Show Me the Way to Go Home, Margaret B. Toohey and Harold W. Bradley

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Show Me the Way to Go Home, Margaret B. Toohey and Harold W. Bradley, sheet music

1925 Harold W. Bradley, Winnipeg

The discovery of this sheet provides proof to contradict the popular notion, this song was written by Campbell & Connelly, a duo of itinerant British vaudevillians. The Canadian songwriting team of Margaret Toohey and Harold Bradley actually lived, performed and composed here in our city of Winnipeg. For decades, Margaret Toohey ran a music shop, The Music Exchange.....closing her doors in 1965. The fact the lyrics to our version are quite tame in comparison to the more commonly sung, bawdy version, lends credence to the belief the Brits simply changed a few lyrics and called the song their own.

Contrary to the Wikipedia accounting for the origins of "Show Me the Way to Go Home", it is our contention Toohey & Bradley "pitched" their song to the British duo while they were touring through Winnipeg. Once back in England, the duo published it as their own composition.

The mystery lies in the fact nobody in Winnipeg knows about the ties of Toohey and Bradley to this song. It begs the question: "In light of the song's  huge international success, why didn't Toohey and Bradley contest ownership through public disclosure and/or lawsuit?"  Certainly, one reason could be the extreme difficulty of transatlantic legal suits in the 1920's.

Another explanation would be, the Winnipeg duo sold their rights to the song and lived to regret it!

We have placed a whopping price tag on this sheet with the claim it is the bona fide original version, composed & published by our fellow Winnipeggers......we invite proof to the contrary.