Miss Otis Regrets

"Miss Otis Regrets" is a song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover.[1] It was composed by Cole Porter in 1934, and first performed by Douglas Byng in Hi Diddle Diddle,[2] a revue that opened on October 3, 1934, at London's Savoy Theatre.

"Miss Otis Regrets"
Song
Published1934 by Harms
Songwriter(s)Cole Porter

Background

Cole Porter spent many holidays in Paris throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Ada "Bricktop" Smith was a close friend, and he frequented her nightclub, Chez Bricktop, whose "modern" performing acts certainly influenced or informed the erudite and dense lyrical content of Porter’s songs. However, despite her assertion and references to that assertion in articles by journalists, Porter did not write "Miss Otis Regrets" for Bricktop.[3]The song began during a party at the New York apartment of Porter's classmate from Yale, Leonard Hanna. Hearing a cowboy's lament on the radio, Porter sat down at the piano and improvised a parody of the song. He retained the referential song’s minor-keyed blues melody and added his wry take on lyrical subject matter common in country music: the regret of abandonment after being deceitfully coerced into sexual submission.[4] Instead of a country girl, however, Miss Otis is a polite society lady.

Friend and Yale classmate Monty Woolley jumped in to help Porter "sell it", pretending to be a butler who explains why Madam can't keep a lunch appointment. In the previous 24 hours, Miss Otis was jilted and abandoned, located and killed her seducer, was arrested, jailed, and, about to be hanged by a mob, made a final, polite apology for being unable to keep her lunch appointment. This performance was so well received that the song evolved, "workshopped" with each subsequent cocktail party, many of which were at the Waldorf-Astoria suite of Elsa Maxwell, to whom Porter dedicated the song. The "smart set" that attended these parties, known to use wit or wisecracks to punctuate anecdotes and gossip, began using references to "Miss Otis" as a punchline. Porter incorporated the tale of "Miss Otis Regrets" into Hi Diddle Diddle later that year.[4]

Truman Capote, in his article published in the November 1975 issue of Esquire Magazine, relates a story Porter told him. Porter used "Miss Otis" as a punchline in the 1950s, opening the door to dismiss a presumptuous man from his home. Porter handed him a check as he said "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today. Now get out."[4]

Lynching

The song is a murder ballad which involves a reversal of roles: a white woman from aristocratic society is lynched after she shoots and kills her lover. Lynching was at the time very widely reported and discussed in the United States, but by far the majority of cases were being carried out against working class male African Americans. The song reverses the gender, class and racial roles to produce an anti-lynching narrative.[1]

Notable versions
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References
  1. Sarah Kate Whitfield, ed. (2019). Reframing the Musical: Race, Culture and Identity. Macmillan. pp. 65–67. ISBN 9781352004403.
  2. Hi Diddle Diddle, secondhandsongs.com; accessed May 30, 2016.
  3. Obituary for Ada "Bricktop" Smith, Time Magazine; accessed May 30, 2016.
  4. Schwartz, Charles (1979). Cole Porter: A Biography Da Capo Press, ISBN 9780306800979
  5. Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 440. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
  6. Vladimir Bogdanov; Chris Woodstra; Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds. (2001). All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. Hal Leonard. pp. 814–815. ISBN 9780879306274.
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