Sophie Tucker

The last of the Red Hot Mamas, the great Sophie Tucker is seen here on her final network television appearance originally broadcast in Oct. 1965 in color. Soph lived until February of the next year. Top-billed in that forgotten and under-appreciate area of show business: vaudeville, Sophie appeared in nightclubs until the very end. By this time, her voice was not what it used to be, t so she talk/sung her songs, but her showmanship was unsurpassed. Among others, Bette Midler acknowledges Sophie's influence on her style. There will never be another Sophie Tucker: big, brassy, bawdy but always a lady.