Les Jones

A&E > "Button, button, who's got the button?"

Last night Melissa was showing me some old books of hers. One was Singing on Our Way, a 1949 collection of children's songs. Flipping through it I found a song called "Who Has the Button?", attributed to Verna Meads Surer.

I stopped, because I instantly recognized it from the Inventing Room scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Wonka is looking for the start button for the machine that packs an entire meal into a piece of chewing gum (which turns Violet into a giant blueberry) and says "Button, button, who's got the button?"

Here's the song in its entirety:

But-ton, but-ton, who has the but-ton? Oh, where can it be?
I have to find it, I have to find it, If I could on-ly
John-ny holds his hands so tight, Ma-ry will not tell,
Jim-my looks as though he might, They're hid-ing it so well
But-ton, but-ton, who has the but-ton? Oh, where can it be?

Later - Rustmeister tells me the song is part of a game. I found this description:

Arrange all the children in a line, either seated or standing. Select one to be the "seamstress" or "tailor". She or he stands before the line of players. A button or a coin is handed to the player at one end of the line. He holds it in hands that are cupped and closed. She holds her hands over the hands of the next player in line whose hands are cupped in a similar fashion. She may drop the button into the next player's hands or she may not. Now the next player goes through the same procedure all the way down the line to the last player. If the button does not get passed on, then the remaining players merely pretend to pass the button. Throughout this procedure the seamstress closely watches the passing. Since the hands are cupped and held together it will be difficult to discern where the button actually stopped.

When the procedure reaches the end of the line. The last player in line asks the seamstress, "Button, Button, who has the button?" The seamstress then guesses. If she guesses correctly, she gets to keep the button. If she guesses incorrectly, she sits at the end of the line and the player at the head of the line becomes the seamstress.

See also:
- "The Fairies" by William Allingham
- Oompa Loompas, Chocolate, and the Question of Evil (Waiter Rant)
- Willy Wonka Trivia (IMDB.com)