Florence Mills

Happy Birthday, Florence Mills...January 25, 1896-November 1, 1927...Mills was one of the all-time greatest stars of Black Theater, the first international female superstar of the 20th century and a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Born to ex-slaves in Washington, D.C., Mills began her career under her given name, Florence Winfrey, at the age of six singing with her two older sisters. The trio toured up and down the Eastern Seaboard as the "Mills Sisters" until the older sisters married and retired.

In 1916 at the age of 20, Mills joined Brick Top and Cora Green at the infamous black and tan Chicago nightclub Panama Cafe. The three called themselves the Panama Trio and garnered some success along with Alberta Hunter and Mezz Mezzrow. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson became a fan of Mills and taught her how to tap dance. But the club was a rough and tumble joint and was closed down a year later by the police after Alberta Hunter's pianist was shot and killed onstage. The Trio played other local venues for a time before disbanding.

In 1917 Mills joined the Tennessee Ten, a successful black vaudeville troupe whose dance director, Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson, would eventually become her husband and business partner. The group had a successful run in a show called "Folly Town" which also starred Bert Lahr and Jack Hailey (Wizard of Oz) in 1919 and Mills went on to star in a solo show at the Lincoln Theater.

The real turning point in her career came when she was cast in the historic Broadway show "Shuffle Along". Originally a regular cast member, Mills stepped into the leading role when Gertrude Saunders left the show and Mills became an even bigger sensation. When the show closed in 1922, promoter Lew Leslie built a show around her and Kid Thompson at the Plantation Restaurant where she introduced her theme song, "I'm A Little Blackbird Looking For A Bluebird", a thinly disguised protest against racial inequality. She made her first tour of Europe in 1923 and despite some racial opposition, she was a smashing success. British theater impresario C.B. Cochran remembered, "That night, and every night she appeared at the London Pavilion, Florence Mills received an ovation each time she came onstage-before every song she sang. This is a tribute which in my experience I have never known to be offered to any other artist. In my humble opinion Florence Mills is one of the greatest artists of our time."

Back in the States, Lew Leslie created his first Blackbirds revue with a cast including Mills and Thompson and in 1926 it was launched to great acclaim. The show traveled to Europe and again Mills dazzled the audiences. Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1926 was such a success in London that Blackbird themed parties became all the rage as high society outdid itself in an effort to entertain the performers. The Prince of Wales saw the show so many times he was seen singing along to Mills. Mills used her celebrity status to raise money for children's charities, speak out against racism and urge support for the NAACP.

 In April of 1926, "Blackbirds" reached 250 performances at the London Pavilion. The strain of carrying a show through two shows a day plus matinees and charity benefits began to take a toll on the already fragile Mills. Despite failing health, Mills went on tour throughout England. In Liverpool she was told by a doctor that she needed to get medical treatment for tuberculosis or she would die.She and Thompson travel to Germany to take a cure and then headed back to the States.

Mill's mother was dying and Mills postponed her own medical treatment. As a result she was hospitalized in October of 1926 where she underwent surgery. An infection set in and even though Mills was dying, she sang songs to the nurses and Lew Leslie to cheer them up. Her last words were, "I don't want anyone to cry when I die. I just want to make people happy, always." She died at the age of 32. Her death was a shock to the entertainment world. Over 10,000 people attended the funeral home to pay respect and thousands attended the funeral. It was the biggest funeral that Harlem had ever experienced. Legend has it that a flow of blackbirds flew over the funeral cortege prompting Porter Grainger to remark, "She has gone to join the songbirds in Heaven."

Mills was memorialized in song by several musicians. Ellington wrote "Black Beauty" in her honor. Fat's Waller recorded four songs just days after her death including "Gone But Not Forgotten-Florence Mills. At 3:10 on this video you'll hear Ellington's 'Black Beauty' dubbed over one of only a couple of films shot of Mills dancing.

Sophie Tucker

Happy Birthday, Sophie Tucker... January 13, 1887-February 9, 1966... "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas" was born in Ukraine just as her parents planned to emigrate to the United States. The family settled in Hartford, Connecticut and opened a kosher restaurant and boarding house where Sophie first tested her talents with the customers. Many of the famous stars of Yiddish theater frequented the establishment and Sophie set her sights on joining them. Her parents didn't approve of the vaudeville performers who ate at the restaurant.Tucker wrote that her mother believed, "that marriage, having babies and helping her husband get ahead was career enough for any woman. I couldn't make her understand that it wasn't a career I was after. It was just that I wanted a life that didn't mean spending most of it at the cook stove and the kitchen sink."

At the age of 16 she eloped with a beer cart driver, Louis Tuck. They had a son three years later but Tucker was not impressed with her husband's work ethic and asked for a separation. With a letter of introduction to composer Howard Von Tilzer from a mutual friend, she changed her name to Tucker and left Hartford for New York. Von Tilzer wasn't impressed but she found work anyway in beer gardens and cafes singing for rent money and meals. Her big break came in 1907 singing in Chris Brown's amateur night. She overheard Brown telling a colleague, "This one's so big and ugly, the crowd out front will razz her. Better get some cork and black her up." Even though she protested, the only way they would employ her was if she wore blackface.

She was booked on the New England vaudeville circuit and quickly became known as a "world renowned coon singer", a role she was too ashamed to explain to her family. Two years into the circuit, her costumes failed to arrive at a Boston performance and Tucker was finally able to appear as herself, shocking her audience by denouncing the black face and claiming her Jewish heritage. She was a hit. Emboldened by her popularity as her authentic self, she began incorporating songs that made fun of her size into her act such as "I Don't Want To Be Thin" and "Nobody Loves A Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love" Songs with double meanings also became a staple as well as songs of female empowerment which included, "I'm Livin' Alone And I Like It", "I Ain't Takin' Orders From No One" and "No Man Is Ever Gonna Worry Me", all of them popular with female and male audiences alike.

In 1910, Tucker bought the rights to Sheldon Brooks' song "Some Of These Days" which became her theme song. Her connection to the African-American performing community was a strong one. Her friendships with Ethel Waters and Mamie Smith exposed her to jazz and the blues and Tucker became one of the first performers to introduce jazz to white vaudeville audiences. Experiencing racial prejudice as a Jewish female gave her a good deal of sympathy for her black friends and she was often a behind the scenes supporter. Later in life she would lend her energies and financial support to organizations such as the Negro Actors Guild and The Will Rogers Memorial Hospital among others.

In 1921, Tucker hired pianist and songwriter Ted Shapiro to be her accompanist and musical director, a relationship that would last throughout her career. Shapiro wrote several songs for her and would play piano. The two would tell jokes and wisecrack in between songs as part of her act. In 1925, Jack Yellon wrote "My Yiddishe Momme", one of her most famous songs. It was especially popular in cities with a sizable Jewish population but as Tucker stated, "You didn't have to be a Jew to be moved by 'My Yiddishe Momme'". Tucker's popularity spread across the Atlantic and she made her first tour of Europe in 1926, entertaining the King and Queen of England and recording with Ted Lewis' band.

As the age of vaudeville began to fade in the 20's, Tucker turned to film and radio to sustain her career, making 11 films between 1929 and 1957. She continued to sing songs attesting to her sexual appetites which endeared her to a public that was shocked and delighted by her continued challenges to gender, size and a woman's sexuality with a healthy dose of humor. She had her own radio show between 1938 and 1939 and was a frequent guest on other shows.

In the 50's and 60's she appeared on many television shows billed as "The First Lady of Show Business." She also continued to tour, especially in England where she was adored. Tucker never retired, working until weeks before her death of a lung aliment. Her legacy lives on in her contributions to many charities and her inimitable style which gave power and legitimacy to the idea of a strong woman with healthy appetites.

Slim Gaillard

Happy Birthday, Bulee "Slim" Gaillard...January 4, 1916-February 26, 1991...Best known as the first half of the comic jazz duo Slim and Slam, Gaillard's performing career spanned over 50 years and included tap dance, guitar, piano and vocals, movies, television and touring shows. He was also a master of languages and in addition to speaking 8, he also wrote a dictionary for his own made up language he called "Vout".

His date and place of birth and parental lineage are all up for debate. He could have been born in Cuba, Pensacola, Florida or Alabama to a Greek father and an Afro-Cuban mother or a German father and an African-American mother but we do know he grew up in Detroit and moved to New York City in the 1930's. He occasionally went to sea with his father who worked as a steward on cruise ships and at the age of 12 was accidentally left onshore on the Island of Crete. He worked for a while on the island until he could make his way back to Detroit.

Back in Detroit he worked in a slaughter house, for Ford Motor Works, as a boxer, trained as a mortician and worked as a rum-runner for the Purple Gang during the late 20's and early 30's. He eventually put his musical talent to work in a vaudeville act playing guitar and tap dancing at the same time. In 1936 he teamed up with bassist Slam Stewart as 'Slim and Slam', a novelty jazz act.

The duo achieved national fame with their song "Flat Foot Floogie" in 1938, which was soon covered by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and Fats Waller. They appeared in the now iconic film "Hellzapoppin'" in 1941 but WW2 broke the team up with Gaillard serving in the Air Force and Stewart serving in the Army. 1945 found Gaillard playing with bassist Bam Brown in Hollywood and another giant hit, "Cement Mixer (Putty-Putty).

Gaillard made several movies in the late 40's and early 50's and played Birdland with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. As interest in musicians of the big band era waned, Gaillard played mostly in and around New York City. In 1958 he toured and recorded with Stan Kenton. In the early 60's he worked as a hotel manager in San Diego before buying an orchard near Tacoma, Washington. But it was apparently hard to stay away from the spotlight and Gaillard returned to Los Angeles in the late 60's, playing in local clubs and eventually landing jobs on television.

He appeared in 'Mission Impossible', "Marcus Welby, M.D.', ,Along Came Bronson', 'Charlie's Angels' and 'Medical Center' and 'Roots:The Next Generation'. In 1970 he was briefly reunited with Slam Stewart at the Monterey Jazz Festival and in 1982 he was convinced by Dizzy Gillespie to make a tour of Europe. The tour was a big success and Gaillard made London his new home base. He also recorded again after a 24 year hiatus. In 1986 he appeared in the film "Absolute Beginners" singing the song 'Selling Out' and in 1989 he was the subject of a multi-part BBC series, "The World of Slim Gaillard". He died of cancer in London at the age of 75.