Photo courtesy of George Desipris on Pexels.com

We stumbled on to the entertainer quite by accident. On one of our trips West, my husband and I had booked a room at the Wawona Hotel (now—hopefully temporarily—referred to as Big Trees Lodge; another post for another day).

After finishing dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, we walked through the lobby and heard piano music and a man singing.

There, in the parlor of the main building of the historic (1856) Victorian hotel just outside Yosemite National Park, sat Tom Bopp at the piano.

We sat down to listen for a few minutes and stayed nearly three hours until he closed. I didn’t want it to end.

To say that he is a fascinating singer/storyteller is a gross understatement. He doesn’t have a genre; he’s all over the place, one minute playing some ragtime, then switching to a classical piece, and then belting out an old cowboy trail song.

That first time we listened, he told story after story of old-time Yosemite and interspersed the telling with songs that had been sung around the campfires in the early days of the park. Bopp regaled the audience with the story of the Camp Curry/Glacier Point firefall.

For nearly a hundred years (1872-1968 with a few years gap here and there), each summer evening smoldering, burning embers of a bonfire would be pushed over the edge of Glacier Point in a “steady, controlled manner, resulting in a prolonged glittering cascade.” When you reach the end of this post, you can click on the link to get the full story, including a photo. It’s difficult to believe!

Last year when hubby and I were again vacationing in California, we actually planned part of our trip around Bopp’s schedule at Wawona/Big Trees Lodge.

Yes, he is that good. He’s been doing what he loves at Yosemite for over thirty years.

When he asked for audience requests, I called out The Way You Look Tonight. My favorite version of that song is by Tony Bennett in the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding. No bossa nova version for me; I want the love song.

As he played the melody, Bopp shared that the song originally appeared in the movie Swing Time and was performed by Fred Astaire, singing to Ginger Rogers (who was in the midst of shampooing her hair and somehow still managed to look lovely!)

Later Bopp sang the first verse of It’s Only a Paper Moon and paused, asking the audience if we knew where that phrase originated. No one did and he stopped right there and disclosed the story behind the song.

The meaning comes from the early 1900s-1940s when paper moon postcards were popular in photobooths found primarily at fairs and carnivals. You can look at the link below to see photos from a private postcard collection. The foreground depicted a large half-moon; there was a bench to sit on so that it appeared you were sitting on or swinging on the moon with your feet dangling. Some setups had cardboard ocean waves lapping at your toes.

Now you know what the lyrics, “It’s only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea” actually mean.

Isn’t that interesting?

Toward the end of the evening, I asked him what HIS favorite song was. He replied that he has many favorites. His #1 pick of a Gershwin tune is Our Love is Here to Stay. And then he revealed that he saved money at his wedding by being both the groom and the wedding singer when he sang that song to his new wife.

So if you’re going to Yosemite any time soon, plan an overnight stay at Wawona/Big Trees Lodge. Just be sure your stay includes an evening when Tom Bopp is performing.

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Yosemite Firefall

Song It’s Only a Paper Moon

Paper moon postcards 

The Way You Look Tonight by Tony Bennet  

Fred Astaire’s original version of The Way You Look Tonight

Short Clip Bopp put together