Photos from L to R: 1-Al Siegel, Palmer’s first husband. 3-Jack Fina, Palmer’s second husband. 3-Sophie Tucker, 4-Jack Dempsey, 5-Young Ethel Merman. 6-Mae West; all were part of her extraordinary life and unmatched adventures.

 

The record became an instant success, selling 950,000 records. The success of Mamie Smith encouraged other record companies to find other black female blues singers who could match the talent of Smith. Ironically, Mamie Smith was never considered a Blues singer. In fact, she was a Vaudeville entertainer who started as a dancer in New York in 1913. She was a magnificent and prolific performer with an enormous creativity. She excelled in dancing, comedy, outrageous trapeze acts, and covered herself with jewelry and lavish costumes that put Liberace to shame.

Photos from L to R: 1-Jelly Roll Morton and his Vaudeville partner Rosa Brown in 1914. 2-George Washington Johnson, (1850-1910), in a photograph taken towards the end of his career, and reproduced in the Columbia Record, August 1907.

Clarence Williams was born in 1893 in Plaquemine, Louisiana, and died in 1965 in New York. He had a long and prolific career. For health reasons, he retired in the early forties and spent his last days in the antique business. Clarence Williams is rarely remembered nowadays despite his enormous contribution to music. Many music historians place him in in the league of Jelly Roll Morton. In 1890, George W. Johnson became the first African American to record commercially. A former slave, Johnson was discovered singing on the streets of Washington, D.C., by Berliner recording agent Fred Gaisberg, who later spread rumors that Williams has murdered his wife.Continues NEXT