Stars of Vaudeville #429: Mae Barnes
Mae Barnes (born on this day in 1907, according to some sources) was a popular singer and dancer who got her start at age 12 in the chorus of Harlem’s Plantation Club. After five years of working the TOBA circuit (black vaudeville), she was cast in the show Running Wild (1924), which introduced the world to the Charleston. Her performance in a touring production of Shuffle Along prompted Bill Robinson to call her “the greatest living female tap dancer”. She was also often billed as the “Bronze Ann Pennington“. Sadly, injuries from a car accident forced her to cut the dancing portion of her career short in 1938. Thereafter, she was a familiar sight in New York night clubs, often singing funny and risque songs. She passed away in 1997.
Now here she is, singing the racially-charged “I Ain’t Gonna Be No Topsy”
To find out more about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
