...BESSIE SMITH 1894 – 1937 Bessie Smith, known as “Empress of the Blues”, was born on April 15 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was one of seven children to a part-time Baptist preacher and his wife. However, by the time Bessie was nine years old both of her parents were dead. Bessie and her brother Andrew were already singing on the streets of Chattanooga for spare change. Bessie’s older brother Clarence had joined a travelling vaudeville1 show as a comedian and dancer and in 1912 he arranged an audition for Bessie with the Moses Stokes Company. She joined as a dancer and working alongside established star Ma Rainey, rose to be a featured singer. By 1920 she had established herself as leading artist on the TOBA (Theatre Owners’ Booking Association) packing in crowds for every show. By 1921, having been married and widowed, Bessie moved to Philadelphia in an attempt to get a recording career underway, initially with little success. After various touring shows, Clarence Williams sought out Bessie to record together in New York and in 1923 the song Down Hearted Blues (with Clarence on piano) was recorded with great success, selling more than 80,000 copies in 1923. Between 1923 and 1933 Bessie recorded more than 150 for Columbia Records, making her one of the most prolific artists of her time. She is reported to have earned around $2,000 per week at the height of her career. Bessie’s recordings ranged from uproarious vaudeville songs to slow blues. ...
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...BESSIE SMITH essie Smith, “The Empress of the Blues” was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Bessie is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era. She and Louis Armstrong were a major influence on other jazz vocalists. Her birthday isn’t known for sure, but the 1900 census indicates that Bessie was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 1892. The 1910 census recorded her birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith family. Census date also contributes to controversy about the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, which later interviews with Smith’s family and contemporaries did not include these individuals among her siblings....
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...Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in a one-room, dirt-floored cabin in Atlanta, Texas, to George and Susan Coleman, the illiterate children of slaves. When Bessie was two years old, her father, a day laborer, moved his family to Waxahachie, Texas, where he bought a quarter-acre of land and built a three-room house in which two more daughters were born. When George Coleman's hopes for a better living in Waxahachie remained unfulfilled, and with five of his nine living children still at home, he proposed moving again, this time to Indian territory in Oklahoma. There, on a reservation, his heritage of three Native American grandparents would give him the civil rights denied to both African Americans and Native Americans in Texas. In 1901, after Susan refused to go with him, he went to Oklahoma on his own, leaving his family behind in Waxahachie. Susan found work as a domestic, her two sons became day laborers, and Bessie was left to be the caretaker of her two younger sisters. Education for Coleman was limited to eight grades in a one-room schoolhouse that closed whenever the students were needed in the fields to help their families harvest cotton. Already responsible for her sisters and the household chores while her mother worked, Coleman was a reluctant cotton picker but an intelligent and expert accountant. The only member of the family who could accurately add the total weight of the cotton they picked, she increased the total whenever she could by putting her foot...
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...10000 quiz questions and answers www.cartiaz.ro 10000 general knowledge questions and answers 10000 general knowledge questions and answers www.cartiaz.ro No Questions Quiz 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Carl and the Passions changed band name to what How many rings on the Olympic flag What colour is vermilion a shade of King Zog ruled which country What colour is Spock's blood Where in your body is your patella Where can you find London bridge today What spirit is mixed with ginger beer in a Moscow mule Who was the first man in space What would you do with a Yashmak Who betrayed Jesus to the Romans Which animal lays eggs On television what was Flipper Who's band was The Quarrymen Which was the most successful Grand National horse Who starred as the Six Million Dollar Man In the song Waltzing Matilda - What is a Jumbuck Who was Dan Dare's greatest enemy in the Eagle What is Dick Grayson better known as What was given on the fourth day of Christmas What was Skippy ( on TV ) What does a funambulist do What is the name of Dennis the Menace's dog What are bactrians and dromedaries Who played The Fugitive Who was the King of Swing Who was the first man to fly across the channel Who starred as Rocky Balboa In which war was the charge of the Light Brigade Who invented the television Who would use a mashie niblick In the song who killed Cock Robin What do deciduous...
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