By 1920, she had established a reputation in the South and along the East Coast. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. She also performed in shows on the black-owned Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit and would become one of its major attractions.Ĭareer Portrait of Smith by Carl Van Vechten Smith eventually moved on to performing in chorus lines, making the "81" Theatre in Atlanta her home base. Contemporary accounts indicate that, while Ma Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she likely helped her develop a stage presence. Bessie was hired as a dancer rather than a vocalist since the company already included popular singer Ma Rainey. In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged an audition for his sister with the troupe managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him", said Clarence's widow, Maud. In 1904, her oldest brother Clarence left home and joined a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. They often performed on "street corners for pennies", and their habitual location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets, in the heart of the city's African-American community. She sang and danced as he played the guitar. To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie and her brother Andrew busked on the streets of Chattanooga. ĭue to her parents' death and her poverty, Bessie experienced a "wretched childhood". As a consequence, Bessie was unable to gain an education. By the time Bessie was nine, her mother and a brother had also died and her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings. He died while his daughter was too young to remember him. Smith was the daughter of Laura and William Smith, a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama). The 18 censuses report several older siblings or half-siblings. The 1910 census gives her age as 16, and a birth date of April 15, 1894, which appears on subsequent documents and was observed as her birthday by the Smith family. The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. Her successful recording career with Columbia Records began in 1923, but her performing career was cut short by a car crash that killed her at the age of 43.īiography Early life Smith in 1936 She began touring and performed in a group that included Ma Rainey, and then went out on her own. īorn in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Smith was young when her parents died, and she and her six siblings survived by performing on street corners. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Bessie Smith (Ap– September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age.
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