A recent Useless fact in the Newsletter cited the origin of the Saying "The Real McCoy". The following have been submitted:

1. McCoy is derived from Mackay, referring to Messrs. Mackay, Glasgow who made a brand of fine whisky that they promoted as 'the real Mackay' during the 1890s.

2. After Kid McCoy (Norman Selby,1873-1940), American welterweight boxing champion. The story goes, and there are various versions of it, that a drunk challenged Selby to prove that he was McCoy and not one of the many lesser boxers trading under the same name. After being knocked to the floor the drunk rose to admit that 'Yes, that's the real McCoy alright'.

3. The phrase originates with a dispute between two branches of the Scots Mackay clan over who was their rightful leader. The head of one branch was Lord Reay, who came to be known as the Reay Mackay which migrated to 'the real McCoy'.

4. Joseph McCoy (1837-1915), became mayor of Abilene, Kansas as it developed into a sizeable town. He called himself 'the real McCoy'.

5. The inventor Elijah McCoy made a successful machine for lubricating engines which spawned many copies all inferior to the original.

6. Bill McCoy was a US rumrunner during the prohibition years and his 'real' rum, imported from Canada, was compared favourably with poor quality local brews.

7. McCoy was a Pennsylvanian who supplied commercial nitro-glycerine to safecrackers who favoured it over their own home-made efforts.

8. McCoy is a corruption of Macao which was the source of a pure and sought after class of heroin.

Anyone heard of anymore?

I know of 2 real McCoys: Horace McCoy, hard-boiled novelist, best known for "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", and Bessie McCoy, singer-acress, whose signature song, "The Yama Yama Man" was a smash in the early 20th century. tjoeb};>

I know of 2 real McCoys: Horace McCoy, hard-boiled novelist, best known for "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", and Bessie McCoy, singer-acress, whose signature song, "The Yama Yama Man" was a smash in the early 20th century. tjoeb};>

The Yama Yama Man? What's a Yama Yama Man?
Hey, Texas Joe, How does one get on the Useless Newsletter mailing list?

Hi Donnar, try this...

Click Here

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Donnar, the "Yama Yama Man" was a kid's bogeyman of the period. And BTW, McCoy was the 2nd wife of famed war correspondant and author Richard Harding Davis(his "Gallagher" stories became a popular series on the Walt Disney shows.) Ginger Rogers sang the song in 1939's "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle", the last musical she and Fred Astaire did at RKO. tjoeb};>