Trixie Smith made four dozen recordings and appeared in five films.
11 Facts About Trixie Smith
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Trixie Smith attended Selma University, in Alabama, before moving to New York City at the age of twenty around 1915.
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Trixie Smith began her career as a vaudeville and minstrel entertainer who performed as a comedian, dancer, actress, and singer in traveling shows.
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Trixie Smith performed on Broadway using the name Bessie Lee and recorded for Silvertone.
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Trixie Smith's record inspired various lyrical elaborations, such as "Rock That Thing" by Lil Johnson and "Rock Me Mama" by Ikey Robinson.
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Also in 1922, billed as the "southern nightingale," Smith won first place and a silver cup in a blues singing contest in which she sang her own composition, "Trixie's Blues", competing against Alice Leslie Carter, Daisy Martin and Lucille Hegamin, at the Inter-Manhattan Casino in New York, sponsored by the dancer Irene Castle.
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Trixie Smith is best remembered for "Railroad Blues", which features one of her most inspired vocal performances on record, and "The World Is Jazz Crazy and So Am I".
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Trixie Smith recorded with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for Paramount Records in 1924 and 1925.
9.
Trixie Smith appeared in Mae West's short-lived 1931 Broadway show, The Constant Sinner.
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Two years later, Trixie Smith was elevated to the stage of the Theatre Guild for its production of Louisiana.
11.
Trixie Smith appeared at the concert From Spirituals to Swing, produced by John H Hammond, in 1938.