Ethel Waters et al. in Atlanta - the 1910's

from His Eye Is On the Sparrow, page 91:

Bessie Smith was booked into 91 Decatur Street while I was working there. Bessie was a heavy-set, dark woman and very nice-looking. Along with Ma Rainey, she was undisputed tops as a blues singer. When she came to Atlanta she'd heard a good deal about my low, sweet, and then new way of singing blues. Bessie's shouting brought worship wherever she worked. She was getting fifty to seventy-five dollars a week, big money for our kind of vaudeville. The money thrown to her brought this to a couple of hundred dollars a week. Bessie, like an opera singer, carried her own claque with her. These …   more >>
cite as

Charles Samuels and Ethel Waters, His Eye Is On the Sparrow (1950), p. 91. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1427890534955 accessed: 3 November, 2024

location of experience: Atlanta

Listeners

Ethel Waters
dancer, Singing
1896-1977
Bessie Smith
Singing
1894-1937

Listening to

hide composers
I Want to Be Somebody's Baby Doll so I Can Get My Lovin' All the Time performed by Ethel Waters
blues performed by Bessie Smith

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1910's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by Gill on Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:15:35 +0100