20 Facts About Ida Cox

Ida M Cox was an American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings.

Ida Cox was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues".

Ida Cox's family lived and worked in the shadow of the Riverside Plantation, the private residence of the wealthy Prather family, from which her namesake came.

Ida Cox faced a future of poverty and few educational and employment opportunities.

Ida Cox began her career on stage by playing Topsy, a "pickaninny" role commonly performed in vaudeville shows of the time, often in blackface.

Wolcott and based after 1918 in Port Gibson, Mississippi, were important not only for the development of Ida Cox's performing career but for launching the careers of her idols Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

Ida Cox's commanding stage presence and expressive delivery earned Cox star billing, and by the early 1920s, she was regarded as one of the finest solo acts offered by the shows that travelled the Theater Owners Booking Association circuit.

Ida Cox recorded two sides backed by the Pruitt Twins.

Ida Cox performed as the title act, and Crump served as both accompanist and manager.

Ida Cox, sometimes billed as the "Sepia Mae West", headlined touring companies into the 1930s.

Ida Cox continued to perform until 1945, when she was forced into retirement after a debilitating stroke which occurred during a performance at a nightclub in Buffalo, New York.

Ida Cox moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she lived with her daughter, Helen Goode, and became active in her church.

Ida Cox effectively disappeared from the music world until 1959 when John Hammond placed an ad in Variety magazine in search of her.

Consistent with her early career, Ida Cox's style leaned more toward vaudeville than blues.

Ida Cox had a less powerful and less rugged voice than her better-known contemporaries Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, but she held her audiences spellbound with the fiery spirit of her delivery.

At the height of the classic female blues era, competition was stiff, with numerous talented blueswomen performing, and Ida Cox's singing was only part of her act.

Ida Cox embellished her stage presence with a stylish wardrobe, which often included a tiara, cape and rhinestone wand.

The independent spirit that governed Ida Cox's life and career was a characteristic shared by many early blues stars, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, and Victoria Spivey.

Ida Cox broke barriers in this regard, as virtually no black women owned and managed their own businesses in the 1920s and 1930s.

Ida Cox was one of the few female blues singers of the time to write her own songs.