I’m sorry, Eddie.... Where were we? Oh, yes, sir. “I’m going down South again to the land of cotton and jasmine, where the watermelons grow, where I can be with my mammy. If you’ll all sit down, I’ll sing you a song all about it.”
[The girls all sink down in a wide semi-circle. The other principals back away. The piano beats out the “vamp.” Jack, his back to us, facing his own footlights, his shoulders shaking, his hat carelessly on the back of his head, goes into his jazz song. He does not do it earnestly, except for an occasional note on which he lingers with the easy assurance of the man who knows that when the time comes he will do it well. He sings.]
“Home pa-hals, home pa-hals,
Sad was the day when I blundered away
From my Home pals;
Wan-dered—
Squ-handered—
My mammy’s lo-hove without any ru-heason or ru-hyme
To have
A wo-hunderful time....”