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Nora Bayes
Nora Bayes (born Rachel Eleonora "Dora" Goldberg; October 3, 1880 – March 19, 1928) was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. She is credited with co-writing the song "Shine On, Harvest Moon" and performed many successful songs during the First World War, including "Over There". She was also noted for her independent views and unconventional private life, becoming an early media celebrity. She made over 160 recordings.
She was born in 1880 in Chicago, the daughter of Rachel and David Goldberg, a Polish-born saloon keeper. She seems to have been given the traditional family name Rachel at birth but was known as Eleonora, or "Dora" as a nickname. She grew up in a strict Orthodox Jewish household and moved with her parents to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in her teens. In 1899, she married salesman Otto Gressing.
They lived in Joliet, Illinois, and in the hope of starting a stage career, she began performing at talent shows in nearby Chicago. She adopted the stage name Nora Bayes: "Nora" as a shortened form of Eleonora and "Bayes" because, according to one story, a local stage manager said that she would not have a good career with the name Goldberg. He suggested going through the Hebrew alphabet to find a name and recited "Aleph, bays..." when she stopped him and suggested Bayes.
By late 1900, Helen Cohan, the mother of George M. Cohan, saw Bayes performing in vaudeville in Chicago. Bayes joined a touring company, performing in St Louis, Missouri and then California, before she decided to advance her career further and moved with her husband to New York City. She grew in popularity as a comic actress and singer, and in 1902 started performing Harry Von Tilzer's song, "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows", which she performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn and which became her first big success.
Over the next few years, Bayes performed in increasingly prestigious theatres in New York, toured the country, and between 1904 and 1907 made several tours of Europe. She first performed in London in December 1905, and was an immediate success. After returning to the United States, she performed regularly on B. F. Keith's theatre circuit. She and Gressing divorced in 1907, and soon afterwards she was approached by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to star in a new theatre show, The Follies of 1907.
The show, soon retitled The Ziegfeld Follies, was a huge success and established Bayes' status, making her one of the highest paid female performers in the world. Ziegfeld contributed to her fame by telling the press falsely that Bayes lived on nothing but lollypops to keep her figure trim.
In 1908, Bayes married fellow performer Jack Norworth, and the couple became media celebrities. They performed together, and were credited with co-writing the hit song "Shine On, Harvest Moon", included in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908, along with several other songs in the show. Bayes was the star performer, commanding a much higher salary than Norworth, and sometimes challenging the authority of theatre managers and promoters. She walked out of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909 because of a disagreement with Ziegfeld over the billing of a rising new star named Sophie Tucker; Ziegfeld then sued Bayes for breach of contract, which prevented her performing in other theatres for several months.
She and Norworth returned to the vaudeville circuit, in the show Miss Innocence, and commanded an even higher salary than before. "Critics noted that Bayes succeeded through her lush singing voice, her sensitivity to her audience’s tastes and her willingness to make fun of herself, including jokes about her Jewish background and her failed marriages." In 1910, they appeared together in Lew Fields' show, The Jolly Bachelors.
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Nora Bayes
Nora Bayes (born Rachel Eleonora "Dora" Goldberg; October 3, 1880 – March 19, 1928) was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. She is credited with co-writing the song "Shine On, Harvest Moon" and performed many successful songs during the First World War, including "Over There". She was also noted for her independent views and unconventional private life, becoming an early media celebrity. She made over 160 recordings.
She was born in 1880 in Chicago, the daughter of Rachel and David Goldberg, a Polish-born saloon keeper. She seems to have been given the traditional family name Rachel at birth but was known as Eleonora, or "Dora" as a nickname. She grew up in a strict Orthodox Jewish household and moved with her parents to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in her teens. In 1899, she married salesman Otto Gressing.
They lived in Joliet, Illinois, and in the hope of starting a stage career, she began performing at talent shows in nearby Chicago. She adopted the stage name Nora Bayes: "Nora" as a shortened form of Eleonora and "Bayes" because, according to one story, a local stage manager said that she would not have a good career with the name Goldberg. He suggested going through the Hebrew alphabet to find a name and recited "Aleph, bays..." when she stopped him and suggested Bayes.
By late 1900, Helen Cohan, the mother of George M. Cohan, saw Bayes performing in vaudeville in Chicago. Bayes joined a touring company, performing in St Louis, Missouri and then California, before she decided to advance her career further and moved with her husband to New York City. She grew in popularity as a comic actress and singer, and in 1902 started performing Harry Von Tilzer's song, "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows", which she performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn and which became her first big success.
Over the next few years, Bayes performed in increasingly prestigious theatres in New York, toured the country, and between 1904 and 1907 made several tours of Europe. She first performed in London in December 1905, and was an immediate success. After returning to the United States, she performed regularly on B. F. Keith's theatre circuit. She and Gressing divorced in 1907, and soon afterwards she was approached by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to star in a new theatre show, The Follies of 1907.
The show, soon retitled The Ziegfeld Follies, was a huge success and established Bayes' status, making her one of the highest paid female performers in the world. Ziegfeld contributed to her fame by telling the press falsely that Bayes lived on nothing but lollypops to keep her figure trim.
In 1908, Bayes married fellow performer Jack Norworth, and the couple became media celebrities. They performed together, and were credited with co-writing the hit song "Shine On, Harvest Moon", included in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908, along with several other songs in the show. Bayes was the star performer, commanding a much higher salary than Norworth, and sometimes challenging the authority of theatre managers and promoters. She walked out of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909 because of a disagreement with Ziegfeld over the billing of a rising new star named Sophie Tucker; Ziegfeld then sued Bayes for breach of contract, which prevented her performing in other theatres for several months.
She and Norworth returned to the vaudeville circuit, in the show Miss Innocence, and commanded an even higher salary than before. "Critics noted that Bayes succeeded through her lush singing voice, her sensitivity to her audience’s tastes and her willingness to make fun of herself, including jokes about her Jewish background and her failed marriages." In 1910, they appeared together in Lew Fields' show, The Jolly Bachelors.
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