Tenderloin, Soubrettes' Parade (1890); Trucking (1935)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Aug 27 07:12:53 UTC 2003


TRUCKING

    I've had a computer virus and haven't been getting all my ADS messages,
so I go to the site..."Don't sweat the small stuff" and  "trucking" should be
somewhere in the archives.  For the latter, add the "g" at the end:

http://www.americandialect.org/excite/collections/adsl/005390.shtml
Date:    Sun, 22 Sep 1996 00:16:27 -0400
From:    "Barry A. Popik"  Bapopik at AOL.COM
Subject: "SALTY," "SWING," and "TRUCKING":  Harlem words and phrases.
   TRUCKING: Amsterdam News, 31 August 1935, pg. 11, col. 1.Who Originated
the "Truck"?  NOBLE SISSLE claims credit for originating the "Truck," the latest
dancecraze, that is rivalling the Charleston and the Lindy Hop in
popularity...EdSullivan gives credit to the Cotton Club...Cora La Redd emphatically
statesshe is the originator...Pigmeat Markham, the comedian, is among those who
carries the torch of having first done the truck...This observer first sawthe
dance done down in Dickie Wells' Theatrical Grill by Rubberlegs Williams to the
accompaniment of a Shim Sham Band...This was at least three yearsago...But the
dance was really first done in Philadelphia by Red and Struggleand Rubberlegs
Williams and originated as a finale for a show...Its name isderived merely
from the fact that Red of the Red and Struggle team emittedthe cry of elation
"truck" when he had seen the first steps done...It is anoutgrowth of the
"shuffle" which old-time waiters used to do when theycarried heavy trays of
food...Noble Sissle's claim is based on the fact thathe titled a show at the Harlem
Opera House in the winter "Trucking on Down"and wrote a song with the same
title...The Cotton Club is trying to cash inas originators of this dance to fill the
already depleted coffers...Ted Kohler, author of "Stormy Weather," has penned
a truck number for the Cotton Club show with some familiar strains from the
Noble Sissle number inserted inhis work..However, when all the scramble is over
W. C. Handy appears on the scene as the only man who will cash in on this
number, as he recently published and has copyrighted a "Trucking on Down"
number...On the reverse side of the music copy are illustrated instructions of the
truck...If you journey down to the Old Colony (Lenox avenue, on 128th street) you
can hearFats Waller play some mellow "truck" music...We hope this concludes
the"trucking on down" debate.

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TENDERLOIN, SOUBRETTES' PARADE (1890)

    Ancestry.com has been adding a few more years to existing database
newspapers from Ohio and Illinois.  Yes, even more from Elyria, Ohio.
   I'm thinking of going again  to the Library of Congress to check the
GALVESTON NEWS (Texas), but I've got a third straight day of 10 hours of parking
tickets coming up today.


   25 October 1890, MOUNTAIN DEMOCRAT (Placerville, California), pg. 3?, col.
3:
      _THE BROADWAY PARADE._
_A Few Lines About the Shopping DIstrict_
      _and the Shoppers._
   The Broadway of the promenaders is divided into three parts.
   The first part, the shopping district, reaches from Eighth street north to
Twenty-first, the second part stretches from Twenty-first to Thirty-third,
and is the widely known "Tenderloin or Hoffman House district," and from
Thirty-third to Forty-second stretches the "soubrettes' parade."
   There is no other walk in this country to compare with Broadway on a sunny
day. (...)
   --New York Evening Sun.



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