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[George Thompson]

"There's nobody here but us chickens" is also the punchline of a joke.  I no doubt read it in the 50s, most likely in one of Bennett Cerf's collections, though I read a few other joke books then -- few since.
The premise is that a farmer hear a commotion among his chickens late at night, comes out with a lantern and shotgun.  The chicken thief, hiding, tries to defuse the crisis by saying "There ain't nobody here but us chickens."

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Tony McCoy O'Grady <maxiogee at ESATCLEAR.IE>
Date: Monday, October 13, 2003 6:31 pm
Subject: Re: Ancestry.com Searches

> On Dé Luain, DFómh 13, 2003, at 16:59 Europe/Dublin, Fred Shapiro
> wrote:
> > There's nobody here but us chickens (anything before 1963)
>
> Check out a song called "Ain't nobody here but us chickens"
>
> Louis Jordan (1908 - 1975) - Born at Brinkley, he studied music with
> his father and made his first professional appearance at Hot Springs's
> Green Gables Club at age 15. During the 1930's Jordan worked with
> well-known bands from Philadelphia to New York and toured with Ella
> Fitzgerald. He penned such favorites as "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie,"
> "Is You
> Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby," "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens," and
> "Saturday Night Fish Fry." Jordan also appeared in several movies that
> featured his music and toured Europe and Asia during the 1960s. He
> diedin Los Angeles and is buried in St. Louis. Member of the Arkansas
> Entertainers Hall of Fame.
>
> However, the song is also credited to two others. Alex Cramer or
> Kramerand Joan Whitney (a husband and wife team). I believe that
> Jordanrecorded a cover version in around 1946 on Decca and that
> the duo were
> the actual authors... many web sites credit them both.
>
>
> Tony McCoy O'Grady
> ------------------
> "The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time."
> .................................................WB Yeats
>