[Dixielandjazz] Bebe and Beebe

[Ric Giorgi]

Greetings Anton,

There is no doubt that Coslow was smitten and "Bebe" was written for
Bebe Daniels. I refer you to Arthur Shaw's "The Jazz Age: Popular
Music in the 1920's" and numerous internet citations. As interesting
as Nancy Giffin's information is there's no indication in the lyrics
in "Bebe" of any Spanish influence.

One of the confusing aspects of this is that Music Australia has a
listing for two songs, "Bebe" and "Beebe", with the rest of the
bibliographic information exactly the same (except for where the
artefacts are available).

Could this be a clerical error? Or did Coslow and Silver actually
write 2 different songs in the same year with slightly different
titles?
  
But the origins of Dorsey's "Beebe" are a mystery as you say.

Cheers, 

Ric Giorgi

Ricardo Giorgi
Rainbow Gardens Music
Toronto ON
rgmusic at sympatico.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Anton
Crouch
Sent: May 11, 2008 12:29 AM
To: Ric Giorgi
Cc: Bill Haesler; Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Bebe and Beebe

Hello all

Thanks to Bill H we now know that Coslow & Silver's 1923 "Bebe" is a
different composition to Jimmy Dorsey's 1929 "Beebe". I should have
waited before sticking my foot in my mouth and concluding that they
were
the same.

For the discographically inclined (all 4 of us), it can be noted
that
Robert Stockdale also gets it wrong in "Tommy Dorsey on the side",
Scarecrow Press, 1995. The index of titles (page 414) shows Coslow &
Silver as the composers of "Beebe".

As an aside, does anyone agree with me that Bud Freeman's "The Eel"
is
similar to "Beebe"?

But, to what do the names refer?

"Bebe" could be a reference to the actress Bebe Daniels but, as
Nancy G
points-out, "bebe" is Spanish for "baby" and it is more likely that
the
song is about a girlfriend.

"Beebe" is a mystery. I have Herb Sanford's "Tommy and Jimmy: the
Dorsey
years", Ian Allan, 1972 but the work has no title index and I
haven't
found any mention of "Beebe" in the text. This is not surprising
because
the book is rather scrappy in its handling of the years 1927 to
1934.

Is "Beebe" a person or a place? If a person, he/she is presently 
unknown. I can find only one town named "Beebe" in the USA - Beebe, 
Arkansas. Did Jimmy Dorsey ever go there?

A further aside - in numerous articles on Jimmy Dorsey on the web,
there
are references to the movie "Lost in Harlem". It's a typo which has
(like a mutated gene) spread far. The correct title is "Lost in a
harem"
- an Abbott and Costello movie from 1944!

All the best,
Anton


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