The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172428   Message #4173248
Posted By: Joe Offer
27-May-23 - 12:16 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Looking for info on 'Dolan's Poker Party
Subject: ADD: Dolan's Poker Party
Here's the Frank Crumit recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z13__M5NioU

Take a look at this page:The page says Frank Crumit is the composer of the song, recorded 25 June 1928 as Victor #21579.

DOLAN'S POKER PARTY
(Frank Crumit?)

Four aces and a joker is a lovely hand at poker,
All the money in the pot is yours, according to the law.
Though I never like to gamble, let me say without preamble,
That I am a trifle partial to a quiet game of draw.

On Thursday night McCarty organized a poker party.
There was Dolan, Martin, Doyle, and Reilly -- six of us in all.
Oh the game was very quiet, but it ended in a riot
Sure they overturned the stove and smashed the pictures on the wall.

Listen and I’ll tell ye how the trouble did begin:
Dolan opened up a pot and three of us went in.
’Twas opened for a quarter and when Dolan won the pot
He counted it and found that sixty cents was all he got
-- ho ho ho ho ho.

Oh, Dolan got excited and declared that he would right it.
He got up and intimated he was ready for a bout.
Then he reached for Reilly’s Galways which he carried with him always
And before we could prevent it he had plucked a handful out.

Just to keep the ball a-rollin’ I declared meself for Dolan
Sure they threw me on the floor an’ slammed the stove upon me back,
You should have seen the lot of noses, they looked like a bunch of roses,
That's the luck I had the night that Dolan opened up the jack.

All o’ the furniture was broken and I carry yet a token
Of the luck I had the night that Dolan opened up the jack.




See this page: https://podbay.fm/p/the-hard-boiled-poker-radio-show/e/1219281900

And this NPR program: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/7702392

And the song was featured on an episode of Fibber McGee and Molly:

The Roud Index only lists the Crumit recording. Nothing in the Traditional Ballad Index.