On The Good Ship Lollipop

"On the Good Ship Lollipop" was the trademark song of child actress Shirley Temple. Temple first sang it in the 1934 movie Bright Eyes. The "ship" in the song is an aircraft; the scene in Bright Eyes where the song appears takes place on an American Airlines Douglas DC-2 which is taxiing. It was especially popular because Shirley herself had choreographed it. In the song, the "Good Ship Lollipop" travels to a candy land. There is a direct reference to an aeroplane in the song: "Someday I'm going to fly/I'll be a pilot, too...". The song was composed by Richard A. Whiting and the lyric was supplied by Sidney Clare. 500,000 copies of the sheet music, published by Sam Fox Publishing Company were sold, and a recording by Mae Questel (the cartoon voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl) reputedly sold more than 2 million copies.