Lottie Collins began her career in 1877 in a skipping rope
dance act with her sisters. While in America in 1891 she heard
what was to become her trademark song, ‘Tar-ra-ra-boom-der-ay!’.
She sang it at the Tivoli in London and it became a major hit.
Lottie would pause after the demure first verse and then whirl
into an uninhibited version of the skirt
dance. Her legs flashing in high-kicking Can-Can style steps
would reveal her stockings held up by sparkling suspenders.
This sent the audience wild and left Lottie exhausted.
The sensational, uninhibited nature of the dance and the expanse
of exposed leg drew complaints from the Puritan league, but
music hall audiences loved her and she became a symbol of the
‘Naughty Nineties’. One hundred years later her garters were
sold by auction at Sotheby’s. Although she performed other songs
and sketches, Lottie was forever associated with her one song.
The exhausting nature of the dance may have contributed to her
early death in 1910 at the age of only 44. Her daughter José
became a star of musical comedy.
Introduction
