Mamie Smith

• Name — Mamie Smith • Birth Name — Mamie Robinson • Born — 26 May 1891 • Birthplace — Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. • Died — 23 October 1946 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Genre — Blues, vaudeville • Occupation — Singer • Spouse — William "Smitty" Smith (m. 1913) Ocey "Ossey" Wilson (m. 1921) Jack Goldberg (m. 1929)

Robinson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1891. The year of her birth has been given as 1883, but in 2018, researcher John Jeremiah Sullivan discovered her birth certificate stating she was born in Cincinnati in 1891. When she was around age 10, she found work touring with the Four Dancing Mitchells, a white act. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's Smart Set. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married William "Smitty" Smith, a singer.

On February 14, 1920, Smith recorded "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" for the Okeh label in New York City, after African-American songwriter and bandleader Perry Bradford persuaded Fred Hager to break the color barrier in black music recording. Okeh Records recorded many iconic songs by black musicians. Although this was the first recording by a black blues singer, the backing musicians were all white. Hager had received threats from Northern and Southern pressure groups saying they would boycott the company if he recorded a black singer. Despite these threats, the record was a commercial success and opened the door for more black musicians to record. Smith's biggest hits were the August 10, 1920 recordings of a set of songs written by Perry Bradford, including "Crazy Blues" and "It's Right Here for You (If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine)", again for Okeh Records, A million copies were sold in less than a year. Many were bought by African Americans, and there was a sharp rise in sales of "race records". Because of its historical significance, "Crazy Blues" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994 and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. Although other African Americans had been recorded earlier, such as George W. Johnson in the 1890s, they were performing music that had a substantial following among European-American audiences. The success of Smith's record prompted record companies to seek to record other female blues singers and began the era of what is now known as classic female blues. • Illustration — Gravure of Smith in the New York Clipper, 1921 Smith continued to make popular recordings for Okeh throughout the 1920s. In 1924, she made three releases for Ajax Records, which, while heavily promoted, did not sell well. She made some records for Victor. She toured the United States and Europe with the band Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds as part of Mamie Smith's Struttin' Along Review. She was billed as "The Queen of the Blues", a billing soon one-upped by Bessie Smith, who was called "The Empress of the Blues". Mamie found that the mass medium of radio provided a means of gaining additional fans, especially in cities with predominantly white audiences. For example, she and several members of her band performed on KGW in Portland, Oregon in early May 1923 and received positive reviews. Recording lineups of the Jazz Hounds included (from August 1920 to October 1921) Jake Green, Curtis Moseley, Garvin Bushell, Johnny Dunn, Dope Andrews, Ernest Elliot, Porter Grainger, Leroy Parker and Bob Fuller, and (from June 1922 to January 1923) Coleman Hawkins, Everett Robbins, Johnny Dunn, Herschel Brassfield, Herb Flemming, Buster Bailey Cutie Perkins, Joe Smith, Bubber Miley, and Cecil Carpenter. While recording with the Jazz Hounds, she recorded as Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Band, comprising George Bell, Charles Matson, Nathan Glantz, Larry Briers, Jules Levy, Jr., Joe Samuels, together with musicians from the Jazz Hounds, including Hawkins, Fuller and Carpenter.

Smith appeared in the early sound film Jailhouse Blues in 1929. She retired from recording and performing in 1931. She returned to performing in 1939 to appear in the movie Paradise in Harlem, produced by her husband, Jack Goldberg. She also appeared in other films, including Mystery in Swing (1940), Sunday Sinners (1940), Stolen Paradise (1941), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), and Because I Love You (1943).

• Year — Single — US Chart • 1920 — "Crazy Blues" — 3 • 1921 — "Fare Thee Honey Blues" — 9 • "Royal Garden Blues" — 13 • "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" — 4 • "Dangerous Blues" — 6 • 1922 — "Lonesome Mama Blues" — 6 • 1923 — "You Can Have Him, I Don't Want Him Blues" — 13 • "You've Got to See Mama Ev'ry Night (or You Can't See Mama at All)" — 13