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Hearing the Americas
Source: National Jukebox
Sheet music cover for "Down in Bom-Bombay" featuring an illustrated Orientalist palace scene with dancing figures in exotic dress, an inset portrait photo labeled "Emma Carus," and credits for Ballard MacDonald and Harry Carroll.
Victor record label featuring the "His Master's Voice" dog and gramophone logo, titled "Down in Bom-Bombay" by Ballard MacDonald and Harry Carroll, performed by Collins and Harlan, catalog number 17841-A.

Down in Bom-Bombay

ethnic humor

Title

Down in Bom-Bombay

Date

July 16, 1915

Performer

Collins and Harlan

Writer

Harry Carrol (composer)
Ballard MacDonald (lyricist)

Recording Label

Victor

Location

Camden, New Jersey

Description

“Down in Bom-Bombay” was a Tin Pan Alley song recorded in 1915 that middle-class Americans would sing to amuse themselves. The song offers a glimpse of what people who knew nothing of Indian music thought Indian music might sound like. The sheet music cover reveals how people who had never been to India also had an exotic, sexualized view of the country and the people living there.

Other versions

Collins and Harlan, Columbia (July 19, 1915)

Type

ethnic humor
“Down in Bom-Bombay” was a Tin Pan Alley song recorded in 1915 that middle-class Americans would sing to amuse themselves. The song offers a glimpse of what people who knew nothing of Indian music thought Indian music might sound like. The sheet music cover reveals how people who had never been to India also had an exotic, sexualized view of the country and the people living there.