Helen Keller, Vaudevillian, wants to learn jazz
One Hundred years ago today … Helen Keller had just embarked on a career in vaudeville, appearing on stage at the Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway (at West 47th Street).
Helen Keller warming up backstage at the Palace Theater in New York City. From The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY) Feb. 28, 1920, p.1. Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. Newspapers.com.
Keller was already famous as the world’s first deaf-blind person to earn a college degree, as author of the memoir The Story of My Life (1903), published when she was 22 years old, as an outspoken disability activist, workers’ rights activist, women’s suffrage activist, member of the Socialist party of America and Industrial Workers of the World.
The Palace Theatre (center) in 1920. At left is the Columbia Amusement Company Building, including the Columbia Theatre, a prominent burlesque house. Inscription: "Copyright 1920 by American Studio, N. Y. / Palace Theatre / 500." Library of Congress.
On March 1, The New York Tribune reported that Keller wanted to learn jazz from Sophie Tucker, the vaudeville star at the top of her bill at the Palace.
The New York Tribune Mar 1, 1920, p. 9. Newspapers.com
We will feature more about Tucker later on in 1920.