James: "...Mrs. Alice Pashley in Amelia Defries, "The Fortunate Islands"..."

Sorry didn't catch that before. Both individuals were from the same school as Richard Le Gallienne's work in Harper's, "Hoist the John B. Sail," &c though I couldn't say for certain either of the ladies were getting their family vacations directly "comped" by the Development Board as was Le Gallienne. May be a minute but I'm pretty sure I can lay my hands on a copy and post the lyrics here.

The media has all changed but it's still standard practice to some extent. The Wolfe/Gilbert version of "Delia Gone" appeared in the 1927 McCutcheon songbook already billed as the Bahamian "Frankie & Johnny" years before 'formal' publishing. The process of trying a song out on cruise ships or in Nassau's local "over-the-hill" clubs wasn't all that different from American vaudeville's "dink circuit."

btw: Two of Wolfe's very early songs "Good Night, Good Night" and "The Man with the Pick and the Shovel" (c.1923) were published by the Bert Williams owned and operated Gotham-Attucks Music Company.

The more you process Nassau (and later Freeport) as the southeastern terminus of the North American ballroom and chitlin' circuits and not some culturally isolated backwater the better off you'll be. Even then it's still like one author wrote… trying to describe a peacock from just looking at a skeleton.