Sophie Tucker

Revel notes that in 1940, with a population of slightly more than 28,000, Miami Beach was home to more than a dozen nighteries.

In the post-war era, nightclub owners shelled out large sums of money to attract nationally known entertainers to perform in their clubs, including Milton Berle, Maurice Chevalier, Sophie Tucker, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker, and Cab Calloway.

Milton Berle was offered $20,000 to play the Copacabana.

The bidding war for performers was most vigorous between the owner of the beachcomber and whiner of the Copacabana, later Copa City.

When we lost the car, we just had a bag of them, and, uh, just we were like, "How much do we take?" And we looked around, and it was, like, a rave kinda thing.

It was Sophie Tucker, if anybody's-

Right

... seen her.

Libby's biographer, John Bradshaw, explains this meant Libby sang in, quote, "A contralto with a big, vibrant sound." This is just one of several places in his book where Bradshaw chooses not to actually explore the rich and thorny well of racial issues surrounding Libby's self-presentation.

The fact is, there was a long tradition preceding Libby of Jewish female singers, such as Sophie Tucker, who was billed in Vaudeville as the world-renowned coon shouter, who deliberately played with tropes of minstrelsy.

As Pamela Brown Lavitt, a historian of Jewish theater, wrote in 1999, quote, "Coon shouting, the last descendant of the 19th century minstrel show, represented not only popular theater's transition from blackface minstrelsy to American Vaudeville, but found currency in and capitalized on the suppressed identities of these Jewish performers." Lavitt excerpts a story from Sophie Tucker's autobiography, in which the performer describes being forced to wear blackface in order to keep her gig at a Harlem theater early in her career.

While on stage, Tucker would discreetly flash her un-blackened palm at the audience, quote, "To show I was a white girl." In Lavitt's analysis, this subversion of blackface, quote, "Laid bare her white Jewishness at a crucial time in American Jewish history, when Jews still tallied as Black and Oriental by the US Census." In essence, a coon shouter laundered her Jewishness into whiteness by putting on a costume of fake Blackness.

But just as today's youth eschew the stars and media of the past to idolize YouTube personalities, Libby wasn't looking to Sophie Tucker for inspiration.

As far as I can tell, Libby didn't think of herself as a coon shouter.

She embraced the label of torch singer.

Here's something you may not know.

In 1918, vaudeville superstar Sophie Tucker brought audiences to tears night after night with a slow torch song of heartbreak.

Behind the curtain stood two songwriters breaking through Tin Pan Alley's glass ceiling.

Their musical creation became so much more than a ballad.

Which legendary vaudeville star introduced and made After You've Gone a massive hit in 1918, making it her signature dramatic stage anthem for decades.

And here are those options.

A, Sophie Tucker, B, Ethel Waters, C, Fanny Bryce, or D, Bessie Smith.

Again, A, Sophie Tucker, B, Ethel Waters, C, Fanny Bryce, or D, Bessie Smith.

Hold that pucker.

You're the best since Sophie Tucker.

Ah! Where in the world did that come from?

I don't know, but this is a brand new Boynton.

It's the Silver Jubilee on NBC.

Next, it's the Big Show, with stars including Sophie Tucker, June Valley, Jerry Lester, Ann Sheridan, Morton Downey, and your charming hostess, Tallulah Bankhead.

Then enjoy mirth and music with Phil Harris and Alice Faye.

Later, Theater Guild on the Air presents Age of Innocence, co-starring Claudette Colbert and MacDonald Carey.

Brunswick 2571 was made January 28, 1924.

Last week I played Please Don't Take Away My Harem by Sophie Tucker.

It's not nice to take things away from people, whether harems or these other things.

¶¶ Thank you.

It's the Silver Jubilee on NBC.

Next, it's the Big Show, with stars including Sophie Tucker, June Valley, Jerry Lester, Ann Sheridan, Morton Downey, and your charming hostess, Tallulah Bankhead.

Then enjoy mirth and music with Phil Harris and Alice Faye.

Later, Theater Guild on the Air presents Age of Innocence, co-starring Claudette Colbert and MacDonald Carey.