Born in rural Ohio in 1870 as Clara Etta Black, she began her career in farce comedy in the early 1890's. She was an expert in dialects and was such a success as a singer of negro dialect songs that she eventually dropped the comedy stuff to go into vaudeville as a single. She was early on known as a Ragtime singer until Jim Thornton billed her as "The Southern Singer", and her career soared as she introduced and popularized dozens of "coon" (or negro dialect) and novelty songs of the period bet...
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Born in rural Ohio in 1870 as Clara Etta Black, she began her career in farce comedy in the early 1890's. She was an expert in dialects and was such a success as a singer of negro dialect songs that she eventually dropped the comedy stuff to go into vaudeville as a single. She was early on known as a Ragtime singer until Jim Thornton billed her as "The Southern Singer", and her career soared as she introduced and popularized dozens of "coon" (or negro dialect) and novelty songs of the period between 1895 and 1914. The second of several marriages was to Mose Gumble, popular composer and manager of NY Remick Music publishing, known to have given George Gershwin his first job as a song plugger with Remick. In 1905, Miss Vance began recording for Edison and later for Victor. She popularized, "He's a Cousin of Mine" "Mariar" and "Goodbye to Johnny" and recorded all three and a dozen others. Modern soul singer, Sam Cooke as his last recording, added a rock beat to "Cousin of Mine" and it was a hit all over again in the early 1960's. The Southern Singer headlined in all the major vaudeville houses in the United States . . . later she performed at the London Palace in 1909 for 26 weeks. Upon her return to America she starred in the shortlived but lavish Broadway musical, "A Skylark". In 1914 she and Mose divorced and she seemed to vanish save for a couple of character parts in silent films. Although slim and attractive, her over 6' height limited roles in motion pictures or on the legitimate stage. She eventually married a much younger man, screen scenarist Phelps Decker who in 1928 took his own life. Totally forgotten the once popular star lived her last lucid years in San Francisco before permanent committment in 1951 to the California State Hospital in Napa. Today she is remembered by her delightful and droll wit as evidenced in her 15 existing recordings and the photographs of her that appear on dozens of sheet music covers from 1898 - 1914 . She passed away in August of 1961 at age 91. Archeophone is planning a CD with all her recordings and those of May Irwin for release in early 2010.
