Clarice Vance
|
|
Clarice Vance (March 14, 1871 - August 24, 1961), "The Southern Singer" was a popular American vaudeville personality from the late 1800s to about 1917. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Her real name was Clara Ella Black.
She was once married to "Mose" Gumble, head of Remick Music Publishing in New York from 1904-1914. Moses Gumble was a well known song writer along with his brother, Albert but is remembered today as the man who gave George Gershwin his first job plugging songs at Remick.
Clarice was known as a "coon singer", singing popular negro dialect songs of the day. She was a handsome woman, slightly over 6' tall and so was able to project over a 26 piece orchestra when she sang on the stage. She shared the bill with the leading headliners of the day and her impish face appears on dozens of sheet music covers from 1899 - 1914. Her picture appeared in Vanity Fair at one point and in 1910 she starred in a short lived but lavish Broadway musical called A Skylark.
Her records exhibit a rare, radiant and very droll wit. She began recording for Edison Records in 1905 (two selections) and from 1906-1909 for Victor. Her most popular song was "Mariar" co-written by her husband. She recorded it three times, as her first 2 minute phonograph cylinder for Edison and as her last recording in January of 1909 for Victor.
Her life after 1914 is shrouded in mystery. She appeared briefly in movies in small parts and slid into total oblivion. She was a resident of the Napa Valley, California mental hospital from 1951 until her death in 1961 at 90 years of age, knowing only her name and that she was "an actress". She died friendless, penniless and unknown. From 1944-1950, this once brilliant and popular commedienne lived in a dilapidated wooden rooming house at 1535 Pine Street in San Francisco. She is buried as "31" in the Potter's Field section of the St. Helena Cemetery in Napa Valley.