Tucker remained a popular singer through the 1920s, and became friends with stars such as Mamie Smith and Ethel Waters who introduced her to jazz. Besides writing a number of songs for Tucker, Shapiro became part of her stage act, playing piano on stage while she sang, and exchanging banter and wisecracks with her in between numbers. Sophie Tucker's autograph in a copy of her 1945 autobiography In 1921, Tucker hired pianist and songwriter Ted Shapiro as her accompanist and musical director, a position he would keep throughout her career. This song would later lend its name to the title of Tucker's 1945 biography. Two years later, Tucker released "Some of These Days" on Edison Records, written by Shelton Brooks. This caught the attention of William Morris, a theater owner and future founder of the William Morris Agency, which would become one of the largest and most powerful talent agencies of the era. Though a hit, the other female stars refused to share the spotlight with Tucker and they were forced to let her go. In 1909, at the age of 22, Tucker performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Leader, please play my song." Tucker also began integrating "fat girl" humor which became a common thread in her acts with songs including "I Don't Want to be Thin," and "Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love." I'm a Jewish girl and I just learned this Southern accent doing a blackface act for two years. Well, I'll tell you something more: I'm not Southern. She then stunned the crowd by saying, ""You all can see I'm a white girl. While touring later that year, luggage including her makeup kit was lost and Tucker was allowed to go on stage without the blackface. It was here that Tucker was first made to wear blackface during performance as her producers thought that the crowd would razz her for being "so big and ugly." By 1908, she had joined a burlesque show in Pittsburgh but was ashamed to tell her family that she was performing in a deep southern accent wearing burnt cork on her face. Stage In 1907, Tucker made her first theatre appearance, singing at an amateur night in a vaudeville establishment. She sent most of this money back home to Connecticut to support her son and family. Despite Tilzer not wanting to hire her, Tucker found work in cafés and beer gardens, singing for food and money from the customers. However, shortly after Albert was born, the couple separated and Tucker left the baby with her family to move to New York.Ĭareer After she left her husband, Willie Howard gave Tucker a letter of recommendation to Harold Von Tilzer, a composer and theatrical producer in New York. When she returned home, her parents arranged an Orthodox wedding for the couple and in 1906, she gave birth to a son, Albert. In 1903, at the age of 16, Tucker eloped with a local beer cart driver named Louis Tuck, from whom she would later derive her famous last name. At the end of the last chorus, between me and the onions there wasn't a dry eye in the place." Between taking orders and serving customers, Sophie "would stand up in the narrow space by the door and sing with all the drama I could put into it. The family appropriated the last name Abuza, settled in Hartford, Connecticut, and opened a restaurant.Īt a young age, she began singing at her parents' restaurant for tips. She was widely known by the nickname "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas."Ĭontents Early life Tucker was born Sonya Kalish (Russian Соня Калиш) to a Jewish family en route to America from Tulchyn, Vinnytsia Region, Russian Empire. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century. Sophie Tucker (Janu– February 9, 1966) was a Ukrainian-born American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality.
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