| "Miss Otis Regrets" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1934 byHarms |
| Songwriter | Cole Porter |
"Miss Otis Regrets" is a song about thelynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover.[1] It was composed byCole Porter in 1934, and first performed byDouglas Byng inHi Diddle Diddle,[2] arevue that opened on October 3, 1934, atLondon'sSavoy Theatre.
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.[3] Instead of a country girl, however, Miss Otis is a polite society lady.
Friend and Yale classmateMonty 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 ofElsa 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" intoHi Diddle Diddle later that year.[3] In Porter's 1935 showJubilee, an alternate lyric for the song "My Most Intimate Friend" goes "and Miss Otis thinks she'll be able to attend."
Truman Capote, in his article published in the November 1975 issue ofEsquire Magazine, relates a story told to him by "Lady Coolbirth" about Cole Porter and an Italian waiter he had tried to seduce in his home. After kissing the man, Porter was told "that will cost $500" and escalated his advances until he was quoted $2000. Porter handed him a check as he said "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today. Now get out."[3]
Thomas “Fats” Waller, in his song "Lulu's Back In Town", added with the same humour the verse "Mister Otis regrets, that he won't be aroun'."
