“…Up in the Air, Upside Down…”. Does anyone else remember this little ditty? Kids would sing it in the 1950s. And when you sang the song you made the Junior Birdmen “mask” using your hands. It’s hard to describe the motion:
http://hdleszno.website.pl/3/junior-birdmen?koszyk,15
I was wondering how it came about and some Googling showed it was the Hearst newspapers from 1934 to 1939 that formed the Junior Birdman Club. Pretty neat that it was still around nearly 20 years after the fact.
Dennis
My mother would sing this when we were little (mid/late 1960s), when she was washing our hair in the bathtub and poured a mugful of water over our heads to rinse the shampoo out. I have no idea why–could it be because we put our hands over our eyes to keep the suds out? When I saw your thread title, I could almost hear her singing those words.
I am familiar with the Army Air Corps (which dates it to before 1941, when the name was changed to Army Air Force) - something like this:
Into the air, Army Air Corps
Into the sky, pilots true
Into the air, Army Air Corps
Keep your nose up in the blue (up in the blue)
And when you hear the angels singing
And the steel props start to whine
You can bet the Army Air Corps
Is along the firing line
I remember it from Summer Camp back in the early 60s. I still can do the goggle bit.
They also had “Junior Scubamen,” which was the same song with slightly different lyrics, and you made a scuba mask with your hands (basically, just an oval).
I only knew the reference from the 1989 Batman movie—I didn’t have a clue about its origin. Thanks!
+1
I remember hearing it, and seeing people do the “goggles”, when I was in elementary school, in the 1970s. The organization ended in 1939. Surprisingly durable meme.
I sing it to my grandkids. And they look at me strangely. They’re young enough that they can’t do the “mask”.
Tangentially, I remember this one (to the tune of You’re In The Army Now) from childhood:
In 1964
My father went to war
He opened the door
And fell on the floor
And that was the end of the war
Tom Lehrer referenced Junior Birdmen in the intro to his song “It makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier.”
*Up in the air, Junior Birdman
Up in the air, upside down!
Up in the air, Junior Birdman
And never let your nose come down.
When you hear the whistle blowing’
And you get those wings of tin
Then you know that Junior Birdman
Has been sending all his boxtops in.
FIVE boxtops!
FOUR labels!
THREE Green stamps!
TWO bottle caps!
AND ONE THIN DIME!*
I bet it has been fifty years.
Complete the song -
She was only the garbageman’s daughter slop slop
She lived down by the swill
And sweet was the smell of the garbage slop slop
But…
Regards,
Shodan
My wife and I were both born in the early sixties. She knew it, I didn’t, and she taught it to me. I suppose I could’ve lived my life pretty well without it…
I remember this:
Up in the air, junior birdmen
Up in the air, girl scouts too.
Up in the air Junior Birdmen
And keep your nose up in the blue.
It was sung by ground pounders in bars and clubs to mock members of the USAAC. MPs would generally have to break up the resulting riot.
I remember this from PE class in the late '80s/early 90’s. I guess I can thank the Batman movie for that?
One Day I will get to bring up a Tom Lehrer anecdote first. 
I just depressed myself by trying and failing (miserably!) to make the goggles. I am decidedly old. 
I have to remember to take my glasses off first.
Yeah - NW side of Chicago - we sang/did this in the 60s - early 70s. No idea why, under what circumstances, or in reference to anything. Only knew the 1st 4 lines and the goggle thing.
Think it was like the hand thing: “This is the church, this is the steeple. Open the doors, and see all the people.” Just a little bit of nonsense.
I used to have a postcard of Pope John Paul II doing the Junior Birdman face. 
But he did it the easy way, not the right way:
Dennis