# Tom Lehrer dies at age 97 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 27, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386 "2025-07-27T17:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/61 "2025-07-28T22:40:58Z")
Are there any other examples of mathematician/creative types besides Lewis Carroll and Tom Lehrer? That combination seems to produce something just so goddam _clever_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/62 "2025-07-28T23:07:12Z")
Somebody upstream asked who sang Lehrer’s songs on _That Was the Week That Was_. At least some of them were by folk singer Nancy Ames. She put out a contemporary record titled _This Is the Girl That Is_ but it didn’t contain any Lehrer songs. I’m not sure if she ever did an album with any. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/63 "2025-07-29T01:33:00Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Are there any other examples of mathematician/creative types besides Lewis Carroll and Tom Lehrer? Dozens. Hermann Grassmann (he of the “Grassmannian” from linear algebra class) was also a noted Sanskritist and philologist and translated the Rg-Veda. Felix Hausdorff published essays, poems and a play under the pseudonym Paul Mongré. The group theorist John S. Wilson is a noted composer. There are quite a few mathematician-composers who are less well known. Mathematician-novelists include Manil Suri, Jordan Ellenberg, and Gérald Tenenbaum (also a playwright); John Mighton is a playwright as well. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/64 "2025-07-29T01:49:05Z")
I’ve always thought that Alma must have been an interesting person to attract all those geniuses. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/65 "2025-07-29T08:24:56Z")
One of my favorite random Tom Lehrer facts: he and composer Joe Raposo (who wrote most of the best-known songs from _Sesame Street_ and _The Electric Company_) worked together on a Sweeney Todd musical, which was to star mustachioed comic actor Jerry Colona. > **[Jerry Colonna (entertainer)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Colonna_(entertainer)#/media/File:Jerry_Colonna_Show_1951.JPG)** > > Gerardo Luigi Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 21, 1986) was an American musician, actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and trombonist who played the zaniest of Bob Hope's sidekicks in Hope's popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s. He also voiced the March Hare in Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland. > Colonna started his career as a trombonist, in orchestras and dance bands in and around his native Boston; he can be heard with Joe Herlihy's Orchestra on... They couldn’t figure out how to make it work and eventually gave up on the project. Years later, of course, Sondheim _did_ make the subject matter work, as Lehrer subsequently noted. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/66 "2025-07-29T13:56:57Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > The group theorist John S. Wilson is a noted composer. There are quite a few mathematician-composers who are less well known You obviously travel in different circles than me…for whom someone “less well known” than John S Wilson would mean that his mother would have difficulty picking him out of a lineup. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/67 "2025-07-29T14:07:48Z")
“All modern women are jealous.” [![](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/P9D6M2/alma-mahler-werfel-1879-1964-museum-private-collection-P9D6M2.jpg) ](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/P9D6M2/alma-mahler-werfel-1879-1964-museum-private-collection-P9D6M2.jpg) - Alma Mahler, 1909 Out of respect, she should be referred to by her full name, Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/68 "2025-07-29T14:17:52Z")
Just heard this now. I’m having an emotional reaction very similar to when Jimmy Carter left us. It is a gut punch, never mind that both men attained a great age. But neither lived to see a certain evil man die, and I want to wail at unfairness of it. (Although Lehrer was here when Kissinger finally snuffed it, so there’s some bit of justice.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/69 "2025-07-29T16:03:24Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Out of respect, she should be referred to by her full name, Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel. I’ve toured the Gropius House near Boston. He designed it and then lived there while teaching architecture at Harvard. I asked the tour guide if Alma had lived there, too, but she and Walt had been divorced for some time before. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeysBrother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@MonkeysBrother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeysBrother)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/70 "2025-07-29T16:33:14Z")
Introduced by my parents who had two of his albums, though I have no idea why they had them. So I’ve been a fan for a long time. Loved his stuff as a teenager, still makes me smile as an old man. I even have a copy of his songbook, _Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with not enough drawings by Ronald Searle._ As an aside, I saw _Tomfoolery_ a few years ago in a local community theater. The actress who sang _The Elements_ got a standing ovation. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/71 "2025-07-29T19:39:34Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Out of respect, she should be referred to by her full name, Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel Nitpick: That wasn’t actually how married and remarried women at the time constructed their names. You got married, you changed your surname. Sometimes after divorce you might revert to a previous surname. But you didn’t string your previous surnames together as though they were degrees or titles you had acquired, giving you a permanent right to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/72 "2025-07-29T19:41:47Z")
“_The law was very firm it_ _Took away my permit_ _The worst punishment I ever endured_…” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/73 "2025-07-29T19:42:59Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > You got married, you changed your surname. Sometimes after divorce you might revert to a previous surname. But you didn’t string your previous surnames together as though they were degrees or titles you had acquired, giving you a permanent right to use them. Maybe it was an easy way to keep track. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/74 "2025-07-29T19:45:36Z")
Yeah, it’s always been a useful shorthand of tabloid journalism, just not an official nomenclature convention. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/75 "2025-07-29T21:27:39Z")
> **[‘I’m hoping to be the world’s youngest dirty old man’: the wit of Tom Lehrer,...](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/29/wit-of-tom-lehrer-by-those-who-knew-him)** > > The musical satirist, who has died aged 97, was famously sharp and funny – but his contemporaries also remember his generosity and humility ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/76 "2025-07-30T00:10:17Z")
_“It turned out there was a reason,_ _Cows were out of season_ _And one of the hunters_ _Wasn’t insured!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/77 "2025-07-30T01:12:43Z")
My grandfather worked for a NASA contractor and always talked about how he hated the Nazis coming around and telling them what they were doing wrong. I thought it was just anti-German bigotry hanging over from WWII until I heard Tom Lehrer’s song about Werner von Braun on Dr. Demeto. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/78 "2025-07-30T01:45:02Z")
Jeez Louise **Elmer**. Before I read your post, I had never associated “Werner von Braun” with any larger-scale version of “the Nazis coming around” in postwar US enterprises. But now I’ve heard of [Operation Paperclip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip), and your grandfather has my sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/79 "2025-07-30T02:27:14Z")
A couple months ago I came across a Youtube channel with some strange old Tom Lehrer Dodge commercial content. Admittedly it wasn’t his best stuff, but it was the only “new to me” content I had seen in many decades. Plus long-form, black and white, musical commercials seem so goddamn anachronistic for a guy who was a few months ago alive. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386/80 "2025-07-30T03:24:38Z")
Did von Braun ever fiinish learning how to count down in Chinese? And I especially hated that the Germans tried ti force a soace capsule without windows. Buttholes. It is awful that our government used them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-dies-at-age-97/1021386.md?page=5)