[Ads-l] Jigaboo (1910) Gigaboo (1900) Zigaboo (1896) Ji-ji-boo J. O'Shea (1909)

Mon Sep 12 00:30:01 UTC 2022

After posting that here, I published a post on my blog with a full history as I understood it.

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/03/ji-ji-boo-j-oshea-how-name-of-stranded.html<https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/03/ji-ji-boo-j-oshea-how-name-of-stranded.html?m=1>
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2022 5:09:38 PM
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Subject: Re: Jigaboo (1910) Gigaboo (1900) Zigaboo (1896) Ji-ji-boo J. O'Shea (1909)

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Subject:      Re: Jigaboo (1910) Gigaboo (1900) Zigaboo (1896) Ji-ji-boo J.
              O'Shea (1909)
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This cite seems relevant. Where the "bou" comes from, I can't say. This is
the final stanza of a minstrel song called "Who Dare?"

1845_The Popular National Songster and Lucy Neal and Dan Tucker's Delight_
(Phila.: John B. Perry) 156 [HathiTrust]:

Go down to momo [sic] Dinah's,
  Why yu tink we do ah!
We play upon de banjo,
  And dance a jig a bou, ah!

JL

On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 1:26 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> In March 2007, there were two threads here, one about =E2=80=9CJigaboo Ma=
n 1911=E2=80=9D
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-March/068492.html
>
> and another about =E2=80=9CFiji Zigaboo,=E2=80=9D which was first mention=
ed near the end
> of the Jigaboo man thread.
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-March/068572.html
>
> There was a certain amount of confusion caused by some early uses of
> =E2=80=9CJigaboo=E2=80=9D that were different from the well known meaning=
 (more like
> =E2=80=9Cbugaboo=E2=80=9D), and speculation about how the word eventually=
 became associated
> with black people.  I think I=E2=80=99ve found some of the missing pieces=
.
>
> Both Gigaboo and Zigaboo pre-date the earliest uses of =E2=80=9CJigaboo=
=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 but
> with different meanings.
>
> =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=80=9D dates to at least 1896, as the name of some sor=
t f fraternal
> organization, but I have only found two references to it.
>
> Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln), January 31, 1896, page 8. =E2=80=9CSeve=
ral
> members of the =E2=80=98Zigaboo=E2=80=99 society and their ladies were in=
 Lincoln last
> evening and attended the rendition of =E2=80=98Wang=E2=80=99 at the Funke=
=E2=80=9D
>
> =E2=80=9CGigaboo,=E2=80=9D in the sense of a large monster =E2=80=93 a Gi=
ant Bugaboo, perhaps,
> dates to 1900, in the book, A New Wonderland, by L. Frank Baum, who
> published The Wizard of Oz that same year.  A New Wonderland was rereleas=
ed
> in 1903, with a different title, some new content, and the place
> =E2=80=9CWonderland=E2=80=9D renamed as the Valley of Mo, but still had t=
he Gigaboo.
> There=E2=80=99s no guide to pronunciation, but I surmise it would general=
ly have
> been understood as =E2=80=9Cjigaboo.=E2=80=9D
>
> A version of the book, entitled The Surprising Adventures of the Magical
> Monarch of Mo and His People, reprinted in 1968 with a forward by Martin
> Gardener is available for checkout on OpenLibrary.org and Archive.org.
>
> From that book, page 110.  =E2=80=9CIn one of the great hollows formed by=
 the rock
> candy lived a monstrous Gigaboo, completely shut in by the walls of its
> cavern.  It had been growing and growing for so many years that it had
> attained an enormous size . . . . Its body was round, like that of a
> turtle, and on its back was a thick shell.=E2=80=9D
>
> It should be noted that a variant of =E2=80=9Cbugaboo=E2=80=9D spelled =
=E2=80=9Cbigaboo=E2=80=9D was
> common, if not frequent, during the same period.
>
> Neither =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=80=9D nor =E2=80=9CGigaboo=E2=80=9D appear in=
 print often before 1910.  I
> believe that both =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CJigaboo=E2=80=9D=
 after 1909 were influenced by the
> song, =E2=80=9CJi-ji-boo J. O=E2=80=99Shea,=E2=80=9D which had its premie=
r in 1909 in the show
> =E2=80=9CMidnight Sons,=E2=80=9D and that the association of both of thos=
e words with black
> people was derived from the story told in that song, and representations =
of
> it on stage.
>
> Some of the early uses of =E2=80=9CJigaboo,=E2=80=9D as in the song =E2=
=80=9CJigaboo Man=E2=80=9D
> mentioned in the 2007 ADS-L thread, were used to mean a sort of bugaboo =
=E2=80=93
> or boogie man, influenced by songs like the =E2=80=9CYama Yama Man=E2=80=
=9D and similar
> songs of the same period, and consistent with prior use of Gigaboo and
> bigaboo.
>
> The earliest such use I=E2=80=99ve seen is from 1910, but not related to =
a song by
> that name.  Centralia Fireside Guard (Centralia, Missouri), November 4,
> 1910, page 4. =E2=80=9CWhenever Columbia gets after an appropriation or a=
 levy or
> anythi8ng to help her material prosperity or that of the school which wag=
s
> the old town, she begins to bawl about the inferiority of the present
> things or conditions.  They try to scare us with the =E2=80=98Jigaboo Man=
=E2=80=99 into a
> fit and when we =E2=80=98come out of it=E2=80=99 we wonder how it all hap=
pened.=E2=80=9D
>
> As for the song, full title, =E2=80=9CRings on her Fingers, or Mumbo Jumb=
o
> Ji-ji-boo J. O=E2=80=99Shea,=E2=80=9D it tells the story of an Irishman s=
tranded on an East
> Indies island who is made the chief nabob of the island.  An advertisemen=
t
> for a recording of the song shows someone wearing a grass skirt, a feathe=
r
> in their hair, a headband, giant hoop earring, bands on the upper arm, an
> ankle bracelet, bare feet, and holding a giant club.  Presumably those
> characters were played on stage in blackface, and perhaps more like an
> African tribe than one in the East Indies.
>
> Some uses of Jigaboo and Zigaboo simply relate back to the name of the
> song.  In 1914, an amateur baseball player with the last name Mayo was
> referred to as =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=80=9D Mayo (rhymes with Ji-ji-boo J. O=
=E2=80=99).  IN 1922, a
> pitcher for the San Francisco Seals with the last name O=E2=80=99Shea was=
 known as
> =E2=80=9CPatrick Jumbo Jigaboo Jay O=E2=80=99Shea.=E2=80=9D
>
> Some uses related to a remote location, like the East Indies isle where
> Ji-Ji-boo J O=E2=80=99Shea lived.  In 1914, the left field bleachers at a=
 baseball
> park in Memphis was referred to as =E2=80=9CZigaboo land,=E2=80=9D which =
is unexplained.
> But the expression =E2=80=9Cout in left field=E2=80=9D derives from a sen=
se of its being
> remote, so it could mean that here.  It might also refer to segregated
> seating, but that is not clear either.  The Commercial Appeal, May 25,
> 1914, page 9; Commercial Appeal, June 29, page 12.
>
> In 1915, a syndicated comic strip, Lord Longbow, used =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=
=80=9D as the
> name of an island with dark-skinned islanders.  In the first panel, it is
> spelled =E2=80=9CZizaboo Island,=E2=80=9D but in the last panel, it refer=
s to =E2=80=9Cthe Chief
> Zigaboo=E2=80=9D (drawn with dark skin).  In 1924, in the comic strip not=
ed in the
> 2007 threads, a woman refers to someone as =E2=80=9Chomely as a Fiji Ziga=
boo,=E2=80=9D
> consistent with =E2=80=9CZigaboo=E2=80=9D being related to a tropical isl=
and.
>
> In 1914, a comedy team of Claude Durkee & Billy Dayton appeared in a
> =E2=80=9CDouble Dutch Comedy=E2=80=9D entitled, =E2=80=9CThe King of Giga=
boo.=E2=80=9D  Hutchinson News
> (Hutchinson, Kansas), January 9, 1914, page 8.  I found only one referenc=
e
> to that act, and no descriptions of the plot, but it seems plausible that
> it could have been about the King of some remote island.
>
> The earliest example I=E2=80=99ve seen of either jigaboo or zigaboo used =
to refer
> unambiguously to a black person appeared in 1917, in poem first published
> in Memphis, and which was picked up and reprinted widely in Kansas and
> Oklahoma about six months later.  The poem ridicules a black soldier who
> enlisted for the infantry, but has many reasons to avoid the Navy, Air
> Corps, Artillery and the Cavalry.
>
> =E2=80=9CThe Place to Serve. Sam Green is a regular soldier man, Of Afric=
an
> descent; The world is bright when Sam can fight With a Zigaboo regiment.=
=E2=80=9D
> Commercial Appeal (Memphis), July 8, 1917, page 5.
>
> The earliest, apparent, =E2=80=9CJigaboo=E2=80=9D I=E2=80=99ve seen in th=
at sense is from 1921.
> New Castle Herald (Pennsylvania), August 12, 1921, page 4. =E2=80=9CHow c=
ome?
> Jigaboo slashed so requires 52 stitches to close wounds, said he was =E2=
=80=98only
> foolin=E2=80=99.=E2=80=99 What=E2=80=99s his idea of a real good time?=E2=
=80=9D
>
> Beginning in 1922, and every year through at least 1927, the all-black
> comedy revue headed by Garland Howard and =E2=80=9CSpeedy=E2=80=9D Smith =
performed a skit
> in which the main characters were transported in a dream to a place calle=
d
> =E2=80=9CZigaboo Land,=E2=80=9D with beautiful women, cannibals and a jea=
lous =E2=80=9CKing
> Zigaboo.=E2=80=9D  In 1925, their company would become the first all-blac=
k act in
> decades to sign a contract with the Columbia Burlesque Circuit, which gav=
e
> them more and better bookings in bigger cities and theaters.
>
> The Boston Globe, October 31, 1922, page 6.  =E2=80=9CThe second act is m=
uch
> better than the first, and shows the adventures of Jack Stovall (Speedy
> Smith) and Hot Stuff Jackson (Garland Howard) on the inhospitable island =
of
> Zigaboo.  The dusky beauties who =E2=80=98shake a wicked hat stack=E2=80=
=99 vamp poor
> Stovall until he falls into the clutches of the cannibals and is sentence=
d
> to die by King Zigaboo (Sam Cook).=E2=80=9D
>
>
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3D550986> for Wind=
ows
>
>
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>

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