Throwback Thursday and Bessie McCoy
Born in Ireland in 1888 as Elizabeth
Genevieve McEvoy, Bessie McCoy was a vaudeville star best known for her 1908
song and dance routine called The Yama
Yama Man. Because of this, she was called The Yama Yama Girl. During the 1910s she was so popular that people
dressed up like the Yama Yama Girl for Halloween.
Bessie’s parents had a clog dancing vaudeville
act called McCoy and McEvoy. Thus, she and her sister became chorus girls in
their teens. Bessie went on to appear in Broadway musicals and her breakout
role came in the play The Echo. It
was in the revue called Three Twins that
she sang the Yama Yama Man song.
During this period she met war
correspondent Richard Harding Davis and they married in 1912 when she was 24.
Sadly, he died of a heart attack in 1916. After his death she retired from
performing and she and their daughter Hope moved to his estate in Connecticut.
In 1931, while in France with her
daughter, Bessie died after an emergency operation. It was August 16th.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Secret #305:
“Bessie McCoy was known as ‘The Yama Yama Girl’”.
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“An artist
is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.”
― Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol, Thirty Are Better Than One
― Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol, Thirty Are Better Than One
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