Toward the top of this thread, Joe Offer and others note that the "Gambolier" melody was first used on stage in 1873; and that Fuld's Book of World-Famous Music adds: > "The words (of Dunderbeck) appeared in Our Own Boys Songster (New > York, NY, 1876), p. 6, under the title "Dunderbeck's Machine," to the > "Air-Thomas's Machine." "Dunderbeck's Machine" is there said to be > "By Ed. Harrigan," but this might also mean "sung by" Ed. Harrigan... Nobody on this thread seems to have looked up "Air-Thomas's Machine." There is no song by this name that I can find—but there *is* an *air* called "Thomas's Machine"! It reportedly dates from 1873: http://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-T/Thomas-Machine.htm And here is an Amazon link for sheet music that seems to back up that date: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thomass-Sewing-Machine-Song-begins/dp/B0000CZ0EM If the date is correct, then this predates Dunderbeck and is the first song to link the "Gondolier" melody to verses about a machine. The subject matter is less unusual than Dunderbeck, so it's easy to imagine Dunderbeck as Harrigan's deliberate attempt to make the "Thomas" lyrics crazier.
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