A Bad Rap

Michael O'Malley, Associate Professor of History and Art History, George Mason University

Cook wrote this song as part of a operetta on African American themes called Clorindy, or the Origins of the Cakewalk. Cook wanted to make a musical that would combine the formal sophistication of Broadway with African American musical forms. Clorindy was produced in 1898, and met with great success. It was possibly the first time African Americans had appeared on Broadway, in the "legitimate" theater, as opposed to them minstrel stage. Cook remembered opening night this way:

"I was so delirious that I drank a glass of water, thought it wine and got glorious drunk. Negroes at last were on Broadway, and there to stay....We were artists and we were going a long way. We had the world on a string tied to a runnin' red-geared wagon on a down-hill pull. Nothing could stop us, and nothing did for a decade."

quotation from http://www.jass.com/wcook.html, copyright 1997 by Thomas L. Morgan