The title is taken from a popular song of the 19th
century, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines," which
Sigmund Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America)
states was composed by an English music hall singer
named William Horace Lingard who had emigrated to
America. Lingard was the manager of Wood's Theatre in
New York City..."a protean man who was an accomplished
female impersonator, the lyricist for 'Captain Jinks of
the Horse Marines', and, in 1867, the much acclaimed
renderer of Lingard's...(+)
The title is taken from a popular song of the 19th
century, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines," which
Sigmund Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America)
states was composed by an English music hall singer
named William Horace Lingard who had emigrated to
America. Lingard was the manager of Wood's Theatre in
New York City..."a protean man who was an accomplished
female impersonator, the lyricist for 'Captain Jinks of
the Horse Marines', and, in 1867, the much acclaimed
renderer of Lingard's Great Statue Song, a quick-change
routine in which, with only a few seconds' pause
between metamorphoses, he transformed himself from
Mayor John T. Hoffman to Governor Horatio Seymour to
Horace Greeley to Benjamin F. Butler to Ulysses S.
Grant to President Andrew Johnson." (E. J. Khan, The
Merry Partners: the Age and Stage of Harrigan & Hart,
1955, pg. 152). Confirming that Lingard wrote the
lyrics, Denes Agay (Best Loved Songs of the American
People, pp. 156-157) however, credits the music to a T.
Maclagan. In another volume (Reed 'Em and Weep, 1927,
p. 63) Spaeth refers to a play called Captain Jinks in
which Ethel Barrymore made her debut as a star in 1901.
SHEET MUSIC