Belle Baker

An early adapter to radio, Baker hosted her own radio show during the 1930s. Eddie Cantor called her “Dinah Shore, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland all rolled into one.”

• Name — Belle Baker • Birth Name — Bella Becker • Born — 25 December 1893 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 29 April 1957 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Instrument — Vocals • Genre — Jazz, Vaudeville • Occupation — * Singer • actress • Years Active — 1904–1955

• Illustration — Belle Baker on the sheet music cover of Nick Clesi's 1916 hit "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" Baker was born Bella Becker in 1893 to a Russian Jewish family originally from Akmenė (present-day Lithuania) on New York's Lower East Side. She was the third child of eight children born to Hyman (Chaim) Becker and Sarah Rabinowitz. Her mother was chronically ill. Born into extreme poverty, Baker was unable to attend school and was forced to work in a factory when she was 6 years old. Baker started performing at the Lower East Side's Cannon Street Music Hall at age 11, where she was discovered by the Yiddish Theatre manager Jacob Adler. She was managed in vaudeville by Lew Leslie, who would become Baker's first husband. She made her vaudeville debut in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the age of 15. She performed in Oscar Hammerstein I's Victoria Theatre in 1911, although her performance was panned, mainly for her song choices. By age 17, she was a headliner. One of her earliest hits was "Cohen Owes Me $97".

Baker was a very early adapter to radio and hosted her own radio show in the early 1930s. In 1932, Baker became a regular on Jack Denny's radio program on CBS. She was a guest performer on The Eveready Hour, broadcasting's first major variety show, which featured Broadway's top headliners. Baker continued performing through the 1930s, but limited her performances to radio shows.

Baker was a Zionist, stating in 1924, In 1935, Baker hosted a show in England to raise money for Jews fleeing Nazi persecution through the United Jewish Appeal. Several years before her death, she performed several songs at the opening of a Congregation Sons of Israel on Irving Place alongside the president of the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Irving Miller.

Baker's first marriage was in 1913, to producer and promoter Lew Leslie. The couple divorced in 1918. In 1919, she married Maurice Abrahams, a successful Russian-American songwriter/composer, who wrote such songs as "Ragtime Cowboy Joe", "He'd Have to Get Under — Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)", "I'm Walking with the Moonbeams (Talking to the Stars)", and "Take Everything But You". The couple had one child, Herbert Joseph Abrahams, (later known as Herbert Baker), who became a screenwriter. After Abrahams' death in 1931, Baker restricted her performing to radio. On September 21, 1937, she remarried, to Elias Sugarman, editor of the theatrical trade magazine, Billboard. The couple divorced in 1941. She made one final television appearance in This Is Your Life in 1955, just two years before her death. Many of Baker's family later became involved with showbusiness. Her brother, Irving Becker, married stage actress Vinnie Phillips and became a road manager for a production of Tobacco Road. The Broadway actress Marilyn Cooper was her niece.

• Song of Love (1929) • Charing Cross Road (1935) • Atlantic City (1944)

• The New York Times: Mordaunt Hall review of Song of Love (November 14, 1929)

She also worked under the name Belle Baker. The authorities additionally record the heading Bella Becker. She married Maurice Abrahams and Lew Leslie. One child is recorded: Herbert Baker. Other recorded relations include Marilyn Cooper.