On the Good Ship Lollipop
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"On the Good Ship Lollipop" was the trademark song of child actress Shirley Temple. Temple first sang it in the 1934 movie Bright Eyes - coincidentally, at the 1934 Academy Awards she received an honorary statuette.
The ship in the song is not, as popular belief has it, a boat; it is an aircraft. In the song, the "Good Ship Lollipop" travels to a candy land. Shirley made a direct reference to an airplane in the song; "Someday I'm going to fly/I'll be a pilot, too...", which supports the latter fact. The song was composed by Richard A. Whiting and lyrics were supplied by Sidney Clare. 500,000 copies of the song were sold.
[edit] Pop Culture References
The song is a given entry into the annals of pop culture, being referenced and parodied on numerous occasions, perhaps most notably twice on The Simpsons. In the season 4 episode Treehouse of Horror III, a King Kong story has Homer as the big ape. He is captured and brought to the United States, whereupon he escapes into a theatre of Shirley Temple performing the song. King Homer listens for a few verses, and then eats her. In the season 11 episode Last Tap Dance in Springfield, Lisa enrolls in a tap dancing class headed by the Temple-esque Lil' Vicky Valentine. In a big finale dance number, the class performs to the song "On the Spaceship Lollipop", a parodical version of the song.
"Good Ship Lollipop" also appeared in the Family Guy episode Road to Rhode Island when Stewie distracts airport security staff by singing the song.
In the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled "The Arsenal of Freedom," William Riker tells an individual he suspects of being hostile that his ship is not the Enterprise, but the Lollipop. Riker adds that "it's a good ship."
