Hmmmm. I've been doing some research on the next to last verse of the Walser/Johnson Girls version which runs:

And we'll go down to the Midway Plaisances,
Fire down below-oh-oh-oh-ohh, boys,
Fire down below!
To see the pretty girls do the hula-hula dances,
Fire down below-oh-oh-oh-ohh, boys,
Fire down below!

Very nice as it stands but it MAY represent a mis-transcription of the William Fender original recording. There was such a place as the Midway Plaisance in late 19th century San Francisco but I find no references to "hula-hula dancing." Here's what I've been looking over:

Notes from The Barbary Coast by Herbert Asbury, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., NY, 1933

The Midway Plaisance

Located outside the infamous Barbary Coast district on Market Street, between 3rd and 4th streets. in San Francisco between the early 1890's and early 1900's.

"The first melodeon or music hall in San Francisco to make a special feature of hoochy-coochee dancers, or, as the theatrical weekly Variety calls them. 'torso-tossers and hip-wavers.' Some of the most noted cooch artists of the day appeared at the Midway Plaisance, among them the Girl in Blue and the original Little Egypt, who first danced in San Francisco in 1897, a few years after her triumphs in the Streets of Cairo Show at the first Chicago World's Fair. The admission charge at the Midway Plaisance was ten cents, slightly lower than at the Bella Union (its older rival), and it was tougher in every way; its shows were bawdier, and virtue among its female entertainers was considered very detrimental to the best interests of the establishment. Like practically all of the other melodeons, it had a mezzanine floor cut up into booths, before which hung heavy curtains. A visitor who engaged a booth for the evening was entertained between acts by the female performers and his conduct was not questioned so long as he continued to buy liquor." (pps. 131-132)

At the very least, we should be singing "Midway Plaisance," and most likely singing "hoochy-coochee dance" if we wish to be historically accurate. Or maybe we need to listen more carefully to the original recording; maybe that's what Fender is singing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble