Larry LaPrise

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Larry LaPrise (Roland Lawrence LaPrise, born: 11 November 1912 Detroit, Michigan, died: 4 April 1996 Gooding, Idaho) was the writer of the Hokey Pokey.

LaPrise wrote the song in the late 1940s for the après-ski crowd at a club in Sun Valley, Idaho. The song was first recorded by his group the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker) in 1949. They were awarded U.S. copyright in 1950.

After the group broke up in the 1960s, LaPrise worked for the Post Office in Ketchum, Idaho.

The authorship of the Hokey Pokey is disputed, with Jimmy Kennedy claiming to have written the original (entitled Cokey-Cokey, or Hokey-Cokey, or Okey-Cokey) during WWII. Robert Degan sued LaPrise for copyright infringement of his 1946 The Hokey-Pokey Dance. They settled out of court.

Some scholars attribute the origin to the Shaker song Hinkum-Booby which had similar lyrics and was published in Edward Deming's A gift to be simple in 1940:

I put my right hand in,

I put my right hand out,

I give my right hand a shake,

And I turn it all about.

[edit] Jokes

After LaPrise's death, the following joke circulated on the Internet comparing the Hokey Pokey to the process of placing LaPrise in his coffin: [1]

Sad News 

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment,
It is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which
almost went unnoticed last week. 

Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died peacefully at
the age of 83. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him
into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble
started.