Lew Leslie had two well-known wives, torch singer Belle Baker and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Irene Wales.
11 Facts About Lew Leslie
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2.
Lew Leslie became famous for his stage shows at the Cotton Club and later for his Blackbirds revues, which he mounted in 1926,1928,1930,1933 and 1939.
3.
Lew Leslie began his career doing a patter act in vaudeville.
4.
Lew Leslie worked on stage first as an impressionist then in a double act with Belle Baker to whom he was married for a while.
5.
One of the earliest floorshows Lew Leslie produced was named Aphrodite, which he presented in a Manhattan nightclub in 1922.
6.
Lew Leslie staged Dixie To Broadway, again starring Mills and Thompson, and then came his Blackbirds revues.
7.
The last of the series, Blackbirds of 1939, produced in New York, included in its cast Lena Horne, whom Lew Leslie called "the New Florence Mills".
8.
On his World War I draft registration card of June 1917, Lew Leslie stated that he was an alien and was born in Russia on April 15,1888.
9.
Lew Leslie appears on the 1910 census as Louis Lesinsky, with his parents Max and Mary Lesinsky and brother Saul ; they lived in Manhattan and Max, aged 50, was a butcher.
10.
Lew Leslie stated he was born to Jewish parents in Orangeburg, New York.
11.
Lew Leslie died in 1963 in Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, still hoping to the last to revive a new version of his old show, Rhapsody in Black.