Mlle. Cocyte

Mlle. Cocyte (fl. late 19th/early 20th Century), French actress and singer
(photo: unknown, probably Paris, circa 1900)

This real photograph cigarette card, issued about 1900 in one of Ogden’s Guinea Gold Cigarettes series, is of Cocyte. This lady is probably to be identified with Mlle. Cocyte who, appearing about 1900 in a revival of La Belle Hélène, was immortalised in several contemporaneous sketches by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. One of these, in pencil, red chalk with touches of white, was given in the 1970s to The Art Institute, Chicago.

Mlle. Cocyte (fl. late 19th/early 20th Century), French actress and singer
(photo: unknown, probably Paris, circa 1900)

This real photograph cigarette card, issued about 1900 in one of Ogden’s Guinea Gold Cigarettes series, is of Cocyte. This lady is probably to be identified with Mlle. Cocyte who, appearing about 1900 in a revival of La Belle Hélène, was immortalised in several contemporaneous sketches by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. One of these, in pencil, red chalk with touches of white, was given in the 1970s to The Art Institute, Chicago.

Nellie Richards

Nellie Richards (1864-1932),
variety theatre and music hall comedienne,
sometimes billed as the ‘American Violet’;
song sheet cover for Hattie Starr’s ‘Little Alabama Coon,’
‘Sung with the greatest Success by Nellie Richards’
(photo: unknown, circa 1893; published by C. Sheard & Co, London, circa 1893)

A variant of the above song sheet is to be found in the New York Public Library (NYPLDigitalGallery).

Nellie Richards, who appears to have been American and was originally with the Haverly Minstrels, achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1880s and 1890s with a string of song successes, many of which were ‘coon’ ditties. Besides Hattie Starr’s ‘Little Alabama Coon,’ Miss Richards sang ‘Baby Eyes,’ ‘By-Bye, My Honey,’ ‘The Coon from the Moon,’ ‘How ‘Bout Dat Baby,’ ‘Louisiana Lou’ and others, listed by Michael Kilgarriff, Sing Us One of the Old Songs, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 324 and 325.

Hattie Starr’s ‘Little Alabama Coon,’ an international hit in 1893 and 1894, was sung by a number of artists although Nellie Richards claimed to have been its originator. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the well known English music hall comedienne, popular for her repertoire of ‘coon’ songs, Bessie Wentworth singing it in the late 1890s. ‘Little Alabama Coon’ was recorded on many occasions, including by Ada Jones (? 1905) and Henry Burr (1913).

I’s a little Alabama Coon!
And I has n’t been born very long;
I ‘member seein’ a great big round moon!
I ‘member hearin’ one sweet song!
When dey tote me down to de cotton field,
Dar I roll and I tumble in de sun!
While my daddy pick de cotton, mammy watch me grow,
And dis am de song she sung!

Go to sleep, my little picaninny,
Brer’ Fox’ll catch you if yo’ don’t;
Slumber on de bosom of yo’ ole mammy Jinny,
Mammy’s gwine to swat yo’ if you won’t.(swat! swat! swat!)
Lu la lu la lu la lu la lu!
Underneaf de silver southern moon;
Rock a by! hush a by! mammy’s little baby,
Mammy’s little Alabama Coon.

Dis h’yar little Alabama Coon!
Specks to be a growed up man some day;
Dey’s gwine to christen me h’yar very soon!
My name’s gwine to be Henry Clay!
When I’s big, I’s gwine to wed a yellow gal,
Den we’ll hab picaninnies ob our own!
Den dat yellow gal shall rock ‘em on her bosom,
And dis am de song she’ll croon:

chorus:
Go to sleep, my little picaninny,
Brer’ Fox’ll catch you if yo’ don’t
Slumber on de bosom of yo’ ole mammy Jinny,
Mammy’s going to swat yo’ if you won’t.
Lu la lu la lu la lu la lu!
Underneaf de silver southern moon!
Rock a by! hush a by! mammy’s little baby,
Mammy’s little Alabama Coon.