[Dixielandjazz] Re: Buffa-man?

[PLadd36932 at aol.com]

Hi all,

This post came to me from another list today and I thought that it fitted 
rather neatly into the `minstrel` thread
Anyone any ideas?

<< In his 1901 recording of the show tune "She's Getting More Like the White 
 Folks Every Day," Bert Williams at several points subsitutes for the 
 published lyric the following phrase: "She's gettin' more like the buffa-man 
 every day..."  Then at the end of the record, as if he knows listeners will 
 need an explanation, he interjects, "Buffa-man means white folk!"
 
 My spelling here is phonetic ("buffer-man"?  "bucker-man"?), but has anyone 
 ever seen or heard of this term?  If so, how was it spelled?  It must have 
 been a slang term of the period, but I've never noticed it in the black 
press 
 or in other songs. 
  >>
Cheers

PatL