BEA FOOTE (1)
In the 1900 Census Beatrice Harrison, born September 3 1896 (2), was enumerated in Wilmington NC along with her grandmother Missouri Stokes and her mother Etta Pugh and other family members. In 1910, still in Wilmington, the head of the household was Etta’s sister, Willie Stokes and the rest of the household consisted of Missouri Stokes, Etha (sic) Pugh, Battrice (sic) Pugh (now aged 12) and Thos Pugh, brother-in-law and presumably Etta’s husband. Etta was already married in 1900, presumably to Thomas Pugh since she was calling herself Etta Pugh. One can only surmise that Beatrice was the product of a relationship with a man called Harrison prior to her mother’s marriage to Pugh. By 1910 she had taken her step-father’s surname. By 1920 Etta had become Etta Jenkins, a widow and a lodging house keeper in Norfolk VA; her household consisted of Beatrice Foote, aged 22 (in the 1930 Census she said that her age at her first marriage was 17), Vivian and May Belle Pugh and George Jenkins. George was almost three and May Belle eight, so presumably Thomas Pugh had died/departed in or after 1912 and Mr. Jenkins had appeared on the scene no later than 1917 and died before the census was taken. In all three censuses Beatrice's birthplace is given as South Carolina.
What is perhaps of more interest is the fact that in 1920 Beatrice was described as “Singer Cabaret.” By 1925 she had moved to the New York area and she was working as a dancer in Asbury Park NJ (3) when she was selected to join the company led by Josephine Baker and Claude Hopkins in what was to become La Revue Négre. The troupe sailed to France on the SS Berengaria on September 16 1925 and Beatrice arrived back in the States on March 20 1926 on board the SS De Grasse. The ship’s manifest describes her as single and gives her birthplace as Sarbora (sic) NC. In April-May 1927 she was a dancer in a show called “Alabama Darktown Follies” which appeared at Waldron’s Casino in Boston in the week beginning April 11 and at Miner’s Empire Theatre in the week beginning May 30. The show featured Irvin C. Miller and Billy Cumby, the Taskiana Four and Victor recording artist, Elizabeth Smith, among others. In November 1927 she was at the Lincoln Theatre in New York in “Blue Baby,” another Irvin C. Miller production, and in February of the following year she was back at the Lincoln in “Headin’ For Harlem,” produced by Addison Carey.
She was reported to be in Small’s Paradise in October 1929 by The Pittsburgh Courier, and The Plaindealer in 1939 said she had been “at Small’s many years” - this shouldn’t perhaps be taken literally but does seem to indicate a reasonably long run. In the 1930 Census she was living in Manhattan, giving her birthplace as North Carolina and describing herself as “Artist, Night club.”
January 1932 found her at the Club Prudhom in Washington DC; she and Blondina Stern were responsible for staging the floor show and the band was led by Elmer Calloway; an expanded version of the show was also presented at the Gayety Theatre in March. The show was broadcast twice a week on WJSV. In April of the same year she was refused entry into Canada. In early April 1933 she was back at Club Prudhom and later in the month “those two singing stars, formerly of the Club Prudhom,” were one of the support acts for the appearance of Claude Hopkins and his Roseland Ballroom Orchestra at the Howard in Washington. 1934 is a blank but in July 1935 she was a member of Billy Maple’s “Dixie to B’Way” troupe which appeared at the University Grill in Albany NY. April 1937 saw her back in Washington DC, working at the Club Crystal Caverns, and in 1938 she made her only recordings with sessions for Decca in April and September which resulted in three singles (4).
In December 1939 The Plaindealer reported that “Bea Foote, one of Harlem’s best known singers . . . is now on Sugar Hill in Phil Scott’s Revue,” and in March 1941 the same paper advised its readers “not to miss the clever, droll satirical impressions by Bea Foote at Cedar Gardens [in Cleveland].” This seems to have been quite a lengthy engagement since in its issue of March 10 1942 The Plaindealer, under the headline “Singer Doubles at Roxy,” reported that “Bea Foote, who has been the song queen of Cedar Gardens, extends her talents to the burlesque field by becoming the vocal hit of the Roxy’s new revue. She offers several well done numbers, including an impersonation of Ethel Waters doing “St. Louis Blues.” The dusky songstress also goes into a jive dance, that will make her thinner by several pound before the week is over.” She was back at the Roxy in May 1943 in a revue called “Whoopee Belles" - “Bea Foote, a songstress favorably known in Harlem night spots, jives and jitters ecstatically.” At the end of the year The Pittsburgh Courier carried a report that “Charley Marano presented Joe Shoftall and his Modernistic Sepia Revue with the Four Musketeers, Bea Footes, Lorain Brown, Herbert Brown and a chorus of eight dancing girls. They opened at the Park Theater, Reading, Pa., Saturday, and are doubling at the Coconut Grove Night Club, with Fletcher Henderson.” The latest appearance I have found came in October 1945 when “Bea Foote’s Black and Tan Revue” was appearing at the Cedar Gardens.
After that silence reigns.
(1) The spadework of Bea Foote's biography was done by Benjamin Franklin V whose account on pp. 80-1 of An Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz & Blues Musicians (2016) is the only serious attempt. I have added a few extra bits of information and some illustrations but this should be seen as a mere pendant to Franklin's work.
(2) The Census only gives month and year; the precise date comes from the ship's manifest mentioned below which presumably reflects what her passport said.
(3) Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase, Josephine: The Hungry Heart (1993) p. 94.
(4) One other song, "Weeds," unissued at the time, has appeared on various LPs and CDs.