Joseph J. Sullivan (vaudeville)

Blackface performer

Joe J. Sullivan as depicted on an 1893 songsheet.

Joe J. Sullivan in 1922.

Joseph J. Sullivan was a blackface comedian and acrobat in New York. He is best known for composing the vaudeville song Where Did You Get That Hat? which he first performed in 1888. It was a great success and he performed it many times thereafter.^[1]^[2] His other song compositions include Little Paddy Rooney in 1893.

Little else is known about his life, but in July 1922 a monthly New York theatre magazine described how he had recently 'brought back the "flannel-mouthed" Irish comedians when he regaled vaudeville patrons with Where Did You Get That Hat?'.^[3]

References

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^ Jack Burton, Larry Freeman (1962), The blue book of Tin Pan Alley, vol. 1, Century House, p. 13
^ Theodore Raph (1986), "Where Did You Get That Hat", The American song treasury, p. 218, ISBN 978-0-486-25222-3
^ "Vaudeville Applauds Stars Of Yesterday", Theatre Magazine, 36 (1), New York: Theatre Magazine Company: 27, July 1922