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Florence Mills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Known as the "Queen of Happiness," Florence Mills was a popular African American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedian known for her effervescent stage presence, delicate voice, and winsome, wide-eyed beauty. A daughter of former slaves Nellie (Simon) and John Winfrey, she was born Florence Winfrey in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 1895 and died in New York City, New York, on November 1, 1927.
Featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair and photographed by Bassano and Edward Steichen, she was best known for her renditions of "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird" and "I'm Cravin' for that Kind of Love." She starred in Shuffle Along at the Alhambra Theater in Harlem, one of the events credited with beginning the Harlem Renaissance, as well acclaimed reviews in London, Paris, Ostend, Liverpool, and other European venues. She became an international superstar starring in the hit show Blackbirds.
From 1921 until her death in 1927, she was married to Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson, whom she met in 1917 as the dancing conductor of a black jazz band known as the Tennessee Ten.
Exhausted from more than 250 performances of the hit show Blackbirds in London in 1926, she became ill with tuberculosis. Her condition further weakened her and she died of infection following an appendectomy in New York.
After her death, Duke Ellington memorialized Mills in his song "Black Beauty." A definitive biography of her life is available - "Florence Mills Harlem Jazz Queen" see http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0810850079# (ISBN 0-8108-5007-9)
- http://www.FlorenceMills.com/ - A web site dedicated to her