There were dozens of blues singers playing black vaudeville in the 1910s and 1920s, and Trixie Smith was of the more famous. As vaudeville declined in the late 1920s and the rage for blues queens has yielded to the public’s newly acquired taste for radio crooners and “girl singers,” Trixie segued into acting roles. Yet despite a successful career, it does not appear that there are any surviving photographs of Trixie and only a few of her recordings have been re-released within compilation albums and CDs.
