Mabel mercer both sides now

Mercer, Mabel (1900–1983)

British-American nightclub singer.Born in 1900 (some sources cite 1890) in Staffordshire, England; died in 1983.

Moved to Paris (c. 1931); moved to New York City (1941); appeared at Le Ruban Bleu nightclub, New York City (1938, 1941); appeared at other Manhattan nightclubs, including Tony's (1942–49) and the Byline Room (1949–57); continued performing until late in life.

Selected albums:

(Atl 1213) Mabel Mercer Sings Cole Porter; (Atl 1244) Midnight at Mabel Mercer's; (Atl 1301) Once in a Blue Moon; (Atl 1322) Merely Marvelous; (Atl 2–602) The Art of Mabel Mercer; (Atl S–604) Mabel Mercer at Town Hall; (Atl 402) Songs by Mabel Mercer; (De DL–4472) Mabel Mercer Sings.

New York nightclub singer and recording artist Mabel Mercer influenced a generation of performers and became indelibly associated with the vocal style known as parlando, a method of half-singing, half-speaking that emphasizes the emotional content in a song's lyrics. Born in Staffordshire, England, in 1900 to an African-American musician father and a white Englis

Mabel Mercer: the eighth wonder of the world


In this open-access article supporting Black History Month, Stephen Bourne explores the early life of Mabel Mercer, a Black British singer who became the toast of the USA. Stephen Bourne is an historian of Black Britain. His best-known book is Black Poppies – Britain’s Black Community and the Great War (The History Press, 2019)

As an adopted American, Mabel may have been one of the most influential singers of the twentieth century and a recipient of America’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, but she was born in Burton upon Trent, on 3 February 1900. Mabel has been the subject of two autobiographies by Americans, but her biographers only partially succeed in documenting Mabel’s early life and career in British music halls before the United States became her permanent home in 1941. In this article, I will attempt to fill in a few more gaps in Mabel’s early life... 

Mabel Mercer collection

1941-1984

Creator
Mercer, Mabel, 1900-1984
Call number
Sc MG 536
Physical description
0.33 linear feet (2 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Mabel Mercer collection, Sc MG 536, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

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 19

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