Sophie Tucker was a singer, actress, and vaudevillian who stole away to America with her Russian-Jewish mother to flee religious persecution. Even from an early age, Tucker was well-regarded as a performance powerhouse inclined to belt songs in her family's working class restaurant at just age 10. Tucker's talents eventually launched her into Florenz Ziegfeld's 1909 Follies. She quickly became one of the top stars in vaudeville, billing herself alternately as "The Queen of Ragtime" and "The Last of The Red-Hot Mommas."
Although Tucker is most commonly remembered as warm-hearted and generous, she also had a tough side. In fact, Tucker could silence managers or hecklers with streams of unprintable language, or burst into vulnerable tears, opting for whichever tactic seemed most likely to win a particular argument. At one point, she refused to talk to longtime friend Harry Richman for several years because he had walked out of a nightclub during one of her solos. When Richman explained that he was just trying to settle his bill, Tucker responded, "Listen to me, kid, and never forget what I'm telling you. Not even Jesus Christ himself walks out on Tucker." She was so obviously sincere that Richman apologized, and their friendship resumed. |
Examples of Work:
Sophie Tucker: Origins of the Red Hot Mama (1910–1922) "My Yiddishe Momme" (1925) "Some of These Days" (1926) Honky Tonk (1929) |