Frank Fallon Gee Jr. Frank Fallon (Jack) Gee, Jr., 78, of Roanoke County, entered his heavenly home on Tuesday morning, April 10, 2007. I realize that not every listener shares my need to hear a song thats. The folklore scholar John Lomax, who looked into the case in 1941, received a letter from the black doctor who treated Bessie, W. H. Brandon. He also wrote the Grammy-winning liner notes for the 1970 reissues of her complete work on Columbia Records and for the current five-volume set of CDs. Worst of all, Jack, in what could only have been an act of vengeance, put Jack, Jr., in a childrens home while Bessie was away. Reflections on the Rat Pack WebJack Warren Gee, age 54 View Details Willoughby 2340 N Bay Dr, Willoughby Also known as: Jack Wayne Gee JR, Jack Warren Gee JR, Jack Wayne Gee Associated persons: Megan Donahue, Renee Gee, Cody R Kothera (440) 796-1847 View Details Jack J Gee, age 57 View Details Rockville 4411 Bel Pre Rd, Rockville They left at 1:00, Jack Gee, Jr., and the liberal press jumped on the story and kept it alive, he for personal reasons, the press for political ones. Many newspaper editorials around the country denounced this apparent case of blatant racism, suggesting that her life might have been saved if the whites-only hospital had treated her. A devastated Richard Morgan sat quietly on the sidelines while Jack Gee seized the limelight. WebJack Gee is 63. Her best were inspired by her own experiences. If her voice was huge and heavy, her use of it was remarkably nimble. By the time they got back to the tent theyd have a crowd of customers in tow. Benefits held in both the 1940s and the 1950s raised enough money for a tombstone, but the proceeds, given to Jack Gee, disappeared. John Hammond wrote an article in Down Beat titled Did Bessie Smith Bleed to Death While Waiting for Medical Aid? He reported having heard that when finally she did arrive at the hospital she was refused treatment because of her color and bled to death while waiting for attention. He admitted that the account could have been exaggerated, but the damage was done. In her judicious use of original vocal effects (moans, slides, growls, split vowels) and in the interpretive choices she made, she revealed the inventiveness and impeccable taste of a great artist. Most of my information on Bessies life comes from his book, his liner notes, and my interviews with him. After her performance that night, still wearing her feathered gown over her ever-present carpenters apron full of cash, Bessie grabbed Ruby and took a cab to Columbus, Ohio, where the Gertrude Saunders show was playing. Two of Bradfords songs sung by Mamie Smith had some success, so he talked the company into letting her do a blues. The Chicago Defender published an article in 1925 predicting a bleak future for female blues singers, but Bessie continued to prosper. Gee refused to buy his ex-wife a headstone, and her family, for unknown reasons, did too. . grainger porter ruby vechten walker van party discogs bessie stomp off Louis Blues), gambling (Follow the Deal on Down), disillusionment (Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out), despair (Wasted Life Blues), and hard-drinking good times (Gimme a Pigfoot [and a Bottle of Beer]). In 1960 Edward Albees play The Death of Bessie Smith expanded and spread the myth, and in 1970 Time magazine ran a piece titled Racially Rationed Health, which opened by citing the medical treatment of Bessie Smith in a sentence containing three erroneous details: After her black Samaritan driver [1] had been turned away from white hospitals [2], she at last reached a hospital that was willing to admit her . Dazzled by Bessies success, Ruby wangled her way into the troupe. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Geoffrey C. Ward, writer of a major new book and 19-hour He used to talk about Bessie, and hed start crying. Dr. Smith and his friend Henry Broughton, who had just set out on a fishing trip, came upon the scene about ten minutes later. She dug right down and kept it in you. Her recordings are meticulously catalogued, and no work on jazz, blues, or pop singing history fails to acknowledge her seminal contribution to the sound and substance of vocal music. )Boyfriend: Sidney BechetHusband: Jack Gee (m. 1923, div. She got a spot in a touring show and took to the road with Richard Morgan, who drove her used Packard. She was drinking heavily and acting irresponsible, breaking contracts and stranding her troupe with increasing frequency. While still very young, Bessie, accompanied by her brother Andrew on guitar, began dancing and singing on the streets in order to supplement her sister's income as a laundry worker; this activity did not have the approval of Viola, but was encouraged by her oldest brother Clarence, who was already making his own living as a traveling entertainer. documentary (directed by Ken Burns) on the subject, discusses the joys and wonders of our native art form. My musicians were reluctant to play old-style jazzthey found the 1920s time-feel stiff and the harmonies cornybut once they heard the audience laugh and cheer, they were as won over as I had been that winter in Rome, when I finally gave her music a real chance. My reason for interviewing was that Jack had brought a lawsuit in federal court against Columbia Records for allegedly taking a huge amount of money that rightfully belonged to Bessie and, therefore, to her adopted son. LOCKED IN A STRANGE, TESTY COLLABORATION lit by the fires of a burning world, George M. Cohan and James Cagney produced a masterpiece of popular history in which everything is true except the facts. The truck driver, afraid that his tires had overheated, had pulled over to have a look at them. Costumed in a plain dress with a shawl, a wig, and a beaded cloche, she performed in front of a painted backdrop depicting magnolia trees, a moon, and an orange sky. Her place in the history of blues and jazz is undisputed. After four more recordings Gee and Bessie discovered that her contract had been drawn up not with Columbia but with Clarence Williams, entitling him to pocket half her $125-per-song fee. As if providing material for a future biopic, he instead squandered the money on yet another singer he was having an affair with, Gertrude Saunders. What Happened To Americas Public Schools? She had better bands on the road than in the studio, he said. Webjack gee, jr. She won three Emmys for the show and has an additional Emmy for her role in "Nurse"(1982). cause if he keeps on ticklin, Im sure gonna take him on in.. Vaughan, asked to rate Young Womans Blues, said, Ive always wanted to find out what people see in this kind of thing. Demand for her live performances steadily increased as the 1930s progressed, and by 1936 was such that a one-night booking to replace Billie Holiday at Connie's Inn in New York was extended into a residency of two months. Thats why her blues seemed almost like hymns., She had a profound influence on one of the greatest singers of religious music. Larger companies were quick to form race record divisions. Bessies career was taking off. Rap does outsell all other CDs, but a few ballads still break into the top forty, usually pop-soul songs by female artists with wide vocal ranges and impressive technical virtuosity. So Bessie was buried in an unmarked grave at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Delaware County. I dont get it. One of her biggest hits was "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," whose lyrics eerily paralleled her own life. she enjoyed getting everybody drunk with her., By this time Jack Gee knew about Bessies infidelities and had committed some of his own. Be the first one to, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Cropped Gee v CBS CA3 Case File_daisy.zip, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Billie had made me want to do more than just listen to other singers. As it became clear that vaudeville was on its way out, white performers looked to Hollywood and radio for work, but those doors were still closed to blacks. Drunk or sober, she had a terrible temper. Theater offers came pouring in, and her fee shot up to $350 a week. In November 1933 he got her back into a New York studio with an integrated band of excellent jazz musicians, including Frankie Newton, Jack Teagarden, and Chu Berry. WebApr 15, 1894, A Star Was Born 1906, Orphan 1912, On Her Own 1923, The Big Break 1913, The Mother and the Empress Jun 7, 1923, Happiness 1925, A Son 1928, Falling Action 1928, Heartbreaking 1929, Empty 1933, A Revival? Webjack gee, jr. She won three Emmys for the show and has an additional Emmy for her role in "Nurse"(1982). There Gee filed false neglect and endangerment charges against Smith. She would twist out an evocative word for up to six notes to dramatize it: Bessie misbehaved. She was well known as a popular female blues singer during the Jazz era and was regarded as Its the fastest-growing music in America. And when she couldnt keep up her expenses, Richard helped her out. In spite of the success of St. Louis Blues, 1929 proved to be a difficult year for Smith -- for both personal and professional reasons. Her timing was solid, dynamic, and exciting, no matter how little rhythmic support she got from her musicians. A black songwriter-pianist, Clarence Williams, arranged a February 1923 audition for her with the head of race records at Columbia, Frank Walker. The doctor examined Bessie and saw that the bones around her elbow were shattered and the soft tissue sliced clear through but that the artery and nerves were intact. Rubys descriptions of life with Bessie were so lucid and her memories so clear that Albertson decided to take on the project. The show ended a successful run in Memphis on Saturday night, September 26, 1937, and Bessie, feeling restless, wanted to move on right away. About Jack Gee, Jr. In the early hours of September 26th, while en route to Mississippi after a performance in Memphis, the singer and her current partner Richard Morgan crashed into a large truck parked on the shoulder of an unlit road; Morgan was largely unaffected by the accident, but Smith sustained a serious injury to one of her arms. Some claim (Jack Gee Jr, Bessie Smiths adopted son) that when the ambulances arrived, someone at the scene suggested the ambulances take the other white couple to the hospital first. In January 1925 she recorded with the stunningly talented young Louis Armstrong, and their rapport is extraordinary. In a hard war theirs may have been the hardest job of all. She now wanted to complete the family by moving her sisters up from Chattanooga to live with her. Bessies reception in Chicago was disappointing, but her show sold out in smaller Midwestern cities. (Janis died the following year of a drug overdose.). Im a young woman, and aint done runnin round, she sang somberly in Young Womans Blues, the song of hers that first broke through to me. But together with Army doctors and Army nurses, they worked something very close to a miracle in the European theater. Before, she had blamed poor turnout on the Depression; now she feared that she was losing her following. Bessie knew other eminent blues singers of her day and was on good terms with most of them. Two of them were broadcast on radio. Jack Gee (1889-1973), Bessie's extremely violent husband from whom she had been separated, thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone, once or twice even pocketing money raised for that purpose, according to researchers of Bessie. Her phrasing was full of surprises, some words compressed, others tantalizingly strung out. He and Broughton were moving the last of their fishing gear from the back seat when a car came up behind them fast and crashed into theirs, driving it into the back of Bessies wrecked Packard. CHARLES SAXONS fond but clear-eyed cartoons are a definitive record of suburban life in the 1960s and 70s, For 70 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture. She was in peak form during that tour, strong, hard-working, and sober. She had also achieved a degree of infamy for her boozing, fighting and sexual appetites with both men and women. By the final years of the decade Smith had established her own Atlanta-based showcase called the Liberty Belles Revue, which featured her not only her talents as a singer and dancer but also as a male impersonator. Now Bessie could sing into a microphone, with a greater number of musicians accompanying herin this case, a six-piece band. There has been controversy regarding the circumstances ever since, due to her relationships with Jack and Bobby Kennedy. She would have lost her right arm and could never have sung again. I believed I had finally discovered what Billie learned from her: honesty, directness, a refusal to be anything or anyone but who she was. Frank Walker at Columbia gave him a little help, but Bessies star was falling there too. Bessie fled to New Yorkand a recording session where she got another chance to work with a musician of her caliber, the superb Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson, the best accompanist she ever had. Im sure shed cuss me out and knock me flat if she heard me stealing her stuff, but my goal is to get her music into the publics ears. She was ruled to have died from suicide due to a drug overdose. Her May 1926 records Money Blues, Baby Doll, Hard Driving Papa, and Lost Your Head Bluesshow her in excellent form. He confirmed what was by then known to be the truth about Bessies death. Too busy for a honeymoon, she recorded seven more songs, accompanied this time by Fletcher Henderson, and then took off for a tour of the South. And yet, sadly, her music is listened to much less now than it was twenty years ago. Search the history of over 806 billion We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! The magazine made another attempt to rectify the error in the early 1940s, running an interview with the first person on the scene of the accident, a white doctor named Hugh Smith. Both Clarksdale facilities were small country hospitals with only the most basic equipment, according to Dr. Smith. For years she took Jack Jr. along on all her tours. The film was shown often between 1929 and 1932. Richard was everything that Jack should have been, her sister-in-law Maud remembered. Like all performers in the early years of the recording industry, Bessie had to sing into a cone-shaped horn stuck through a hole in a draped wall. Despite their feud they recorded six more songs together, including TAint Nobodys Bizness if I Do and a wonderfully plaintive version of Baby Wont You Please Come Home.. She took oddly placed and oddly effectivelittle breaths and pauses before a word or even just a syllable, sometimes for narrative emphasis, sometimes because she seemed to savor the sound itself. Louis Blues' and then starred in a Broadway show called 'Pansy,' so she took me to Market Street to one department store after another, and she just kept buying things for me. Gertrude had the good fortune to be out. Her performances in Atlanta and Birmingham drew record-breaking crowds and thunderous applause. Theaters she had once filled were closing down, and after nine years Columbia dropped her. Talmo, Jackson County, Georgia, USA. Okeh Records and the first black-owned company, Black Swan, both rejected her. Some people call me a hobo / some call me a bum. Discouraged, I eked out a living as a translator and teacher. By 1924 race-record sales were slipping, but Bessies still sold well. Her tour made a good profit, and the TOBA board decided to advance her three thousand dollars to mount two new shows for them. Its a three-billion-dollar-plus industry. Shortly after she died, a front page story in the New York Times said that an ambulance driver rushed Bessie's severely injured body to the nearest hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but that the hospital refused to admit her because it was a whites-only hospital. In the mid-1970s I interviewed Albertson, who talked to many people who had been at the 1937 accident scene and concluded that Bessie was in fact rushed to the closest hospital to the accident, which happened to be a black hospital, but that Bessie had lost too much blood to be saved with 1930s medical care. In 1962, in the year that Jack A. Gee Jr was born, on August 5th, actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe died in Brentwood California. That's because she was ripped off by Columbia Records, as so many other young recording stars have been by the recording industry for almost a century (more on that later), but Bessie did make a lot of money as a charismatic stage performer. There was honest heartbreak in those vowels. We have recently launched a new and improved website. The other half was given by a woman named Juanita Green, who as a little girl hoping for a performing career had met Bessie when she coached children in a Harlem theater. He was never the same after she died, Maud told Albertson. He was born on Feb 11, 1959. Bessie Smith was an American Blues singer who was born on the 15 th of April 1894. WebJack Gee, Jr. son. AFTER THREE TIMES traveling the trail they blazed, the author imagines what the two captains of Jeffersons Corps of Discovery would make of the civilization we have built on the tremendous promise they offered. A tent was hung over them to improve the acoustics. Good, said Bessie. Sawnee Sent by the truck driver who had left the scene, it took the injured couple. Her movie was shown often between 1929 and 1932. Jack now appeared on her tours only to ask for money. The Depression was affecting everybody now. Albertson thinks this is because the musical tastes of young people have changed so much. Smith continued to pursue her music career throughout the depression, however, maintaining a small "bootlegging" (illegal liquor) operation on the side in order to keep herself financially stable. Another story claimed that Smith was refused admittance to the first hospital to which she was brought (being a whites-only facility) and died as a result of the delay in treatment; it was this latter version that was used by playwright Edward Albee in his 1959 work The Death of Bessie Smith. Even with the improved technology available in the 1940s, when he was interviewed, the doctor believed that Bessie Smith would have had only a fifty-fifty chance to live. Jack Gee, Jr. wrote to Smith, telling her how miserable he was. She made me want to become one myself. Words in Bessies songs that had meant nothing to me the year before were great comfort and inspiration to me now. Through one of my students I met a well-known Italian jazz musician who had been inspired by the records of Sidney Bechet to take up the soprano saxophone. Green. Despite her decidedly secular way of life, she considered herself a religious woman. Now he found out that she was cheating on him not only with men but with women. Jack caught her at it, and shed buy him an expensive present. WebView the profiles of people named Jack Gee Jr. Join Facebook to connect with Jack Gee Jr. and others you may know. They left at 1:00 A.M. and traveled in strained silence for seventy-five miles on a straight dark stretch of road. Who else lives with 4258 Northwest 6th Court Deerfield Beach at 4258 Northwest 6th Court Deerfield Beach? Smith adopted the boy in 1925 and spoiled him, but because of her constant touring, Smith was unable to take care of the boy as she wanted to. This great artist belongs to everyone who responds to her, and transcends all boundaries of race, nationality, generation, and category. Jack threw together a cheap production as possible for Bessie and decided to use the remainder of the money for personal gainnot to enrich himself financially, but to win the heart of Saunders, a singer of striking looks and impressive past accomplishments. . WebJack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. As time passed and no ambulance came, Dr. Smith decided they should take Bessie to the hospital themselves. He graduated in 1986 from Osaka University Medical School and earned a Ph.D. in 1993. This really belongs to me. I feel exactly the same way, and so, I imagine, do her Danish biographer and the tourists who cross oceans to visit the room she died in. Italians were both friendlier and nosier than the French, and people often asked me what I was doing there. Born: 15-Apr-1894Birthplace: Chattanooga, TNDied: 26-Sep-1937Location of death: Clarksdale, MS [1]Cause of death: Accident - AutomobileRemains: Buried, Mount Lawn Cemetery, Sharon Hill, PA, Gender: FemaleRace or Ethnicity: BlackSexual orientation: BisexualOccupation: Singer, Nationality: United StatesExecutive summary: Empress of the Blues. Bessie fought violently with Jack, wrecked the room, and emerged covered with blood and feathers to take the cab straight back to Detroit. Then, after five years of marital cat-and-mouse games, Jack at last committed an act of betrayal impossible to forgive. I dont know how that woman knew so many joints, Ruby said. Jack eventually lost the case in federal court, although the judge seemed to sympathize with him. Bessie Smith children: Meet Jack Gee Jr By Desmond Kuffour January 6, 2023 Bessie Smith, a jazz and blues performer, is known as the Empress of the Blues for her passionate, powerful voice. In the early 1930s theaters she had once filled were closing down, and after nine years Columbia dropped her. But she still pulled in big, enthusiastic audiences in the South. The Clarksdale Hospital where she died is now a hotel, her room usually occupied by European and Japanese fans. I had begun to wonder myself. . Her work is available, accessible, and life-enriching. She got a spot in a touring show and took to the road with Richard Morgan, who drove her used Packard. She seldom bought a record and never went to shows; she had the best voice, sold the most records, and drew the biggest crowds, and she apparently didnt feel she had anything to learn from anyone. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. Her personal life wasnt going as well. Expertly marketed to the younger generation at a time when rock and pop stars including Joplin, Cass Elliott of The Mamas and the Papas (who called Bessie the first soul singer), Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles were citing the strong influence of early blues artists on their own work, the series sold two hundred thousand double albums and won two Grammys. The revue that had met such enthusiasm in the South was less well received when she took it to the Grand Theater in Chicago. Bessie: Empress of the Blues , by Chris Albertson, published in 1972 and still in print, is one of the most carefully researched and best-written books ever about any blues or jazz artist. As Ruby said, She was a strong woman with a beautiful constitution, and she loved a good time. Brother of Vanderbilt Gee; Daniel Gee and Thomas Gee. Young Womans Blues, Thinking Blues, and Long Old Road express and resolve her own periods of loneliness and despair with strong images and deeply moving lyrics. They were a growing audience for performers like Bessie, and she began to tour regularly as a single or with her own show, playing not just the South but Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City. Back in Philadelphia she and Jack adopted him, naming him Jack Gee, Jr. Bessie heard the news in a bar, fled, and broke down and wept in her hotel room. On the first leg of the new tour, Bessie and her troupe stayed in Chicago, where she looked up a long-time friend, a jazz-loving, party-giving bootlegger named Richard Morgan. Primitive as Bessies records may sound to todays ears, they still give both singers and audiences much to learn. Bessie was working hard and playing hard. . Still, she made the best of any breaks. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. Bleeding profusely, she went into shock. In fact, Jack Senior kept Jack,Jr. All three were arrested. Throughout the remainder of the 1920s Smith maintained an active schedule of touring and recording, collaborating with artists such as Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong. They sold fifty-three thousand copies, a huge drop from her earlier hits but still impressive. Then we drove away in the car!, 8434 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19118 Rock n roll in the 1960s and 1970s generated interest in older blues artists because it was audibly linked to the blues, unlike todays hugely popular sound, rap. According to witnesses, Bessie went out and faced down a dozen Klansmen herself, cursing them until they walked away. She died in a Clarksdale, Mississippi, hospital at 11:30 on Sunday morning. On appeal, Mr. Gee Jr., the heir to his fathers estate and by default the legal heir to the Bessie Smith estate brought five claims against CBS Records, which had purchased Columbia Records. Over the next couple years the young performer's abilities propelled her from dancer to chorus to featured soloist in quick succession, and by 1914 her popularity rivaled that of the company's featured performer Ma Rainey. Joplin, who once said Bessies singing showed me the air and taught me how to fill it, actually paid half the cost. As Bessies very different style shows, Ma didnt teach her to sing. It seems then to have been forgotten until 1950, when a group of well-meaning white liberals petitioned the NAACP to destroy it because of its portrayal of blacks as lowlifes. Her music haunted you even when she stopped singing.. And yet, says one passionate follower of country music past and present, its story is over. This new happiness couldnt have come at a better time. When I commented to Albertson that never before or since had an artist of such greatness made so many records with such mediocre musicians, he readily agreed. 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