"Ayer and Brown" I've learned more about Nat Ayer in his context in the last few years, and I think he likely was interested in and deliberately used 12-bar-blues music as such when he put together "Oh, You Beautiful Doll." The same applies to e.g. Lewis Muir's "When Ragtime Rosie Ragged The Rosary," 1911, in New York, and similarly with Chris Smith's "Monkey Rag," 1911, in Chicago. It seems that blues music hit New York, at all, before Handy published anything, and it seems that Les Copeland (a friend of Ayer's) and Muir would have been two of the earlier musicians to bring blues music to New York. Likely Baby Seals too. Muir was born in New York, played in St. Louis for years, and moved back to New York in 1910. He may have also been friendly with Ayer.

(Nat's younger brother Silas was known as a bandleader for Cornell dancers, and by 2/1917 had used "Homesickness Blues," "Bullfrog Blues," "Hawaiian Blues," "Rice Hotel Blues," and "Hesitation Blues.")