As a headliner I had to buy plenty of expensive clothes and I got a lot of bites from my family and many luckless professional friends. I always liked to help people, feeling that, after all, it was God who brought me the good money and that He would be pleased if I spread it around. The colored theaters had recently been organized into the T.O.B.A. (Theater Owners Booking Association). Milton Starr, a Nashville theater owner, was president, and Charlie Turpin, who ran a theater in St. Louis, was vice-president. I really dressed in beautiful gowns for that act of ours. For my closing number I sang "Shake That Thing" and did a dance for the encore. That was a big surprise to my public, which, because of my records, thought of me only as a singer. << less