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Edythe Baker
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Edythe Baker
Edythe Baker (August 25, 1899–August 15, 1971) was an American pianist and dancer.
Baker was born in Girard, Kansas. Her parents divorced around 1905, and Edith moved to Kansas City, Missouri with her mother. From ages 8 to 14, Baker was educated at St. Mary's Convent in Independence, Missouri, receiving piano and voice lessons.
There are varying accounts of her musical development during her early teenage years. One describes her work at Nowlin Music Co. in Kansas City as a musician and saleswoman. Another account claims she received lessons from the composer-performer Ernie Burnett, who composed 'My Melancholy Baby'. She supposedly also regularly visited the Orpheum Theatre in Kansas City, where she listened to different piano styles. Allegedly, she could support her mother and brother by age 15, playing ragtime piano in small cabarets. Her "peculiar style" along with her good looks made her "a favorite among cabaret regulars."
Yet another account has her running away from school and home to Leavenworth, MO, and finding work playing piano in a moving picture house. She did this for two years, returned to Kansas City, and became a popular cafe player. Harry Fox, a vaudeville performer, saw her act in one such place and offered her a job in his company.
In September 1919, "Edythe Baker" was billed with Willie Smith in a Vaudeville act in Fall River, MA.
One observer noted that Baker practiced five or six hours daily and "developed a system of playing that was entirely her own. She was one of the first pianists to 'play against time' to achieve that 'heartbreak rhythm.'"
Baker is in March 1920 described as a "pianist featured in Harry Fox's new vaudeville offering" having come "to New York only a few months ago from Kansas City, alone and unheralded, in search of a career as a concert pianist." Yet "An offer to do a “blues” bit... drew such attention to her skill that she soon signed a contract" with Fox "and is now being besieged by musical comedy companies."
Just a month later, Baker is noted as having signed a two-year contract with Aeolian Records to make player piano rolls. "After leaving here [Kansas City, MO] two years ago" Baker "has been headlining on the Keith circuit as a pianist and composer... she will be featured in theaters in New York and vicinity by the Aeolian company." She is described as 19 years old.
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Edythe Baker
Edythe Baker (August 25, 1899–August 15, 1971) was an American pianist and dancer.
Baker was born in Girard, Kansas. Her parents divorced around 1905, and Edith moved to Kansas City, Missouri with her mother. From ages 8 to 14, Baker was educated at St. Mary's Convent in Independence, Missouri, receiving piano and voice lessons.
There are varying accounts of her musical development during her early teenage years. One describes her work at Nowlin Music Co. in Kansas City as a musician and saleswoman. Another account claims she received lessons from the composer-performer Ernie Burnett, who composed 'My Melancholy Baby'. She supposedly also regularly visited the Orpheum Theatre in Kansas City, where she listened to different piano styles. Allegedly, she could support her mother and brother by age 15, playing ragtime piano in small cabarets. Her "peculiar style" along with her good looks made her "a favorite among cabaret regulars."
Yet another account has her running away from school and home to Leavenworth, MO, and finding work playing piano in a moving picture house. She did this for two years, returned to Kansas City, and became a popular cafe player. Harry Fox, a vaudeville performer, saw her act in one such place and offered her a job in his company.
In September 1919, "Edythe Baker" was billed with Willie Smith in a Vaudeville act in Fall River, MA.
One observer noted that Baker practiced five or six hours daily and "developed a system of playing that was entirely her own. She was one of the first pianists to 'play against time' to achieve that 'heartbreak rhythm.'"
Baker is in March 1920 described as a "pianist featured in Harry Fox's new vaudeville offering" having come "to New York only a few months ago from Kansas City, alone and unheralded, in search of a career as a concert pianist." Yet "An offer to do a “blues” bit... drew such attention to her skill that she soon signed a contract" with Fox "and is now being besieged by musical comedy companies."
Just a month later, Baker is noted as having signed a two-year contract with Aeolian Records to make player piano rolls. "After leaving here [Kansas City, MO] two years ago" Baker "has been headlining on the Keith circuit as a pianist and composer... she will be featured in theaters in New York and vicinity by the Aeolian company." She is described as 19 years old.
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