Bessie Smith was influenced by Ma Rainey and eventually auditioned for the show but was hired as a “chorine,” or a chorus girl, because the show already had its blues singer in Ma Rainey. New Orleans ...

When the blues craze first swept the nation in the early 1920s, it was powered by a bevy of bodacious women, such as vocalists Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie (who was also a ...