Dolly Kay (12 June 1900? – 26 August 1982) California, Death Index, 1940-1997 about Dolly Kay, Social Security #340073520
Retrieved 12 June 2013 was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

singer who recorded in the 1920s and was one of the first white singers to incorporate

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

songs into her repertoire, most notably " Hard-Hearted Hannah".

Biography

Details of her life are obscure. She was probably born Dora Kirschenbaum in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1900. She lived with her parents in

Westchester, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...

, and worked as a stenographer. According to a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' article in 1923, she was so inspired by seeing a vaudeville performance a few years previously that she introduced herself to an agent, who auditioned her and immediately hired her. She began performing as a singer on the Orpheum Circuit, with pianist Phil Phillips,Scott Alexander, ''Dolly Kay'', at Red Hot Jazz Archive. Retrieved 31 December 2020
/ref> who remained her accompanist for at least the next twenty years. She was described by one reviewer as "one of the better hot type vocalists... a distinctive singer of her day". She recorded for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

between 1921 and 1924. Her first recording, "Cry Baby Blues", was made in New York in October 1921, and the following year she had commercial success with "You've Got To See Mama Ev'ry Night (Or You Can't See Mama At All)", which she recorded with

Frank Westphal Frank Christian Westphal (June 15, 1889 – November 23, 1948) was an American pianist, dance band leader and composer who recorded in the 1920s, following the end of his marriage to singer Sophie Tucker. Biography He was born in Chicago, the gra ...

and his Orchestra. Her biggest success came with " Hard-Hearted Hannah", which she was one of the first singers to record, in 1924. She also recorded several other blues songs from

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

songwriters, including "

Wabash Blues "Wabash Blues", with words by Dave Ringle and music by Fred Meinken, was the first major success for pianist, saxophonist and song composer Isham Jones (1894–1956). Recorded in 1921 by Isham Jones and his Orchestra, this million-seller stay ...

" (1921), "Sweet Man O' Mine" (1922) and "It Takes A Good Woman (To Keep A Good Man At Home)" (1926). Her later recordings were released on the

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

label — a subsidiary of Columbia — and finally, in 1928, by

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

. She also used the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

s Margaret White to record for

Lincoln Records Lincoln Records was an American record label that existed from 1923 to 1930. The bulk of material on Lincoln was dance music by bands assembled from the pool of New York musicians. Lincoln Records filled a market niche for people who wanted inex ...

, and Sally Freeman on Harmony, and recorded as a member of two

vocal group A vocal group is a performing ensemble of vocalists who sing and harmonize together. The first well-known vocals groups emerged in the 19th century, and the style had reached widespread popularity by the 1940s. Types Vocal groups can come in se ...

s, the University Six and the Georgians, led by trumpeter Frank Guarente. She continued to perform in vaudeville and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and elsewhere, in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' reported of a performance in Chicago that she was "long a favorite in local spots... Dolly Kay (with Phil Phillips at the piano) is of the old stock and sells tunes with the force of a veteran...".''Billboard'', "Colosimo's , Chicago", 28 February 1942, p.13
Her last known performance was in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1965, when she appeared in a variety show to honor the 40-year career of theatre and movie star

Fifi D'Orsay Fifi D'Orsay (born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier; April 16, 1904 – December 2, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress and singer. Early life Fifi D'Orsay was born Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a father who was a postal cl ...

. She died in Los Angeles in 1982, at which time she was also known as Dolly Riccio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Dolly Year of birth uncertain 1982 deaths American blues singers Vaudeville performers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers