Why did Marjorie Hilke sing Surabaya Johnny?
Feuchtwanger-Brecht made a certain Marjorie Hilke, in the play Hasting’s mistress, sing the song to divert her troubled lover. I have never seen a copy of this play but I can’t imagine that the text of “Surabaya Johnny” there is similar to the one we know.
Why did Brecht write Surabaya Johnny book?
It is supposed to be an adaptation of one of Kipling’s “Barrack-Room Ballads” viz. “Mary, Pity Women!”. It turns out that the Marxist Brecht was an avid reader of that glorifier of British imperialism: Kipling. His use of the British writer was not limited to “Surabaya Johnny”.
Is the song Mary pity women the same as Surabaya Johnny?
You can judge this for yourself by comparing the text of “Mary, Pity Women!” with the English translation of “Surabaya Johnny” of which that exuberant lass from Sacramento in the video above gave a clear rendering, that is fairly close to the German original: Mary, Pity Women!