Mamie Smith on the sleeve of volume 1 of the Complete Recorded Works reissue collection

Mamie Smith (May 26, 1883 - September 16, 1946) was a vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, and appeared in several motion pictures late in her career. As a vaudeville singer she performed a number of styles including jazz and blues. She entered blues history by being the first African American to make vocal blues recordings in 1920. Image File history File links Cover of Volume 1 of Mamie Smith collection Complete Recorded Works, taken from Amazon. ... May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... September 16 is the 259th day of the year (260th in leap years). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Poster for a vaudeville act OBrien & Havel Vaudeville is a style of variety entertainment predominant in America in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. ... Ercole de Roberti performing the song Freinds Of P: Concert, c. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Pianist Claudio Arrau, Carnegie Hall, 1954. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. ... Blues music redirects here. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ...

Smith was born as Mamie Robinson in Cincinnati, Ohio. She toured with African-American vaudeville and minstrel shows until settling in New York City in 1913, where she worked as a cabaret singer. She appeared in songwriter Perry Bradford's musical "Made in Harlem" in 1918. Nickname: The Queen City Location in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA Coordinates: Country United States State Ohio County Hamilton Founded 1788 Incorporated 1819 Mayor Mark L. Mallory (D) Area    - City 206. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... Nickname: Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

In early 1920, Okeh Records planned to record popular singer Sophie Tucker performing a pair of songs by Perry Bradford. Tucker was ill and could not make it to the session; Bradford persuaded Okeh to allow Mamie Smith to record in Tucker's place. Smith recorded two sides ("That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down") on February 14, 1920, backed by a white studio band. Smith's record sold moderately well, so she and Bradford were invited back to make additional recordings. On August 10 of 1920, Smith recorded the Bradford-penned "Crazy Blues" (which in 2005 was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress) and "It's Right Here For You, If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine". These were the first recordings of vocal blues by an African American singer, and the record became an explosive best seller, selling a million copies in one year. To the surprise of record companies, large numbers of the record were purchased by African-Americans, a market the record industry had hitherto neglected. "Crazy Blues" in particular was noted as a distinctively "colored" number performed by a "colored" performer. Although other African Americans had been recorded earlier (going back to George W. Johnson in the 1890s), they were all black artists who had a substantial following with white audiences. The success of Smith's record prompted record companies to seek to record other female blues singers and started the era of what is now known as classic female blues. It also opened up the record industry to recordings by and for African Americans in other genres. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on was a subsidiary of Columbia Records. ... Sophie Tucker, 1917 Sophie Tucker (January 13, 1884 - February 9, 1966) was a singer and comedian, one of the most popular United States entertainers of the first third of the 20th century. ... February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... George Washington Johnson (c. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... The Classic female blues spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. ...

Mamie Smith continued to make a series of popular recordings for Okeh throughout the 1920s. She also made some records for Victor. She toured the United States and Europe with her band "Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds" as part of "Mamie Smith's Struttin' Along Review". She was billed as "The Queen of the Blues". (Shortly later, this billing of Mamie Smith was one-upped by Bessie Smith, who called herself "The Empress of the Blues".) The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... Victor logo with the famous Nipper dog. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the six inhabited continents of the Earth. ... Bessie Smith (July, 1892 – September 26, 1937) is largely regarded as the most popular and successful blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, and by some as the most influential performer in blues history. ...

Mamie Smith appeared in an early soundie, Jail House Blues, in 1929. She retired from recording and performing in 1931. She returned to performing in 1939 to appear in the motion picture Paradise in Harlem. She appeared in further films, including Mystery in Swing, Sunday Sinners (1940), Stolen Paradise, Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), and Because I Love You (1943). Jail House Blues is a motion picture released by Columbia Pictures in 1929. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...

External links

• Mamie Smith Blues Online Biography with photos
• Mamie Smith on RedHotJazz.com with .ram files of her early recordings
• Mamie Smith and the Birth of the Blues Market NPR special on the selection on "Crazy Blues" to the 2005 National Recording Registry