The Aeroplane Jelly Song

I like Aeroplane Jelly, 

Aeroplane jelly for me!

By Matt Murphy Contact via Instagram @mattmurphy8

Did you know the man behind this iconic jingle lived in Marrickville, and worked just down the road in Newtown. And although most known for the Aeroplane Jelly Song, he wrote another which has a much more local appeal.

His name was Albert Lenertz, born in Kelso, near Bathurst in 1891. He moved to 284 Victoria Street Marrickville sometime after the end of WWI, establishing a wholesale grocery and alcohol business in about 1923. In 1926 he joined Adolphus Appleroth’s jelly crystal making business, known as Traders Limited. Due to Appleroth’s fascination with aircraft, he named his main product Aeroplane Jelly. 

Lenertz was made managing director in 1927 and in the same year the business moved from Sussex Street in the city to 41-49 Alice Street Newtown. Although the company name of Traders Limited remained, by the early 1930s, owing to the song’s success, and despite jelly only being one of its manufactures, the business was more commonly known as the Aeroplane Jelly Company.

Always interested in songwriting, Lenertz originally wrote the now famous jingle with a different lyric which paid tribute to Prime Minister Billy Hughes. He rewrote the lyric in about 1929. The jingle first appeared in radio adverts in 1930, sung by a Sydney entertainer named Amy Rochelle imitating a child’s voice but the more commonly known version was recorded in 1938 by seven-year-old Joy King, who won a singing competition sponsored by the company. 

Lenertz later worked as a radio announcer on 2KY then 2SM with the Aeroplane Jelly Song used as his signature tune. It is said that on some days the song’s opening line was heard over 100 times a day. 

He died at his Marrickville home in 1943, aged 51, leaving a wife and four children.

While the Aeroplane Jelly Song was by far his most popular, in total he published the sheet music for six, all in the 1920s. These include ‘Dear old Sydney’s the place for me’, ‘Dad learns to jazz’, ‘We keep to the open road’ and ‘Co-operation’; the latter being concerned with the rights of working class men. 

The sixth song, published in 1923, was called ‘Newtown is an old town that I love’, the lyrics of which are as follows:

I've roamed around its streets and lanes, I've heard both laughs and sighs,

I've gazed on many scenes that brought the tears into my eyes,

The way that sorrow turns to joy, like sunshine from above,

Have changed it from a Newtown to an old town that I love.

Chorus:

There was a time when it was new, 'twas many years ago,

When our great sunny land was young and free.

But now it has grown old and in the years that have passed by,

I've learned to love the place so tenderly,

Such sweet old places, cheerful faces, hearts as warm as fire,

In old time shacks a wealth of memory,

Yes, Newtown is an old town, but I love it all the more,

It's a spot that's good enough for me!

Australia knows in many ways the fame of old Newtown,

When folk strike trouble here's a place they say won't turn me down,

Where pals know how to play the game, and sweethearts all love true,

A thousand smiles to cheer me up if ever I feel blue.

Repeat Chorus.