| "The Yama Yama Man" | |
|---|---|
.JPEG) Sheet music cover, 1908 | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1908 |
| Genre | Show tune |
| Composer(s) | Karl Hoschna |
| Lyricist(s) | Collin Davis |
"The Yama Yama Man" was a comical song for the Broadway show The Three Twins, published in 1908 by M. Witmark & Sons with music by Karl Hoschna and lyrics by Collin Davis.[1][2] It became popular after Bessie McCoy's animated performance in a satin Pierrot clown costume with floppy gloves and a cone hat. At age 20, she became an overnight sensation on Broadway and was known thereafter as the "Yama Yama Girl"; it became her lifelong theme song.[3] The show ran for 288 performances.[4] The lyrics contain topical references of the era such as street cars and ladies' fashion while the refrain is about a comical bogeyman—the Yama Yama Man—who is "ready to spring out at you unaware". Bessie McCoy's song and dance routine was a standard into the 1930s with a prestigious lineage of imitators including Ada Jones, Marilyn Miller, Irene Castle and Ginger Rogers.
- ^ Green, Stanley (1980). "Yama Yama Man, The". Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 456.
- ^ "Collin Davis" was the pen name used by George Collin-Davis (1867–1929), a lawyer who later helped frame the Fordney–McCumber Tariff law, for his lyrics for musical shows.
- ^ Golden, Eve (2007). Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution. University Press of Kentucky. p. 28. ISBN 9780813124599.
- ^ Goldmark, Daniel; Keil, Charlie (2011). Funny Pictures: Animation and Comedy in Studio-Era Hollywood. University of California Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 9780520267237.