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1867 Dr. Tumblety Song
I came across an 1867 songbook, one song of which includes Dr. Tumblety in its comical lyrics.
I checked to see if this song had been posted before and found it mentioned in the Archived Casebook of 5 years ago. (February 2005)
However, the web-link leading to a blog-spot where the song had been posted at that time is no longer functioning, and there isn't a scan or a transcription of the song on that archived page, so I thought I'd go ahead and post a few scans from the songbook for those who might wish to see them.
This is from a 'Bowery Songster' published in 1867.
The 'songster' contains the lyrics to songs performed at The Bowery Opera House in New York.
The first page of the songbook contains an ad for this venue. (scan is below)
The comic song is called "The Carte de Visite Album" and was written for the singer Tony Pastor to perform on stage. The public enjoyed collecting the portraits of famous people and arranging them in photo-albums. This was a very popular hobby.
The singer is pretending to put the portraits of a wildly diverse array of Civil War-era celebrities into his "fashionable" album. He name-drops famous actors, authors, politicians, socialites, spiritualists, tycoons, quacks, generals, and even President Lincoln.
The song goes on & on; this is just the Tumblety part.
The 'Madam Restell' mentioned in conjunction with Dr T was the very wealthy widow of a famous New York City Abortionist.
One of the back pages contains an ad for other songbooks, and the 'Fenian Songster' happened to catch my eye. There are 2 Fenian songbooks offered, in fact. New York was of course a major Irish immigration point, and the Fenians received a great deal of their support from Irish-Americans.
I found it interesting that the Fenian titles are mixed in with the sentimental 'Girl With The Golden Hair' & 'Father Come Home'-type songbooks.
Best regards, Archaic
I checked to see if this song had been posted before and found it mentioned in the Archived Casebook of 5 years ago. (February 2005)
However, the web-link leading to a blog-spot where the song had been posted at that time is no longer functioning, and there isn't a scan or a transcription of the song on that archived page, so I thought I'd go ahead and post a few scans from the songbook for those who might wish to see them.
This is from a 'Bowery Songster' published in 1867.
The 'songster' contains the lyrics to songs performed at The Bowery Opera House in New York.
The first page of the songbook contains an ad for this venue. (scan is below)
The comic song is called "The Carte de Visite Album" and was written for the singer Tony Pastor to perform on stage. The public enjoyed collecting the portraits of famous people and arranging them in photo-albums. This was a very popular hobby.
The singer is pretending to put the portraits of a wildly diverse array of Civil War-era celebrities into his "fashionable" album. He name-drops famous actors, authors, politicians, socialites, spiritualists, tycoons, quacks, generals, and even President Lincoln.
The song goes on & on; this is just the Tumblety part.
The 'Madam Restell' mentioned in conjunction with Dr T was the very wealthy widow of a famous New York City Abortionist.
One of the back pages contains an ad for other songbooks, and the 'Fenian Songster' happened to catch my eye. There are 2 Fenian songbooks offered, in fact. New York was of course a major Irish immigration point, and the Fenians received a great deal of their support from Irish-Americans.
I found it interesting that the Fenian titles are mixed in with the sentimental 'Girl With The Golden Hair' & 'Father Come Home'-type songbooks.
Best regards, Archaic
Attached Files