(Gathered for the first time, here are Sophie Tucker's ear...)
Gathered for the first time, here are Sophie Tucker's earliest recordings, from Edison wax cylinders and impossibly rare discs, chronicling the rough and ready rise of this lasting icon of the double entendre. A master of self-marketing, Tucker learned long before she became known as The Last of the Red Hot Mamas that the key to her success lie in controlling--and changing as needed--the facts of her personal story. Documentarians Susan and Lloyd Ecker unravel all the loose ends and contradictory threads comprising the early years of one of the 20th century's most colorful stage personalities. With a hardback book-binding and 72 full-color pages, this beautiful package features dozens of illustrations from Sophie's personal scrapbooks, a foreword by Michael Feinstein, and a personal remembrance by Carol Channing.
(A young Sophie Abuza honed her singing skills by entertai...)
A young Sophie Abuza honed her singing skills by entertaining patrons at her family's cafe in Hartford, Connecticut. A brief marriage to Louis Tuck with the later addition of 'er' to her surname provided Sophie Tucker with one of the best-known stage names of the day. Our release includes songs recorded from 1922 to 1929, a time in which Tucker was a vaudeville headliner (today we use the term 'superstar') and celebrity nightclub performer. Tucker's theme song over these years was Some Of These Days. The first six titles, from the early 1920s, were recorded acoustically (i.e., without a microphone. That means literally shouting into a horn) a process for which her powerful voice excelled. A good example is Papa Better Watch Your Step. Of special interest are the final six numbers in this collection which are from the soundtrack disc of her 1929 movie Honky Tonk. A poignant ballad written for this lost film is I'm Doing What I'm Doing For Love. Fortunately, she can still be heard if not seen in this film.
1945 - Privtae Edition - Hardcover - w/ Dust Jacket - Some of These Days - The Autobiography of Sophie Tucker - RARE - Signed by Tucker, Inscribed & Dated 11/29/ 1958 - Remarkably good condition - VG Condition - Collectible
Sophie Tucker was a Ukrainian-born American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality.
Background
Sophie Tucker was the daughter of Charles Kalish and Dolly Abuza. She was born on Janua 13, 1887 in a farmhouse somewhere in Russia on a road leading to the Baltic Sea, for her mother was on her way to the United States to join her father (who took the name Charles Abuza when he arrived in America). The family lived in Boston for eight years and then moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where her father operated a restaurant. Tucker worked in the restaurant while attending school and occasionally earned small tips by singing for the customers.
Education
She graduated from the Brown School at the age of sixteen or seventeen (she was always intentionally vague about dates).
Career
Tucker left for New York City in 1906 to enter show business. After much difficulty finding work, she sang for her dinner at the Cafe Monopol. It was at this time that she changed her name to Tucker.
Her next engagement was at the German Village, a beer garden on Fortieth Street near Broadway, where she sang more than fifty songs a night for $15 a week plus tips.
After appearing in blackface in an amateur show at the 125th Street Theater, Tucker received a contract with the Park Circuit. She performed as a blackface singer in small towns and was billed as "World-Renowned Coon Singer. "
She then toured with the New England circuit of Hathaway Theaters. She developed a small reputation as a "coon shouter" and received an engagement at Tony Pastor's in New York City, where she sang such songs as "All I Get Is Sympathy, " "Why Was I Ever Born Lazy?" and "Rosie, My Dusky Georgia Rose. "
To gain experience, she then joined Manchester and Hill's chain of burlesque houses at less pay, but she had the opportunity to appear in skits as well as sing. One day her trunk was lost, and she never again performed in blackface.
In 1909, Tucker was hired to sing in the Ziegfeld Follies. When the show opened in Atlantic City, her act competed with the star, Nora Bayes, and so, Tucker's part was reduced to one song. When the show got to New York City, Tucker lost her job when a new star, Eva Tanguay, took over her song.
She returned to vaudeville and became a headliner. At theaters such as the American Music Hall in New York City and the Music Hall in Chicago she amused audiences with her song "There's Company in the Parlour, Girls, Come on Down. " Tucker considered herself gawky and correctly reasoned that she could deliver songs with double meanings that would be accepted as humorous rather than indecent. Nevertheless, in Portland, Oreg. , while she was singing on the Pantages Circuit, a warrant was sworn out for her arrest for "The Angle Worm Wiggle, " which was called "immoral and indecent, " but the district attorney threw out the case.
In 1914, she appeared at the Palace Theater in New York City, the epitome of success for vaudeville performers, and sang "Who Paid the Rent for Mrs. Rip Van Winkle When Rip Van Winkle Was Away?"
In 1922, she toured England and was a big hit in music halls with such songs as "When They Get Too Wild for Everyone Else, They're Perfect for Me. " At the same time, she entertained upperclass audiences at the supper club of the Metropole Hotel.
In 1923 and 1924, she played in the better vaudeville houses of the Orpheum, Pantages, and Sullivan-Considine circuits in the United States. The following year Tucker returned to England and sang at the exclusive Kit-Kat Club in London and in Charlot's Revue. That year she first sang "My Yiddishe Momma, " which became closely identified with her.
In 1926 she opened at Sophie Tucker's Playground, a cabaret in New York City, and in 1927 appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities. At the Palace in 1928 she was billed as "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas, " a title that remained with her for the rest of her career. She often shared billing with such stars as Will Rogers, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, and Fanny Brice. Personal appearances were her great strength in show business.
Although she made a few motion pictures, they did not add to her status as a performer. Among them were Honky Tonk (1929), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), with Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, and Judy Garland, and Follow the Boys (1944).
When vaudeville faded in popularity, Tucker performed at nightclubs in New York City, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, and the Catskills as well as abroad, where she was always in demand. In 1953, a testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel attended by 1, 500 people celebrated her golden jubilee as a performer.
Tucker contributed time and energy to raise funds for charities that crossed racial and religious lines. In 1945 she established the Sophie Tucker Foundation.
Her popularity with the public persisted as she grew older. In the latter part of her career she was still able to make fun of herself and sang "I'm the 3-D Mama with the Big Wide Screen. "
Tucker died of lung cancer and kidney failure on February 9, 1966, in New York, at age 82. She had continued working until the months before her death, playing shows at the Latin Quarter just weeks before. She is buried in Emanuel Cemetery, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, her home state.
Achievements
Sophie Tucker is known for her powerful delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century. She was widely known by the nickname "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas".
By the 1920s, Tucker's success had spread to Europe, and she began a tour of England, performing for King George V and Queen Mary at the London Palladium in 1926. Tucker re-released her hit song "Some of These Days", backed by Ted Lewis and his band, which stayed at the number 1 position of the charts for five weeks beginning 23 November 1926. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.
In 1955 Brandeis University announced the Sophie Tucker Chair of Theater Arts.
Quotations:
"I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better. "
"From birth to age 18 a girl needs good parents. From 18 to 35 she needs good looks. From 35 to 55 she needs a good personality. From 55 on, she needs good cash. "
"I've never sung a single song in my whole life on purpose to shock anyone. My 'hot numbers' are all, if you will notice, written about something that is real in the lives of millions of people. "
"The secret of longevity. .. Is to keep breathing!"
"Once you start carrying your own suitcase, paying your own bills, running your own show, you've done something to yourself that makes you one of those women men like to call 'a pal' and 'a good sport, ' the kind of woman they tell their troubles to. But you've cut yourself off from the orchids and the diamond bracelets, except those you buy yourself. "
"The key to longevity: keep breathing. "
"I have been poor and I have been rich. Rich is better. "
"Success in show business depends on your ability to make and keep friends. "
"It is a commentary on Berlin in 1931 that . .. it was 'My Yiddishe Momme' that the Berlin Broadcasting Company asked for. "
"I would start off with a lively rag, then would come a ballad, followed by a comedy song and a novelty number, and finally, the hot song. In this way, I left the stage with the audience laughing their heads off. "
"Even though I loved the song [My Yiddish Momme] and it was a sensational hit every time I sang it, I was always careful to use it only when I knew the majority of the house would understand Yiddish. However, you didn't have to be a Jew to be moved by 'My Yiddish Momme. ' 'Mother' in any language means the same thing. "
"Playing two months or more in one city meant new songs all the time. If people paid their dimes to see and hear Sophie Tucker, they didn't want to hear the same songs over and over or see the same clothes. "
Personality
She was a heavy, powerful blonde with a strong voice and an attractive personality.
Tucker, determined, hardworking, and ambitious, carefully developed a style that was garish, raucous, and sentimental. She established a warm, personal relationship with her audiences. She was meticulous about her dress, spending large sums for brilliant gowns, diamonds, and white mink that helped define her image.
Connections
Tucker was married three times. Her first marriage was to Louis Tuck, a beer cart driver, with whom she eloped in 1903. The marriage produced Tucker's only child, Albert. In 1906 the couple separated, and Tucker left Albert with her family, supporting them with money from her singing jobs in New York. They were divorced in May 1913. Albert was raised by Tucker's sister Annie. The sisters had a close relationship and kept in touch with weekly letters.
Her second marriage, to Frank Westphal (1917–1920), her accompanist, and her third marriage, to Al Lackey (1928–1934), her manager, both ended in divorce and produced no children. She blamed the failure of her marriages on the fact that she had been too adjusted to economic independence, saying, "Once you start carrying your own suitcase, paying your own bills, running your own show, you've done something to yourself that makes you one of those women men like to call 'a pal' and 'a good sport, ' the kind of woman they tell their troubles to. But you've cut yourself off from the orchids and the diamond bracelets, except those you buy yourself. "
After Tucker's second marriage had ended in divorce, she married her business manager, Al Lackey. This marriage also ended in divorce in 1934.
