Research Catalog

Mabel Mercer collection

Title
Mabel Mercer collection, 1941-1984.
Author
Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984.

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2 Items

StatusContainerFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Box 1Moving imageUse in library Sc MG 536 Box 1Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box 2Moving imageUse in library Sc MG 536 Box 2Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives

Details

Description
.33 lin. ft.
Summary
Collection consists of articles, interviews and profiles, publicity flyers, programs, and a scrapbook.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Interviews.
  • Scrapbooks.
Note
  • Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
  • Audiotapes transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.
Source (note)
  • Lemert, Pearl
Biography (note)
  • Mabel Mercer (1900-1984) was a singer, song stylist, and night club entertainer. Born in England in 1900 to a Black musician father, Benjamin Mercer, and a white English vaudevillian mother, Emily Wadham Stonehouse, Mercer started her show business career at the age of fourteen. She joined a song and dance act with her mother and aunt in Europe. Later, in the 1920s, she appeared in Lew Leslie's "Blackbirds" in London, as part of a vocal trio. Around this time, Mercer started studying singing, with aspirations of becoming a concert singer. In the 1920s and 1930s, she was a successful night club singer in Paris, appearing at Ada "Bricktop" Smith's Bricktop's. She made her first appearance in the U.S. in 1938 and settled here in 1941, after marrying singer Kelsey Pharr, a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys. Mercer became an American citizen in 1952, where she was known as one of the most popular supper club singers for many years.
Processing Action (note)
  • Surveyed
  • Accessioned
  • Cataloging updated
Call Number
Sc MG 536
OCLC
NYPW89-A154
Author
Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984.
Title
Mabel Mercer collection, 1941-1984.
Biography
Mabel Mercer (1900-1984) was a singer, song stylist, and night club entertainer. Born in England in 1900 to a Black musician father, Benjamin Mercer, and a white English vaudevillian mother, Emily Wadham Stonehouse, Mercer started her show business career at the age of fourteen. She joined a song and dance act with her mother and aunt in Europe. Later, in the 1920s, she appeared in Lew Leslie's "Blackbirds" in London, as part of a vocal trio. Around this time, Mercer started studying singing, with aspirations of becoming a concert singer. In the 1920s and 1930s, she was a successful night club singer in Paris, appearing at Ada "Bricktop" Smith's Bricktop's. She made her first appearance in the U.S. in 1938 and settled here in 1941, after marrying singer Kelsey Pharr, a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys. Mercer became an American citizen in 1952, where she was known as one of the most popular supper club singers for many years.
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Finding Aid
Research Call Number
Sc MG 536
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