Origins: Old Bill Bolliver/Bill Oliver

Subject: ADD: Bill Oliver (Sam Prout)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 10:45 PM

BILL OLIVER (1910)
(by Old Sam Prout and his brother Jert)

We were eight days out in the China Sea,
In the good ship Cantelope,
When with an awful creak she sprung a leak
With a cargo of Babbitt's Soap
We were eighteen thousand miles from land,
And perhaps a trifle more
When we threw the soap into the sea
And wash'd ourselves ashore.

CHORUS
Old Bell Oliver, Old Bell Oliver,
Skipper of the Sweet Marie,
Now these are some of the fairy tales
He told of the deep blue sea.
All he learn'd when but a boy
Was how to holler "Ship ahoy!"
Old Bill Oliver, Old Bill Oliver,
Skipper of the Sweet Marie

We were sailing many moons ago
In the good ship Crocodile,
When a storm came up and cast us on
A sandy, desert isle.
Well, we wandered up and down the shore,
And we tho't it quite a lark
For we saw a dog and killed him,
Then we sail'd home on his bark.

We were anch'ring many years ago
The good ship Annabelle,
We were in the northern latitudes
And it was cold as   ——
Well, the Captain he got sickly,
And we tho't he'd catch the grip,
So the painter he got wise and threw
Three coats up on the ship.



from Tufts Songs, Nineteen-fifteen: A Collection of Music for an by Alumni and Students of Tufts College, Including Pages from the Songbooks of 1895 and 1906, by Tufts University, 1915 (pages 364-365)
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tufts_Songs_Nineteen_fifteen/e4HqUvGg10cC?hl=en

Note that Bill's name is also spelled "Bell" in the chorus. Probably a typo.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Bill Bolliver/Bill Oliver
From: cnd
Date: 29 Oct 21 - 09:02 AM

Looks like it comes from a musical called Captain Careless, released either 1906 or 1907 depending on the source. Written by Bob Adams. It was described in Donald J. Stubblebine's Early Broadway Sheet Music as "a regional show in Chicago, Illinois, 1906." (link)

Here's the link to the US Copyright Entry: https://books.google.com/books?id=jwI4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA888&lpg=PA888 (top right corner).

A copy of the score appears to be available at both the Library of Congress (click) or the Smithsonian (click). What may be the whole thing is available on HathiTrust (click) however I didn't see the song requested.

Subject: Origins: Old Bill Bolliver
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Oct 21 - 03:57 AM

Email request from Morris:

I'm looking for the origin of the attached song "Old Bill Bolliver." I learned it from my father a very long time ago.

Old Bill Bolliver

Old Bill Bolliver, Patsy Dolliver,
Skipper of the “Sweet Marie”.
On the good ship “Soap” they sailed,
They sailed out to sea.
The wind did blow, and the
Waves did roar. The
Good ship “Soap” sailed back to shore.
Old Bill Bolliver--- who was he?
Patsy Dolliver--- Holy Gee!
Old Bill Bolliver, Patsy Dolliver,
Skipper of the “Sweet Marie”.

---

I think this is the song. Anybody available to transcribe it?

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tufts_Songs_Nineteen_fifteen/e4HqUvGg10cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22skipper+of+the+sweet+marie%22&pg=PA365&printsec=frontcover