Belle Baker

Belle Baker was an American singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irving Berlins Blue Skies and My Yiddishe Mama. She performed in the Ziegfeld Follies and introduced a number of Irving Berlins songs. An early adapter to radio, Baker hosted her own radio show during the 1930s. Eddie Cantor called her Dinah Shore, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland all rolled into one.

Baker was born Bella Becker in 1893 to a Russian Jewish family. Baker started performing at the Lower East Sides Cannon Street Music Hall at age 11, where she was discovered by the Yiddish Theatre manager Jacob Adler. She was managed in vaudeville by Lew Leslie, who would become Bakers first husband. She made her vaudeville debut in Scranton, Pennsylvania at the age of 15. She performed in Oscar Hammerstein Is Victoria Theatre in 1911, although her performance was panned, mainly for her song choices. By age 17, she was a headliner. One of her earliest hits was, Cohen Owes Me 97.

Source: Wikipedia