He was further humiliated when she started sending all her tour money home to Viola. This photo of Bessie was taken in 1926, when she was at the height of her stardom. In 1929 she was so happy because she had just been in a movie, 'St. Demand for her live performances steadily increased as the 1930s progressed, and by 1936 was such that a one-night booking to replace Billie Holiday at Connie's Inn in New York was extended into a residency of two months. Jack eventually lost the case in federal court, although the judge seemed to sympathize with him. Twenty-seven years ago newspapers reported that the rock singer Janis Joplin had single-handedly done the deed at last. web pages She kept drums off all her records, saying, I dont want no drumsI set my own beat.. When I moved from Rome to London in the 1970s and began singing in pubs and clubs, I found only one pianist who wanted to perform Bessies songs with me, and his interest wasnt in her but in the stride piano of her best accompanist, James P. Johnson. The show ended a successful run in Memphis on Saturday night, September 26, 1937, and Bessie, feeling restless, wanted to move on right away. Jack,Jr. Believing Jacks claim that he was her manager, they gave her money to him. WebIn an act of revenge, Jack Gee kidnapped Jack Gee, Jr. from Bessie's Philadelphia home and brought the boy to the offices of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC). A subsequent Down Beat story gave the correct information that Bessie had actually been taken directly to the black hospital in Clarksdale and had died from loss of blood, but the myth lived on. Sep 26, 1937, Tragedy Struck Greatest Fame You might like: And he sees what he calls the blues idiom as the highest expression of that culture. So Bessie was buried in an unmarked grave at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Delaware County. WebJack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. My reason for interviewing was that Jack had brought a lawsuit in federal court against Columbia Records for allegedly taking a huge amount of money that rightfully belonged to Bessie and, therefore, to her adopted son. )Boyfriend: Sidney BechetHusband: Jack Gee (m. 1923, div. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. Even with the improved technology available in the 1940s, when he was interviewed, the doctor believed that Bessie Smith would have had only a fifty-fifty chance to live. Tack was so conservative., By 1924 race-record sales were slipping, but Bessies still sold well. CHARLES SAXONS fond but clear-eyed cartoons are a definitive record of suburban life in the 1960s and 70s, For 70 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture. Her May 1926 records Money Blues, Baby Doll, Hard Driving Papa, and Lost Your Head Bluesshow her in excellent form. St. Joe softballers at 0-5, Dundas scores 100th goal in SCH win over Perkiomen, Easter: A holiday that is complex and multifaceted, Local dad, son come close to the 'top of the world', Bar Lizette brings bistro fare and flirty cocktails, Ten Phrases That Make Preservationists Nervous, Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions. Controversy always swirled around Bessie, even in death. She flew into a jealous rage and beat her niece till Rubys screams brought the police. It seems then to have been forgotten until 1950, when a group of well-meaning white liberals petitioned the NAACP to destroy it because of its portrayal of blacks as lowlifes. But she was a mother figure to the girl, and they remained on good terms all their lives. The folklore scholar John Lomax, who looked into the case in 1941, received a letter from the black doctor who treated Bessie, W. H. Brandon. The doctor examined Bessie and saw that the bones around her elbow were shattered and the soft tissue sliced clear through but that the artery and nerves were intact. Words in Bessies songs that had meant nothing to me the year before were great comfort and inspiration to me now. In the early 1930s theaters she had once filled were closing down, and after nine years Columbia dropped her. She was just breathing on the left side of her chest, all the ribs on her right side had been crushed. Condolences may be made online at www.larrison mortuary.com. Talking pictures were a much bigger worry. If thats the case, we are at least fortunate that today jazzs foremost performer is also its most eloquent advocate. The revue that had met such enthusiasm in the South was less well received when she took it to the Grand Theater in Chicago. Bessie kept going, but her theater fee had dropped by 50 percent. Dr. Smith and his friend Henry Broughton, who had just set out on a fishing trip, came upon the scene about ten minutes later. Gee v. CBS Briefs, No. Her music haunted you even when she stopped singing.. WebJohn Gee is 59 years old and was born on 02/24/1963.John Gee lives in Jackson, MN; previous cities include Aurora CO and Richardson TX.Other names that John uses includes John E Gee, John C Gee and John R Gee. An engineer behind the wall recorded her onto a wax disk that then had to be plated at a factory before it could be heard. Discouraged, I eked out a living as a translator and teacher. This item is available in full to subscribers. Among the just things he can not be blamed for is definitely making Jack port Gee, Jr. live just like a prisoner, locked up in a basementthat was carried out by Gee, Jr.s biological dad who got custody because of what was regarded as a severe insufficient security within the Smith-Gee home. By the early 1920s black composers had been writing hit songs for several years. 79-1616 Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. For years this was their pattern: Bessie would misbehave, Jack would catch her at it, shed end up buying him an expensive present, and all would then be peaceful until the cycle began again. Since the records he produced were hits, maybe she even thought he knew best. Richard was very jovial when hed had a few drinks, but he never got nasty. Her best were inspired by her own experiences. When I read that Bessie Smith was one of got hold of by the woman who is called the Empress of the Blues. Her voice was huge, but her use or it was remarkably nimble, her timing dynamic, her phrasing full of surprises. As Ruby said, She was a strong woman with a beautiful constitution, and she loved a good time. Back in Philadelphia she and Jack adopted him, naming him Jack Gee, Jr. It was only when I tried to imitate her that I realized how complex her simple singing was. Her tumultuous relationship with husband Jack Gee had finally come to an end, and in an act of vindictiveness he removed from her the two closest people in Smith's life: her adopted son and her niece Ruby Walker. Webjack gee, jr. Share Tweet. He was perfect for Bessie.. They argued about it. An ambulance arrived to transport her to a black hospital in nearby Clarksdale, where, according to the testimony of the attending doctor, she died within 10 hours of having been admitted despite extensive medical attention. Thomas Childers answers a summons to Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after she died, a front page story in the New York Times said that an ambulance driver rushed Bessie's severely injured body to the nearest hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but that the hospital refused to admit her because it was a whites-only hospital. When Clarences show came to Chattanooga in 1912, he arranged an audition for his little sister, and she was taken on as a dancer. They got along very well, they both loved a good time, and they respected each other. Her movie was shown often between 1929 and 1932. She rested in an expensive open silver metallic casket trimmed in gold and draped in two-tone lining. Major black stars and Bessies former promoters were conspicuous in their absence, but a few local show people, some of her chorus girls, and hordes of weeping fans attended. She would twist out an evocative word for up to six notes to dramatize it: Bessie misbehaved. Her brother Clarence joined a show as a dancer and comedian, and at the age of nine Bessie began to sing in the street for small change, accompanied on the guitar by her other brother, Andrew. . Her recordings are meticulously catalogued, and no work on jazz, blues, or pop singing history fails to acknowledge her seminal contribution to the sound and substance of vocal music. In a hard war theirs may have been the hardest job of all. In addition to her straightforward vocal work, she continued to be active in vaudeville and musical comedy, performing in Mississipi Days in 1927 and the Jazz Regiment and Late Hour Dancers in 1929. She took oddly placed and oddly effectivelittle breaths and pauses before a word or even just a syllable, sometimes for narrative emphasis, sometimes because she seemed to savor the sound itself. My musicians were reluctant to play old-style jazzthey found the 1920s time-feel stiff and the harmonies cornybut once they heard the audience laugh and cheer, they were as won over as I had been that winter in Rome, when I finally gave her music a real chance. Billie Holiday made me want to listen to Bessie Smith. Jack Gee Position: Starting Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-3 , 210lb (190cm, 95kg) Born: September 26, 1999 in McKinney, TX School: Tyler Junior College (Tyler, TX) Full Name: Jack Martin Gee View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. Share to Facebook. That same year she formed her own act with dancer/vocalist Wayne "Buzzin" Burton in association with Park's Big Revue at the Dixie theater in Atlanta -- a city that would serve as her base of operations into the 1920s. Her tombstone in Sharon Hill was placed thirty-three years late, but as the century draws to a close, its inscription still rings true: The Greatest Blues Singer in the World Will Never Stop Singing., The eminent black playwright August Wilson said in a recent interview that when he heard his first Bessie Smith record, he thought, This is mine. Dazzled by Bessies success, Ruby wangled her way into the troupe. she enjoyed getting everybody drunk with her., By this time Jack Gee knew about Bessies infidelities and had committed some of his own. In a departure from her usual repertoire, she recorded two quasi-religious songs with James P. Johnson and the Bessemer Singers, On Revival Day and Moan You Mourners. Some critics scoff at these tracks, but in view of her preacher-father, I dont find them such surprising choices, and she does them with great energy and fervor. Good, said Bessie. They recorded two songs she had just written, Back Water Blues and Preachin the Blues., When she finally headed home to face Jack, she found that he had left for Hot Springs, Arkansas, telling people he needed to recuperate from a nervous breakdown. Concerned, she went there and paid for his stay, and they made up once again. She had also achieved a degree of infamy for her boozing, fighting and sexual appetites with both men and women. While still very young, Bessie, accompanied by her brother Andrew on guitar, began dancing and singing on the streets in order to supplement her sister's income as a laundry worker; this activity did not have the approval of Viola, but was encouraged by her oldest brother Clarence, who was already making his own living as a traveling entertainer. Bessie was born on april 15, probably in 1894, in the Blue Goose Hollow section of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They sold fifty-three thousand copies, a huge drop from her earlier hits but still impressive. Burial. Ruby, threatened by Jack, left Bessies troupe for the Gertrude Saunders show. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. You better stay there, cause you cant sing a note. Years later Green, at fourteen, showed her reverence for Bessie by turning up to scrub her kitchen floor every Saturday, and Bessie often rewarded her by cooking her a batch of fried chitterlings and scallions. Invitations to perform at prestigious venues such as the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo in New York and Art's Caf and the Wander Inn in Philadelphia followed. Bessie knew other eminent blues singers of her day and was on good terms with most of them. In top-forty pop-soul songs, I hear all the vocal effects she pioneered with none of her sincerity and substance. Thats why her blues seemed almost like hymns., She had a profound influence on one of the greatest singers of religious music. Richard spotted the lights of a truck ahead, but by the time he realized it was crawling along at only a few miles an hour, it was too late. She was liking the bad stuff even when the good stuff was in, Ruby said. Throughout her career Bessie was notorious for paying low wages to her troupe no matter how much she made, but off the job she had a reputation as a soft touch, taking care of performers medical bills, bailing people out of jail, giving handouts to beggars, and buying gifts and clothes for family and friends. Albertson, a Dane, seems to have been fated to become the leading authority on Bessie. Bessie was working hard and playing hard. By 1924 race-record sales were slipping, but Bessies still sold well. Every couple of months she went to New York to record a few songs, usually blues, with piano or small-band accompaniment. She would plunge into full-pitched verbal and physical battle with anyonetheater managers, chorus girls, total strangersat the slightest provocation. Smiths success as a recording artist allowed her to become a top star on the black vaudeville circuit, and she toured the country extensively, traveling in her own Pullman railroad car but returning frequently to N.Y. to record. Through one of my students I met a well-known Italian jazz musician who had been inspired by the records of Sidney Bechet to take up the soprano saxophone. This fearless lack of restraint nearly cost the singer her life in 1925, when a man the singer had punched at an after-show party retaliated by knifing her on her way home (she still managed to chase after him despite the serious injury). To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. Bessie Smith was an American Blues singer who was born on the 15 th of April 1894. Jack protested, but she won him over by spending five thousand dollars in cash for a new custom Cadillac he admired in a show window. Dr. Smith insisted that a black ambulance driver would have taken any injured black person straight to the black hospital (Clarksdale had segregated hospitals half a mile apart). Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Geoffrey C. Ward, writer of a major new book and 19-hour I came to love Bessie Smith not just for her sandblaster sound and aggressively honest music but for being the vibrant, unrepentant woman who came charging off the spinning vinyl to claim a permanent place in my life. After struggling through most of the next two years with no recording opportunities and severely diminished audiences, Smith's fortunes began to improve once again after recording some songs for the OKeh label towards the end of 1933 (one of these tracks, Give Me a Pigfoot, featuring Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden as two of her backing musicians). When Bessie threatened to get someone else to drive her, he gave in. A black songwriter-pianist, Clarence Williams, arranged a February 1923 audition for her with the head of race records at Columbia, Frank Walker. Once I identified with her as a woman, I became interested in the life she lived and sang about: poverty and hard labor (Work Horse Blues), prison (Jail House Blues), homesickness (Muddy Water [a Mississippi Moan]), catastrophic floods (Backwater Blues), sexual betrayal (St. The associated press ran a brief report, and though it was full of mistakes, the white press through all her years of sold-out shows and hit records had never given her more space. Left Bessies troupe for the Gertrude Saunders show her stardom the height of her stardom seemed almost like,. A few songs, I hear all the money that was due Smith. Started sending all her records her that I realized how complex her simple singing was 1920s black composers had crushed... But Bessies still sold well and 1932 blues singers of her records her niece Rubys... 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Believing Jacks claim that he was her manager, they gave her money to him. WebIn an act of revenge, Jack Gee kidnapped Jack Gee, Jr. from Bessie's Philadelphia home and brought the boy to the offices of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC). A subsequent Down Beat story gave the correct information that Bessie had actually been taken directly to the black hospital in Clarksdale and had died from loss of blood, but the myth lived on. Sep 26, 1937, Tragedy Struck Greatest Fame You might like: And he sees what he calls the blues idiom as the highest expression of that culture. So Bessie was buried in an unmarked grave at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Delaware County. WebJack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. My reason for interviewing was that Jack had brought a lawsuit in federal court against Columbia Records for allegedly taking a huge amount of money that rightfully belonged to Bessie and, therefore, to her adopted son. )Boyfriend: Sidney BechetHusband: Jack Gee (m. 1923, div. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. Even with the improved technology available in the 1940s, when he was interviewed, the doctor believed that Bessie Smith would have had only a fifty-fifty chance to live. Tack was so conservative., By 1924 race-record sales were slipping, but Bessies still sold well. CHARLES SAXONS fond but clear-eyed cartoons are a definitive record of suburban life in the 1960s and 70s, For 70 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture. Her May 1926 records Money Blues, Baby Doll, Hard Driving Papa, and Lost Your Head Bluesshow her in excellent form. St. Joe softballers at 0-5, Dundas scores 100th goal in SCH win over Perkiomen, Easter: A holiday that is complex and multifaceted, Local dad, son come close to the 'top of the world', Bar Lizette brings bistro fare and flirty cocktails, Ten Phrases That Make Preservationists Nervous, Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions. Controversy always swirled around Bessie, even in death. She flew into a jealous rage and beat her niece till Rubys screams brought the police. It seems then to have been forgotten until 1950, when a group of well-meaning white liberals petitioned the NAACP to destroy it because of its portrayal of blacks as lowlifes. But she was a mother figure to the girl, and they remained on good terms all their lives. The folklore scholar John Lomax, who looked into the case in 1941, received a letter from the black doctor who treated Bessie, W. H. Brandon. The doctor examined Bessie and saw that the bones around her elbow were shattered and the soft tissue sliced clear through but that the artery and nerves were intact. Words in Bessies songs that had meant nothing to me the year before were great comfort and inspiration to me now. In the early 1930s theaters she had once filled were closing down, and after nine years Columbia dropped her. She was just breathing on the left side of her chest, all the ribs on her right side had been crushed. Condolences may be made online at www.larrison mortuary.com. Talking pictures were a much bigger worry. If thats the case, we are at least fortunate that today jazzs foremost performer is also its most eloquent advocate. The revue that had met such enthusiasm in the South was less well received when she took it to the Grand Theater in Chicago. Bessie kept going, but her theater fee had dropped by 50 percent. Dr. Smith and his friend Henry Broughton, who had just set out on a fishing trip, came upon the scene about ten minutes later. Gee v. CBS Briefs, No. Her music haunted you even when she stopped singing.. WebJohn Gee is 59 years old and was born on 02/24/1963.John Gee lives in Jackson, MN; previous cities include Aurora CO and Richardson TX.Other names that John uses includes John E Gee, John C Gee and John R Gee. An engineer behind the wall recorded her onto a wax disk that then had to be plated at a factory before it could be heard. 
Discouraged, I eked out a living as a translator and teacher. This item is available in full to subscribers. Among the just things he can not be blamed for is definitely making Jack port Gee, Jr. live just like a prisoner, locked up in a basementthat was carried out by Gee, Jr.s biological dad who got custody because of what was regarded as a severe insufficient security within the Smith-Gee home. By the early 1920s black composers had been writing hit songs for several years. 79-1616 Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. For years this was their pattern: Bessie would misbehave, Jack would catch her at it, shed end up buying him an expensive present, and all would then be peaceful until the cycle began again. Since the records he produced were hits, maybe she even thought he knew best. Richard was very jovial when hed had a few drinks, but he never got nasty. Her best were inspired by her own experiences. When I read that Bessie Smith was one of got hold of by the woman who is called the Empress of the Blues. Her voice was huge, but her use or it was remarkably nimble, her timing dynamic, her phrasing full of surprises. As Ruby said, She was a strong woman with a beautiful constitution, and she loved a good time. Back in Philadelphia she and Jack adopted him, naming him Jack Gee, Jr. It was only when I tried to imitate her that I realized how complex her simple singing was. Her tumultuous relationship with husband Jack Gee had finally come to an end, and in an act of vindictiveness he removed from her the two closest people in Smith's life: her adopted son and her niece Ruby Walker. Webjack gee, jr. Share Tweet. He was perfect for Bessie.. They argued about it. An ambulance arrived to transport her to a black hospital in nearby Clarksdale, where, according to the testimony of the attending doctor, she died within 10 hours of having been admitted despite extensive medical attention. Thomas Childers answers a summons to Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after she died, a front page story in the New York Times said that an ambulance driver rushed Bessie's severely injured body to the nearest hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but that the hospital refused to admit her because it was a whites-only hospital. When Clarences show came to Chattanooga in 1912, he arranged an audition for his little sister, and she was taken on as a dancer. They got along very well, they both loved a good time, and they respected each other. Her movie was shown often between 1929 and 1932. 
She rested in an expensive open silver metallic casket trimmed in gold and draped in two-tone lining. Major black stars and Bessies former promoters were conspicuous in their absence, but a few local show people, some of her chorus girls, and hordes of weeping fans attended. She would twist out an evocative word for up to six notes to dramatize it: Bessie misbehaved. Her brother Clarence joined a show as a dancer and comedian, and at the age of nine Bessie began to sing in the street for small change, accompanied on the guitar by her other brother, Andrew. . 
Her recordings are meticulously catalogued, and no work on jazz, blues, or pop singing history fails to acknowledge her seminal contribution to the sound and substance of vocal music. In a hard war theirs may have been the hardest job of all. In addition to her straightforward vocal work, she continued to be active in vaudeville and musical comedy, performing in Mississipi Days in 1927 and the Jazz Regiment and Late Hour Dancers in 1929. She took oddly placed and oddly effectivelittle breaths and pauses before a word or even just a syllable, sometimes for narrative emphasis, sometimes because she seemed to savor the sound itself. My musicians were reluctant to play old-style jazzthey found the 1920s time-feel stiff and the harmonies cornybut once they heard the audience laugh and cheer, they were as won over as I had been that winter in Rome, when I finally gave her music a real chance. Billie Holiday made me want to listen to Bessie Smith. Jack Gee Position: Starting Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-3 , 210lb (190cm, 95kg) Born: September 26, 1999 in McKinney, TX School: Tyler Junior College (Tyler, TX) Full Name: Jack Martin Gee View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. Share to Facebook. That same year she formed her own act with dancer/vocalist Wayne "Buzzin" Burton in association with Park's Big Revue at the Dixie theater in Atlanta -- a city that would serve as her base of operations into the 1920s. Her tombstone in Sharon Hill was placed thirty-three years late, but as the century draws to a close, its inscription still rings true: The Greatest Blues Singer in the World Will Never Stop Singing., The eminent black playwright August Wilson said in a recent interview that when he heard his first Bessie Smith record, he thought, This is mine. Dazzled by Bessies success, Ruby wangled her way into the troupe. she enjoyed getting everybody drunk with her., By this time Jack Gee knew about Bessies infidelities and had committed some of his own. In a departure from her usual repertoire, she recorded two quasi-religious songs with James P. Johnson and the Bessemer Singers, On Revival Day and Moan You Mourners. Some critics scoff at these tracks, but in view of her preacher-father, I dont find them such surprising choices, and she does them with great energy and fervor. Good, said Bessie. They recorded two songs she had just written, Back Water Blues and Preachin the Blues., When she finally headed home to face Jack, she found that he had left for Hot Springs, Arkansas, telling people he needed to recuperate from a nervous breakdown. Concerned, she went there and paid for his stay, and they made up once again. She had also achieved a degree of infamy for her boozing, fighting and sexual appetites with both men and women. While still very young, Bessie, accompanied by her brother Andrew on guitar, began dancing and singing on the streets in order to supplement her sister's income as a laundry worker; this activity did not have the approval of Viola, but was encouraged by her oldest brother Clarence, who was already making his own living as a traveling entertainer. Bessie was born on april 15, probably in 1894, in the Blue Goose Hollow section of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They sold fifty-three thousand copies, a huge drop from her earlier hits but still impressive. Burial. Ruby, threatened by Jack, left Bessies troupe for the Gertrude Saunders show. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. You better stay there, cause you cant sing a note. Years later Green, at fourteen, showed her reverence for Bessie by turning up to scrub her kitchen floor every Saturday, and Bessie often rewarded her by cooking her a batch of fried chitterlings and scallions. Invitations to perform at prestigious venues such as the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo in New York and Art's Caf and the Wander Inn in Philadelphia followed. Bessie knew other eminent blues singers of her day and was on good terms with most of them. In top-forty pop-soul songs, I hear all the vocal effects she pioneered with none of her sincerity and substance. Thats why her blues seemed almost like hymns., She had a profound influence on one of the greatest singers of religious music. Richard spotted the lights of a truck ahead, but by the time he realized it was crawling along at only a few miles an hour, it was too late. She was liking the bad stuff even when the good stuff was in, Ruby said. Throughout her career Bessie was notorious for paying low wages to her troupe no matter how much she made, but off the job she had a reputation as a soft touch, taking care of performers medical bills, bailing people out of jail, giving handouts to beggars, and buying gifts and clothes for family and friends. Albertson, a Dane, seems to have been fated to become the leading authority on Bessie. Bessie was working hard and playing hard. By 1924 race-record sales were slipping, but Bessies still sold well. Every couple of months she went to New York to record a few songs, usually blues, with piano or small-band accompaniment. She would plunge into full-pitched verbal and physical battle with anyonetheater managers, chorus girls, total strangersat the slightest provocation. Smiths success as a recording artist allowed her to become a top star on the black vaudeville circuit, and she toured the country extensively, traveling in her own Pullman railroad car but returning frequently to N.Y. to record. Through one of my students I met a well-known Italian jazz musician who had been inspired by the records of Sidney Bechet to take up the soprano saxophone. This fearless lack of restraint nearly cost the singer her life in 1925, when a man the singer had punched at an after-show party retaliated by knifing her on her way home (she still managed to chase after him despite the serious injury). To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. 
Bessie Smith was an American Blues singer who was born on the 15 th of April 1894. Jack protested, but she won him over by spending five thousand dollars in cash for a new custom Cadillac he admired in a show window. Dr. Smith insisted that a black ambulance driver would have taken any injured black person straight to the black hospital (Clarksdale had segregated hospitals half a mile apart). Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Geoffrey C. Ward, writer of a major new book and 19-hour I came to love Bessie Smith not just for her sandblaster sound and aggressively honest music but for being the vibrant, unrepentant woman who came charging off the spinning vinyl to claim a permanent place in my life. After struggling through most of the next two years with no recording opportunities and severely diminished audiences, Smith's fortunes began to improve once again after recording some songs for the OKeh label towards the end of 1933 (one of these tracks, Give Me a Pigfoot, featuring Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden as two of her backing musicians). When Bessie threatened to get someone else to drive her, he gave in. A black songwriter-pianist, Clarence Williams, arranged a February 1923 audition for her with the head of race records at Columbia, Frank Walker. 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