antedate "ta da" (1913)
Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Tue Mar 27 21:40:39 UTC 2007
OED's new entries for March include "ta da" (1926).
"AN "OUT-OF-THE-WAY" STUNT." By PEJAIE SENRAB._The Sphinx_ vol 12 no. 5, (July, 1913) p. 98, col 1.
"Coming front in utter disgust, he tells them (orchestra) that that won't do, that he wants something like "tadaa!" from all of them. They seem to understand, so he goes off again. On his reappearance, however, he is met with a loud tumult, as all the orchestra shout out in unison the word "tadaa!" "
(_The Sphinx_ is a conjuring magazine. I've used this database to antedate other show-biz terms.) It looks like the writer expected the reader to understand that "tadaa" is a verbalization of a musical flourish, so it probably goes back earlier than this. Too bad that there's no good archive of Variety, Billboard, or other show business magazines.
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