One history of the song reports: "While on tour with the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels, their train arrived at a place called 'Old Town'.

[3] And yet one more version is Metz and his Minstrels were in Hot Springs, South Dakota, where Joe Hayden worked at the Evans Hotel.

Hayden had the song from his "growing up" days in New Orleans, and he and Metz sat down and wrote the first version of "Hot Time" for a re-dedication ceremony for the local Chautauqua Park and Entertainment Center.

[4] Metz heard the tune, copyrighted the music in his own name, and had it incorporated into a minstrel show, Tuxedo Girls, with revised lyrics.

The piece describes a fire in a Chicago hotel in which, coincidentally, the last notes played on an organ were "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town, To-night."