The Kosher Turkey-Trot (c. 1912)

As I browse through old newspapers looking for interesting things to blog, I came across a story of a January 1916 banquet in Mexico, Missouri. One participant jokingly complained that he didn't get the chance to dance the "kosher turkey-trot."

Was that a real thing?

At first, I thought not. It seems to have been a lyric to a novelty song from 1912 called "At the Yiddisher Ball."

The lyrics:

 In our neighborhood we have, what you call,

 Once a year a sociable ball,

What a time, there's everything you wish

Ev'ry one is dressed from soup to fish;

You take Rifky, she looks pretty nifty,

Don't you mind to bring the lunch, it only costs you fifty;

There'll be wine and ev'ry thing that's fine

At the yiddish sociable ball.

CHORUS: 

At the ball, at the ball, at the yiddisher ball,/

There'll only be class, or there'll be nothing at all,

And when that orchestra plays/ Yiddish kazotskys and Bombershays,

At the ball, at the ball, and the yiddisher ball

We'll make monkey doodles 'round the hall,

Out upon the floor I'll be Jakey on the spot,

Doing the kosher turkey trot,

At that first class yiddisher sociable,

 (Remember, fifty cents admits the ladies and the gents)

 At that first class yiddisher sociable ball.

VERSE 2: 

I have tickets here I don't want to keep,

Say you'll come, I'll give you them cheap;

I'll sing there if you will surely come,

 I'll knock them from the seats singing Chill-i-bom-bom;

A theatre won't be half so good

Don't stay away treat yourself just like you should,

Once a year, you know, you should appear

At the yiddish sociable ball.

I didn't think it was likely that this was turned into a real dance, but, apparently, it was ...at least once.

From Harvard University's Delta Upsilon Quarterly, 1912, a description of a friendly talent competition between Rutgers, New York and Columbia undergrads of that organization.

Columbia's entry:

Columbia pinned her faith on two performers, and they certainly were top-notchers! Sengstaken, at the piano, made that instrument do everything but talk, and to make up for that deficiency, "monologued" at the same time he played. Then Barrett sang two "Yiddisher" songs in true East Side style, and incidentally danced the "Kosher turkey-trot." 

Columbia came in last place, behind Rutgers The New York chapter performed in blackface.

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