Ragged but Right, pt. 2 ("bro")
George Thompson
george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Fri Feb 3 03:20:28 UTC 2012
Well Look Who's Here
The Boys with the Many Funny Falls
WATTS BROTHERS, Comedy Acrobats
TWO REAL BROS
[portraits]
Jos. S. Lew V.
***
*Indianapolis Freeman*, June 22, 1912
*
*
Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff. * Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon
Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz*. University Press of
Mississippi, 2007, * *p. 238
I suppose "two real bros" could just mean "two actual brothers, not just
stage brothers", but that doesn't seem like much of a selling point to me.
For "bro" = "friend, buddy" from 1957, with a will-o-the-wisp from 1839,
and "bro" in black usage from 1970.
GAT
--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
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