Editing Bessie Smith (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
[[File:BessieSmith.jpg|alt=Portrait of Bessie Smith, 1936|thumb|331x331px|Smith in 1936]]
The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], in July 1892.<ref>{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| date= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= [[Praeger Publishing|Praeger]]| location= [[Santa Barbara, California]]| page=50 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZNfAQAAQBAJ | isbn= 978-0313344237}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOiUGGRPTlQC&pg=PA152|page=152|title=Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South|last=Scott|first=Michelle R.|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|location=[[Urbana, Illinois]]|date=2008|isbn=9780252092374}}</ref><ref>1900 US census, Hamilton, Tennessee, Schedule 1, Chattanooga Ward 04, District 0060, p.23.</ref> The 1910 census gives her age as 16,<ref>1910 US Census, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee, Ward 7, Enumeration District 0065, Sheet 2B, Family No. 48.</ref> and a birth date of April 15, 1894, which appears on subsequent documents and was observed as her birthday by the Smith family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report several older siblings or half-siblings.

Smith was the daughter of Laura and William Smith, a laborer and part-time [[Black church|Baptist preacher]] (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the [[gospel]]", in [[Moulton, Alabama|Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama]]). He died while his daughter was too young to remember him. By the time Bessie was nine, her mother and a brother had also died and her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings. As a consequence, Bessie was unable to gain an education.<ref name="Albertson2003">{{cite book|last=Albertson|first=Chris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MjtZAwAAQBAJ|title=Bessie|publisher=[Yale University Press]|year=2003|isbn=0-300-09902-9|location=New Haven|author-link=Chris Albertson}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=David A. |last1=Jasen |first2=Gene |last2=Jones |title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880–1930 |publisher=[[Schirmer Books]] |location=[[New York City]] |date=September 1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/289 289] |isbn=978-0-02-864742-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/289}}</ref>

Due to her parents' death and her poverty, Bessie experienced a "wretched childhood."<ref name="Moore 1969"/> To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie and her brother Andrew [[busking|busked]] on the streets of [[Chattanooga]]. She sang and danced as he played the [[guitar]]. They often performed on "street corners for pennies,"<ref name="Moore 1969"/> and their habitual location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets, in the heart of the city's African-American community.

In 1904, her oldest brother Clarence left home and joined a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."<ref>Albertson, 2003, p. 11.</ref>

In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged an audition for his sister with the troupe managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher. Bessie was hired as a dancer rather than a vocalist since the company already included popular singer [[Ma Rainey]].<ref name="Moore 1969"/> Contemporary accounts indicate that, while Ma Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she likely helped her develop a stage presence.<ref>Albertson, 2003, pp. 14–15.</ref> Smith eventually moved on to performing in [[chorus line]]s, making the "81" Theatre in [[Atlanta]] her home base. She also performed in shows on the black-owned [[Theater Owners Booking Association]] (T.O.B.A.) circuit and would become one of its major attractions.

=== Career ===
[[File:Bessiesmith3.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Smith by [[Carl Van Vechten]]]]
Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, she had established a reputation in the [[American South|South]] and along the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]]. At the time, sales of over 100,000 copies of "Crazy Blues", recorded for [[Okeh Records]] by the singer [[Mamie Smith]] (no relation), pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to black people, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers.
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Bessie Smith - Downhearted Blues (1923).ogg|title="Downhearted Blues" (1923)|description=Bessie Smith's 1923 hit cover of "[[Downhearted Blues]]".|pos=right|format=[[Ogg]]}}
Hoping to capitalize on this new market, Smith began her recording career in 1923.<ref name="Russell">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DfAjIAAACAAJ|location=Dubai|page=12|isbn=978-1-85868-255-6}}</ref> She was signed to [[Columbia Records]] in 1923 by [[Frank Buckley Walker|Frank Walker]], a talent agent who had seen her perform years earlier. Her first recording session for Columbia was on February 15, 1923; it was engineered by [[Dan Hornsby]] who was recording and discovering many southern music talents of that era. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A-series. When the company established a "[[race records]]" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued. Both sides of her first record, "[[Downhearted Blues]]" backed with "Gulf Coast Blues", were hits (an earlier recording of "Downhearted Blues" by its co-writer [[Alberta Hunter]] had previously been released by [[Paramount Records]]).<ref>{{cite book | last = Lieb | first = Sandra R. | year = 1981 | title = Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DgucZIjiEYgC | publisher = [[University of Massachusetts Press]] | page = 89 | isbn = 0870233947}}</ref>

As her popularity increased, Smith became a headliner on the [[Theatre Owners Booking Association|Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.)]] circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book | last = Oliver | first = Paul | chapter = Bessie Smith | editor-last = Kernfield | editor-first = Barry | title = The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz | year = 2002 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xq0XwgEACAAJ | edition = 2nd | volume = 3 | location = London | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|MacMillan]] | page = 604| isbn = 9780195387018 }}</ref> Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter and performing in tent shows the rest of the year, Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day and began traveling in her own [[Passenger car (rail)|72-foot-long railroad car]].<ref>Albertson, 2003, p. 80.</ref><ref name="Moore 1969">{{cite news | last = Moore | first = Carman | title = Blues and Bessie Smith | work = [[The New York Times]] | pages = 262, 270 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/03/09/90063236.html?pageNumber=262 | date = March 9, 1969 | access-date = April 27, 2020}}</ref> Columbia's publicity department nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues", but the national press soon upgraded her title to "Empress of the Blues". Smith's music stressed independence, fearlessness, and sexual freedom, implicitly arguing that working-class women did not have to alter their behavior to be worthy of respect.<ref name="Women and Rhetoric 2013">{{Cite book|title=Women and Rhetoric between the Wars|last1=George|first1=Ann|last2=Weiser|first2=M. Elizabeth|last3=Zepernick|first3=Janet|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-b7C_ugNzYC|isbn=9780809331390|pages=143–158|language=en}}</ref>

Despite her success, neither she nor her music was accepted in all circles. She once auditioned for [[Black Swan Records]] ([[W. E. B. Du Bois]] was on its board of directors) and was dismissed because she was considered too rough as she supposedly stopped singing to spit.<ref name="Women and Rhetoric 2013"/> The businessmen involved with Black Swan Records were surprised when she became the most successful diva because her style was rougher and coarser than Mamie Smith.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York, NY|pages=53}}</ref> Even her admirers—white and black—considered her a "rough" woman (i.e., working class or even "[[low class]]").

Smith had a strong [[contralto]] voice,<ref>{{cite web|title=Bessie Smith: The Empress Of The Blues|url=http://www.worldmusic.net/legends-series/bessie-smith-the-empress-of-the-blues/|website=World Music Network|access-date=July 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231143243/https://www.worldmusic.net/legends-series/bessie-smith-the-empress-of-the-blues/|archive-date=December 31, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> which recorded well from her first session, which was conducted when recordings were made acoustically. The advent of [[electrical recording]] made the power of her voice even more evident. Her first electrical recording was "Cake Walking Babies [From Home]", recorded on May 5, 1925.<ref>Albertson, Chris. CD booklet. ''Bessie Smith, The Complete Recordings Vol. 2''. Columbia COL 468767 2.</ref> Smith also benefited from the new technology of [[radio broadcasting]], even on stations in the [[segregated South]]. For example, after giving a concert to a white-only audience at a theater in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], in October 1923, she performed a late-night concert on station WMC, which was well received by the radio audience.<ref>{{cite news | title = Hit on Radio | work = [[The Chicago Defender]] | date = October 6, 1923 | page = 8}}</ref> Musicians and composers like [[Danny Barker]] and [[Tommy Dorsey]] compared her presence and delivery to a preacher because of her ability to enrapture and move her audience.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York, NY|pages=52}}</ref> 
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Bessie Smith - Alexander's Ragtime Band 1927 - Sample.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1927)|description=A sample of Bessie Smith's 1927 cover of "[[Alexander's Ragtime Band]]".|pos=right|format=[[Ogg]]}}
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, notably [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Coleman Hawkins]], [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[James P. Johnson]], [[Joe Smith (musician)|Joe Smith]], and [[Charlie Green (musician)|Charlie Green]]. A number of Smith's recordings—such as "[[Alexander's Ragtime Band]]" in 1927—quickly became among the best-selling records of their release years.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Furia | first1 = Philip | author1-link = Philip Furia | last2 = Patterson | first2 = Laurie J. | author2-link = Laurie J. Patterson | title = The American Song Book: The Tin Pan Alley Era | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JYzpCgAAQBAJ | location = [[Oxford]] | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-0-19-939188-2 | page = 73}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | last = Corliss | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Corliss | title = That Old Christmas Feeling: Irving America | url = http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,189846,00.html | location = [[New York City|New York]] | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = December 24, 2001 | access-date = April 8, 2020}}</ref>

==== Broadway ====
Smith's career was cut short by the [[Great Depression]], which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of [[sound film|sound in film]], which spelled the end of vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. The days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, but Smith continued touring and occasionally sang in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a [[Broadway theater|Broadway]] musical, ''Pansy''. The play was a flop; top critics said she was its only asset.

==== Film ====
{{further|St. Louis Blues (1929 film)}}
[[File:St. Louis Blues.webm|thumb|thumbtime=19|start=18|''[[St. Louis Blues (1929 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'', Smith's only film, 1929]]
In November 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a [[short film|two-reeler]], ''[[St. Louis Blues (1929 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'', based on composer [[W. C. Handy]]'s [[Saint Louis Blues (song)|song of the same name]]. In the film, directed by [[Dudley Murphy]] and shot in [[Astoria, Queens]], she sings the title song accompanied by members of [[Fletcher Henderson]]'s orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, the pianist [[James P. Johnson]] and a string section, a musical environment radically different from that of any of her recordings.

==== Swing era ====
In 1933, [[John H. Hammond|John Henry Hammond]], who also mentored [[Billie Holiday]], asked Smith to record four sides for [[Okeh Records|Okeh]] (which had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, "working as a hostess in a [[speakeasy]] on [[Ridge Avenue (Philadelphia)|Ridge Avenue]] in [[Philadelphia]]."<ref>{{cite book | last = Hammond | first = John | author-link = John Hammond (record producer) | title = John Hammond on Record: An Autobiography | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=syQwAQAAIAAJ | publisher = [[Penguin Books]] | year = 1981 | orig-date = 1977 | page = 120| isbn = 9780140057058 }}</ref> Smith worked at Art's Cafe on Ridge Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of 1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, she was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective memory and gratuitous embellishments.<ref>Albertson, ''Bessie'', pp. 224–225.</ref>

Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for each selection on these Okeh sides, which were her last recordings. Made on November 24, 1933, they serve as a hint of the transformation she made in her performances as she shifted her blues artistry into something that fit the [[swing era]]. The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as the [[trombone|trombonist]] [[Jack Teagarden]], the trumpeter [[William Frank Newton|Frankie Newton]], the [[tenor saxophone|tenor saxophonist]] [[Chu Berry]], the pianist [[Buck Washington]], the guitarist Bobby Johnson, and the bassist [[Billy Taylor]]. [[Benny Goodman]], who happened to be recording with [[Ethel Waters]] in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection.<ref>Oliver, Paul (2001)</ref> Hammond was not entirely pleased with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old blues sound. "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" and "[[Gimme a Pigfoot]]", both written by [[Wesley Wilson]], were among her most popular recordings.<ref name=Albertson2003 />

=== Death ===
[[File:Death certificate (1).jpg|thumb|right|Smith's [[death certificate]]]]
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a [[Traffic collision|car crash]] on [[U.S. Route 61 in Mississippi|U.S. Route 61]] between [[Memphis, Tennessee]], and [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]].<ref name="Moore 1969"/> Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving, and misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. [[Skid mark]]s at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The [[3-way tailgate|tailgate]] of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old [[Packard]] vehicle. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.

The first person on the scene was a Memphis [[surgeon]], Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation). In the early 1970s, Hugh Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer [[Chris Albertson]]. This is the most reliable [[eyewitness testimony]] about the events surrounding her death.

Arriving at the scene, Dr. Smith examined Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half pint (240 mL) of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury: her right arm was almost completely severed at the elbow.<ref>{{cite news|title=Blues Legend Bessie Smith Dead 50 Years|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a2VGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1073,6477849&dq=theater+owners+booking+association&hl=en|date=September 26, 1987|work=[[Schenectady Gazette]]|access-date=November 16, 2010}}</ref> He stated that this injury alone did not cause her death. Though the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a [[side collision|sideswipe]] collision.<ref>{{cite book | last = Albertson | first = Chris | author-link = Chris Albertson | title = Bessie: Empress of the Blues | year = 1972 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=w6hjvgAACAAJ | location = London | publisher = [[Sphere Books]] | pages = 192–195 | isbn = 0-300-09902-9}}</ref>

Henry Broughton, a fishing partner of Dr. Smith's, helped him move Smith to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean [[handkerchief]] and asked Broughton to go to a house about {{convert|500|ft}} off the road to call an [[ambulance]]. By the time Broughton returned, about 25 minutes later, Smith was in [[Shock (circulatory)|shock]].

Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to slow and plowed into his car at full speed. It sent his car careening into Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Hugh Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.<ref>Albertson (1972), p. 195.</ref>

The young couple in the speeding car did not sustain life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances then arrived from Clarksdale—one from the black hospital, summoned by Broughton, the second from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the crash victims.

Smith was taken to the [[Riverside Hotel (Clarksdale, Mississippi)|G.&nbsp;T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital]] in Clarksdale, where her right arm was [[amputate]]d. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After her death, an often repeated, but now discredited story emerged that she died because a [[Jim Crow laws|whites-only]] hospital in Clarksdale refused to admit her. The jazz writer and producer [[John H. Hammond|John Hammond]] gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of ''[[DownBeat]]'' magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor reported by Hammond formed the basis for [[Edward Albee]]'s 1959 one-act play ''[[The Death of Bessie Smith]]''.<ref name="Moore 1969"/><ref name=Love-1997>{{cite book|last=Love|first=Spencie|title=One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew|year=1997|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]|location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]]|isbn=978-0-8078-4682-7|page=67|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J-F3sSgLA_AC&q=G.T.+Thomas+Hospital+clarksdale&pg=PA69}}</ref>

"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital; you can forget that", Hugh Smith told Albertson. "Down in the [[Deep South]] [[Cotton Belt]], no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."<ref>{{cite book | last = Albertson | first = Chris | author-link = Chris Albertson | title = Bessie: Empress of the Blues | year = 1972 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=w6hjvgAACAAJ | location = London | publisher = [[Sphere Books]] | page = 196 | isbn = 0-300-09902-9}}</ref>

Smith's funeral was held in [[Philadelphia]] a little over a week later, on October 4, 1937. Initially, her body was laid out at Upshur's [[funeral home]]. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, her body had to be moved to the O. V. Catto [[Elks Lodge]] to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3.<ref>Albertson, Chris (1975). ''Bessie: Empress of the Blues''. London: Sphere Books. {{ISBN|0-349-10054-3}}</ref> Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby [[Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania|Sharon Hill]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Wilson | first = Scott | title = Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons | date = August 19, 2016 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ | edition = 3rd (Kindle) | publisher = [[McFarland & Company]] | pages = Kindle locations 43874–43875| isbn = 9781476625997 }}</ref> Jack Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.<ref>Albertson, ''Bessie'', pp. 2–5, 277.</ref>

==== Unmarked grave ====
Smith's grave remained unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by the singer [[Janis Joplin]] and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.<ref>Albertson, ''Bessie'', p. 277.</ref> [[Dory Previn]] wrote a song about Joplin and the tombstone, "Stone for Bessie Smith", for her album ''[[Mythical Kings and Iguanas]]''. The Afro-American Hospital (now the [[Riverside Hotel (Clarksdale)|Riverside Hotel]]) was the site of the dedication of the fourth historical marker on the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07025/756420-37.stm|title=Historical Marker Placed on Mississippi Blues Trail|agency=[[Associated Press]]|access-date=February 9, 2007|date=January 25, 2007|work=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|archive-date=June 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604045947/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07025/756420-37.stm|url-status=dead}}</ref>