Lottie Gee

Lottie Gee (née Charlotte O. Gee; 17 August 1886 Millboro, Virginia – 13 January 1973 Los Angeles) was an American entertainer who performed in shows and musicals during the Harlem Renaissance. She is perhaps best known as a performer in the 1921 Broadway hit, Shuffle Along, the show that launched the careers of Josephine Baker and Florence Mills.

Biography

Lottie Gee was born in Millboro, Virginia, United States. Initially a dancer in Aida Overton Walker's shows, she appeared in The Red Moon by Aida Overton Walker in 1904 and later toured the vaudeville circuit in multiple acts.

In 1910, composer Ford Dabney (1883–1958) formed several touring vaudeville groups, among which, he and violinist Willie Carroll (né William Thomas Carroll; 1881–1943) conceived and produced Dabney's Ginger Girls, a duet composed of Gee, as dancer and soprano, and Effie King, as dancer and contralto. The partnership first performed at Dabney's Theater in Washington, D.C., before touring.[1] Effie King was the stage name of Anna Green (maiden; 1888–1944), who in 1907, married actor Frank Henry Wilson (1885–1956).

Gee sang the song "I'm Just Wild About Harry" in the musical Shuffle Along in 1921. Gee appeared in The Chocolate Dandies (1924).[2] In 1925, she was a featured performer with Chocolate Kiddies on its European tour.

Gee and Edith Spencer became partners as Harlem’s Sweethearts in 1928. Later, Allegretti Anderson (1898–1944)[Note 1] joined the group and they became a trio billed as Harmony Trio, the Creole Beauties, and the Three Dark Sisters.[3] In 1927, Gee was an honorary pallbearer in the funeral of Florence Mills.[2]

Gee was a longtime girlfriend of the composer Eubie Blake (1887–1983).[4]

Gee was grandaunt to Grammy, Tony-award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Marriages

Lottie Gee married at least twice:

  • From 1913 to 1924, she was married to pianist "Peaches" Kyer (né Wilson Harrison Kyer; 1888–1982).[5][6]
  • On October 7, 1967, in Los Angeles, she married Joseph B. Moy (1887–1986)

Posthumous

Audra McDonald portrayed Lottie Gee in Shuffle Along, Or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed in 2016.[7]

Notes and references

Notes
  1. Allegretta Anderson (née Alegretta Summers; 1898–1944) was a Chicago-born actress who – on May 29, 1916, in Chicago – married Julian Kirby Anderson (1895–1954). She later was married to Agaton H. Magboo. She acted in the 1930 film, Georgia Rose.

References
  1. "Theatrical Comment" (re: "Effie–King & Gee–Lottie in Vaudeville") (photo), New York Age, June 12, 1913, p. 6 Newspapers.com; subscription required)
  2. Bracks, Lean'tin L.; Smith, Jessie Carney (2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-8108-8542-4.
  3. Edith Spencer scrapbook, 1916–1946, at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the New York Public Library; OCLC 122517139
  4. Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919, by Tim Brooks, Richard Keith Spottswood, University of Illinois Press (2004; paperback 2005); p. 396
    OCLC 909117556; ISBN 0-252-07307-X; ISBN 0-252-02850-3; ISBN 978-0-2520-7307-6
  5. An Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz and Blues Musicians (re: "William Harrison 'Peaches' Kyer"), by Benjamin Franklin, University of South Carolina Press (2016); OCLC 1023325702
  6. "Gee, Charlotte "Lottie," Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, University of Kentucky (no date) (retrieved May 17, 2020)
    Article sources:
    1. Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern (re: "Lottie Gee"), by Jayna Brown, Duke University Press (2008), pps. 198, 202, 204, 238–239; OCLC 1153028056; ISBN 978-0-8223-4133-8, ISBN 978-0-8223-4157-4
    3. Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen, by Bill Egan, Scarecrow Press (2004); OCLC 1034671898 (borrowable online via Internet Archive)
  7. Dziemianowicz, Joe (March 12, 2016). "Audra McDonald Brings Life to Jazz Age Production Shuffle Along While Peeking Behind the Curtain of 1921 Groundbreaking Broadway Blockbuster" (online). New York Daily News. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
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