Mammie Smith

   

Biography...

1883-1946
Notoriety: At the tender age of 10 Mamie Smith began as a dancer in aVaudeville act. After touring with another act she settled in New York and began singing in night clubs.  She was the first woman to record a blues record, by recording Perry Bradford's "Crazy Blues" in 1920. Due to the fame of her album many record lables started hiring Blues women to create "race records", appeling to the black commmunity. This opened the door to many African Americans in the generas of Blues and Jazz.

How Could she be seen as having feminist ideas?

Many of the songs of Mamie Smith were of love lost and learning to be strong, How to make it within the big city, and all around relying on one's self in order to make it in life.