Bessie+Smith

Bessie Smith Besie Smith was born on April 15, in the city of Chattanooga, Tennesse. She was one of ten children. Bessie parents died before her eighth birthday and she was raised by her older sister Viola. Bessie Smith "furneal was the biggest in Philadephia". She had started singing and dancing at the age of eight which her sister Viola encouraged her to. She has a fiery temper, very determined, and she also believed that anything was possible. Bessie was very tall for a woman in the 1920's she was "six feet and 200 pounds" in weight. Bessie begin her career at nine year's old so that her home can have some income come in.

Bessie career began in 1912 with her older brother Clarence which they audition for "Moses Storkes" which was a traveling show which he been working on since 1904. When her and brother was on the road at that time she met Ma Rainey the frist woman of the blues. Bessie loved her and Ma Rainey became her mentor. On a specific event she had alot of job removal at the time because she was to dark. Even known her skin tone was dark she put a statment out there that said "I have the same oppurnity as anyone else". Bessie loved that she was darker but she did'nt like when blacks became white.

[|empress of blues]

The major breakthrough in Bessie career was in 1923 when her and Mamie Smith had recorde the song "Crazy Blues" in 1920. Bessie had a couple of albums in her singing career but the major recored songs that sold over 780,000 copies in six months was the "Downhearted Blues" and "Gulf Coast Blues"