Bessie McCoy (born Elizabeth Genevieve McEvoy; May 17, 1888 – August 16, 1931) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

entertainer, best known for her 1908 hit song and dance routine "

The Yama Yama Man "The Yama Yama Man" was a comical song for the Broadway show ''The Three Twins'', published in 1908 by M. Witmark & Sons with music by Karl Hoschna and lyrics by George Collin-Davis, Collin Davis. It became popular after Bessie McCoy's animated pe ...

", for which she became known as "The Yama Yama Girl".

Life and career

McCoy was born into an Irish immigrant family in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

as Elizabeth McEvoy; most sources give the year as 1888 though census records suggest 1884. Her mother remarried, to Billy McCoy, and Bessie's mother and stepfather formed a vaudeville act known as McCoy and McEvoy,

clog dancer Clogging, buck dancing, or flatfoot dancing is a type of folk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythm ...

s. Bessie and her sister Nellie McCoy first performed on stage together in their teens as chorus girls. After her sister became ill, Bessie continued as a solo performer. David S. Shields, "Bessie McCoy Davis: Biography", ''Broadway Photographs''
. Retrieved 17 March 2024 She appeared in a number of Broadway musicals and made a breakthrough in the play ''The Echo''. She was given the "Yama Yama Man" song in the 1908 revue ''The Three Twins''.Anthony Slide, "Bessie McCoy", ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'', University Press of Mississippi, 2012, pp.339-340 She became famous for her lazy, husky singing while performing unusual acrobatic dance routines while dressed in a clown's pajama suit with a fool's cap topped by a puff ball. Nell Brinkley, who saw McCoy perform, described her thus: In 1910, she married war correspondent

Richard Harding Davis Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War ...

. She retired from stage work and lived in the Davis' Connecticut estate. After her husband's early death in 1916 from a heart attack, she returned to theatre work and vaudeville as Bessie McCoy Davis, and starred in ''Miss 1917'', and the 1919 and 1920 versions of ''

The Greenwich Village Follies ''The Greenwich Village Follies'' was a musical revue that played for eight seasons in New York City from 1919 to 1927. Launched by John Murray Anderson, and opening on July 15, 1919, at the newly constructed Greenwich Village Theatre near Chris ...

''. She became ill in the 1920s, and retired with her daughter to France. In 1931, she died suddenly in

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

, France, after an emergency intestinal operation.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Bessie 1888 births 1931 deaths American vaudeville performers American stage actresses 20th-century American singers