Bee Palmer
Bee Palmer was an American singer, dancer, and showgirl who achieved fame during the jazz age as the "Shimmy Queen."
Early years
Bee Palmer was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Charley A. Palmer and his wife, Anna Palmer. She reportedly began performing before World War I, "around the cafes of South Chicago where she would sit at tables and croon to guests" for small sums.She also danced professionally and is said to have dubbed herself the "Shimmie Queen" by 1914.
Stage career
Palmer first attracted significant attention as a "Western girl" performing in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918. She got a good review for singing "I Want to Learn to Jazz Dance".She also won acclaim for her role in the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic of 1918. Described as "a blonde with trained shoulders who can sing rag and act jazz," she sang "Let Me Shimmy and be Satisfied". Another reviewer was less impressed with the same show, stating that Palmer "did the vulgar shimmy in a tightly fitting cerise dress trimmed merely with a cord at the waistline".
Palmer was widely credited as the inventor of shimmy, although other white dancers, including Gilda Gray and Mae West, also claimed to have originated the act. Despite these assertions, the dance's origins remain contested, although it almost certainly had African American roots. Palmer herself was said to call the shimmy an African American "folk dance".
Palmer reaped fame when the shimmy became a craze personifying the "madcap exuberance and permissive morals of the Jazz Age". The dance inspired several popular songs, including "Shimmee Town", "Shim-Me-King's Blues", "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", and "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble".
Such was Palmer's shimmy fame, that she became one of the people who personified the Roaring Twenties. One writer described her as:
Palmer began touring in 1921 with a revue called Oh Bee! The band was called 'Bee Palmer's New Orleans Rhythm Kings' and included such notables as Emmett Hardy, Leon Roppolo, and Santo Pecora, in addition to the pianist aand songwriter Al Siegel. However, the act received criticism due to the perception that the shimmy was immoral. With guardians of public morals speaking out against the dance and other "modern dances", at least one theatre is said to have canceled the show.
Palmer continued to appear on Broadway throughout the 1920s. She starred in the Passing Show of 1924 at the Winter Garden and performed with
Paul Whiteman at Carnegie Hall in 1928. By the mid-1930s, Palmer had faded from public attention.
Recording career
Palmer recorded several early jazz songs.- "When Alexander Takes his Ragtime Band to France"
- "After You've Gone"
- "I'm the Jazz Baby"
- "I'll See You in My Dreams"
- "Sweet Georgia Brown"
- "I'm Coming, Virginia"
- "At Half-past Nine"
- "Don't Leave Me, Daddy"
- "Singin' the Blues"
Personal life
Palmer married and divorced at least twice: Albert Siegel and Sol "Sonny" Taubin. Palmer told the press in 1933 that she had married pianist Jack Fina, but Fina denied the report, calling it "embarrassing".In 1921, Palmer's then-husband, Al Siegel, filed a lawsuit against boxing champion Jack Dempsey for "alienation of his wife's affection". Palmer denied any indiscretion, saying "Al Siegel is a cheap piano player whom I picked out of the gutter and married". Dempsey also denied an affair, claiming the suit was "the scheme of two cheap vaudeville performers for publicity".