Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay is a vaudeville and music hall song. The song's first known public performance was in Henry J. Sayers' 1891 revue Tuxedo, which was performed in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the version sung by Lottie Collins (1865-1910) in London music halls in 1892 (as shown in this drawing by Phil May of the same year). She would sing the first verse demurely and then launch into the chorus and an uninhibited and exhausting skirt dance with high kicks (especially on the word "BOOM") that exposed her stockings held up by sparkling garters, and bare thighs. At the height of the craze, Collins was performing the song five times nightly at different venues in London !!!