![Image-Lottie Collins sings and dances to the tunes of Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-ay in a Bromo-Seltzer ad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Image-Lottie_Collins_sings_and_dances_to_the_tunes_of_Ta-Ra-Ra_Boom-de-ay_in_a_Bromo-Seltzer_ad.jpg)
"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
song. Its first known public performance was in Henry J. Sayers' 1891 revue ''
Tuxedo
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
'' in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the version sung by
Lottie Collins
Lottie Collins (16 August 1865 – 1 May 1910) was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song " Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!" in England.
Early life
She was born Charlotte Louisa Collins in the East End of London in 1865. He ...
in London
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
s in 1892. The melody was later used in various contexts, including as the theme song to the television show ''
Howdy Doody
''Howdy Doody'' is an American Children's television series, children's television program (with circus and Western (genre), Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell ''.
Background
The song's authorship was disputed for some years.
["Live Musical Topics", ''The New York Times'', April 3, 1892, p. 12] It was originally credited to Henry J. Sayers, the manager of Rich and Harris, a producer of the George Thatcher Minstrels. Sayers used the song in the troupe's 1891 production ''
Tuxedo
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
'', a minstrel farce
variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
where "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was sung by
Mamie Gilroy.
[ Gänzl, Kurt]
"Ta-ra-ra-boom-de ... oy? "
Kurt Gänzl's blog, 20 August 2018 However, Sayers later said that he had not written the song, but heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
brothel run by "Babe" Connors.
[Bellanta, Melissa]
"The black origins of 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay'"
''The Vapour Trail'', accessed 25 May 2012 Another American singer, Flora Moore, said that she had sung the song in the early 1880s.
[
Stephen Cooney, Lottie Collins' husband, heard the song in ''Tuxedo'' and purchased from Sayers rights for Collins to perform the song in England.][ Collins created a dance routine around it, and, with new words by Richard Morton and a new arrangement by Angelo A. Asher, she first sang it at the Tivoli Music Hall on The Strand in London in December 1891 to an enthusiastic reception. It became her signature tune. Within weeks, she included it in a ]pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
production of ''Dick Whittington
Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale ''Dick ...
''[ and performed it to great acclaim in the 1892 adaptation of ]Edmond Audran
Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas.
After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and ...
's opérette
This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names.
"Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...
, '' Miss Helyett''. According to reviews at the time, Collins delivered the suggestive verses with deceptive demureness, before launching into the lusty refrain and her celebrated "kick dance", a kind of cancan in which, according to one reviewer, "she turns, twists, contorts, revolutionizes, and disports her lithe and muscular figure into a hundred different poses, all bizarre".[
The song was performed in France under the title 'Tha-ma-ra-boum-di-hé', first by Mlle. Duclerc at Aux Ambassadeurs in 1891, but the following year as a major hit for ]Polaire
Émilie Marie Bouchaud (14 May 1874 – 14 October 1939), better known by her stage name Polaire, was a French singer and actress. She was known for her wasp waist which, achieved through corsetry, reportedly measured less than 16 inches (41&nbs ...
at the Folies Bergère
The Folies Bergère () is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trév ...
. In 1892 ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that a French version of the song had appeared under the title 'Boom-allez'.[
Later editions of the music credited its authorship to various persons, including Alfred Moor-King, ]Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...
, and Angelo A. Asher.[Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Studer (eds)]
''Folk Songs of the Catskills''
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982, p. 539 Some claimed that the song was originally used at American revival meetings, while Richard Morton, who wrote the version of the lyric used in Lottie Collins' performances, said its origin was "Eastern".[ Around 1914 Joe Hill wrote a version which tells the tale of how poor working conditions can lead workers into "accidentally" causing their machinery to have mishaps. Likewise, in 1954 ]Joe Glazer
Joe Glazer (June 19, 1918 – September 19, 2006), closely associated with labor unions and often referred to as "labor's troubadour," was an American folk musician who recorded more than thirty albums over the course of his career.
Early l ...
released a rendition of the song about a worker who is initially dismissive of labor organizers, but then loses his savings and standard of living in the Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
and joins the labor movement. A 1930s lawsuit determined that the tune and the refrain were in the public domain.
The 1893 Gilbert & Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pina ...
comic opera ''Utopia, Limited
''Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress'', is a Savoy opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a ...
'' has a character called Tarara, the "public exploder". A 1945 British film of the same name describes the history of music hall theatre. From 1974 to 1988 the Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
park in Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
, California, included a portion of the song in their musical revue attraction America Sings
America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of audio animatronics animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical his ...
, in the finale of Act 3 – The Gay 90s.
Other lyrics
The widely recognizable melody has been re-used for numerous other songs, children's camp songs, parodies, and military ballads from the early 20th century. It was used for the theme song to the show ''Howdy Doody
''Howdy Doody'' is an American Children's television series, children's television program (with circus and Western (genre), Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell '' (as "It's Howdy Doody Time").[Kittrels, Alonzo]
"It's Howdy Doody reminiscing time"
''The Philadelphia Tribune
''The Philadelphia Tribune'' is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States.
The paper began in 1884 when Christopher J. Perry published its first copy. Throughout its history, ''The Philadelphia Tribune' ...
'', January 28, 2017, accessed October 11, 2018
Lyrics
As sung by Lottie Collins
As laundered and published by Henry J. Sayers as sheet music
Notes
References
Sheet music (1940)
from the library of Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
Banana Splits, Dilly Sisters and Hocus Pocus Park
The Dilly Sisters singing Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
(begins at 1:59) Accessed 2009/02/09
{{Authority control
Vaudeville songs
1891 songs