Research Catalog

Title

Mabel Mercer papers, 1900-1984.

Author

Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

18.6 lin. ft.

Summary

Papers consist of personal papers including naturalization and immigration documents, correspondence with her husband, Kelsey Pharr, family papers and fan mail. Professional papers include contracts, dates concerning nightclub performances and recordings; sheet music and manuscript music performed and collected by Mercer, music with correspondence attached from composers and lyricists requesting Mercer to include their works in her repertoire in addition to honors, awards, programs, scrapbooks and posters.

Subjects

• African American women entertainers
• African American women singers
• Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984
• Sheet music
• Scrapbooks
• Pharr, Kelsey, 1917-1961
• African Americans in the performing arts
• Posters
• Singers

Genre/Form

• Posters.
• Scrapbooks.
• Sheet music.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Recordings and films transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.
• Material transferred to Art and Artifacts Division.

Source (note)

• Mabel Mercer Estate

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.

Call Number

Sc MG 341

OCLC

NYPW94-A174

Author

Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984.

Title

Mabel Mercer papers, 1900-1984.

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 341