamour, Dorothy
• depicted (sitter): Crosby, Bing
• depicted (sitter): Hope, Bob
• publisher: Burke and Van Heusen, Inc.
• Object Name: sheet music
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 30.5 cm x 23 cm; 12 in x 9 1/16 in
• place made: United States: New York, New York
• ID Number: 1986.0031.01
• accession number: 1986.0031
• catalog number: 1986.0031.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Ink (Ingrid) Mendelsohn
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.