Mazie King
Mazie King, from a 1916 publication.
Mazie King, from a 1916 publication.
BornJanuary 14, 1888
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 1968 (aged 80)
Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMazie Nourse
M. K. Patton
Occupation(s)Dancer, Singer
Years active1890s-1920s
Known forToe dancing stunts, Vaudeville, Broadway
Spouses
  • Harry Leonard (died 1908)
    Floyd Nourse (divorced 1914)
John Patton
​
(m. 1920)​

Mazie King (January 14, 1888 – November 1968)[1] was an American dancer, singer, and vaudeville performer.

Career

Sheet music for "Darling Mazie", featuring a photograph of Mazie King.
Sheet music for "Darling Mazie", featuring a photograph of Mazie King.

Mazie King danced on Broadway in three shows: The Mimic World (1908),[2] The Hen-Pecks (1911),[2] and The Doll Girl (1913). She was also in The Rising Generation (1895), Hogan's Alley (1896), The Midnight Sons (1910),[3] The Passing Show of 1913,[4] and Over the Top (1919).[5] Dances and songs were named for Mazie King; sheet music featured her likeness.[6]

She was in a touring show called Painting the Town in 1907.[7] She toured in California as a dancer on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit in 1911, with her "artistic dance" titled "The Legend of the Spring".[8] Sometimes she danced with partners, including Tyler Brooke in Boston in 1915,[9] and E. E. Marini in Delaware in 1917.[10][11] She was touring again in 1919, with a program called "Dance Jingles".[12] When she was starring in a vaudeville program in 1920, her partner was Harry Ormond.[13]

King drew publicity for various unusual reasons. She was considered the first dancer to have her foot x-rayed en pointe, in 1898.[14][15] She was said to have her legs insured for $30,000 with Lloyd's of London.[16] "Miss King is credited with being the only toe-dancer who has ever accomplished the feat of jumping from a table to the stage, alighting on her toes, and continuing her dance without intermission," noted one report in 1900.[17][18] In 1910, she posed for miniature portraits to show her "old-fashioned" and "beautifully moulded" shoulders.[19] She descended the stairs of New York's 45-story Metropolitan Life Building, en pointe, in 1911.[20][21] In 1914, she repeated the feat at the Los Angeles Courthouse.[22]

King took a break for a few seasons when she married late in 1920, but was back on the variety stage in 1923.[23] In 1928 she registered Safety First: A Nautical Farce and A Tale of the Sea: A Nautical Farce for copyrights, under the name "Mazie King Patton".[24]

Personal life

Mazie King married a fellow vaudeville performer, comedian John F. "Harry" Leonard. He died in 1908.[25] Her second husband was Floyd H. Nourse, a booking agent; they divorced in 1914.[26] She married a third time in 1920, to John G. Patton, a restaurateur in Philadelphia.[27][28]

References

  1. ↑ "Mazie King in Social Security Death Index".
  2. 1 2 Golden, Eve (2007-11-30). Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813137605.
  3. ↑ "Lyric". The Reform Advocate. 39: 1259. August 13, 1910.
  4. ↑ "Shubert". The Independent. 31: 8. April 18, 1914.
  5. ↑ Sampson, Henry T. (2013-10-30). Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press. p. 1028. ISBN 9780810883512.
  6. ↑ George Linus Cobb, "The Mazie King Midnight Trot" (Rossiter 1916). Sheet music online at Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music, Baylor University.
  7. ↑ "Charles H. Yale's Painting the Town". The Rock Island Argus. November 28, 1907. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  8. ↑ "Notable Acts to be at Orpheum". Sacramento Union. November 12, 1911. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  9. ↑ "Nat Wills Heads Bill at Keith's". The Boston Globe. August 24, 1915. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Mazie King's Act Dancing Classic". The Morning News. April 18, 1917. p. 12. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Mazie King and 'Cranberries'". The Morning News. April 14, 1917. p. 14. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "New Bill at the Orpheum". The Argonaut. January 18, 1919. p. 43. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Mazie King Tops Big Holiday Vaudeville Program at Murray". The Richmond Item. November 21, 1920. p. 18. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Williams, Sarah Helen. "Noisy Feet: The Forgotten Click of American Toe-Tap, 1925 — 1935" (M. A. thesis, University of New Mexico, 2012): 22-23.
  15. ↑ "X-Rays Turned on a Toe-Dancer's Foot". San Francisco Call. October 14, 1898. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  16. ↑ "Vaudeville's Alphabet". Western Magazine. 13: 152. April 1, 1919.
  17. ↑ "Untitled brief item". The Cast. 2: 39. April 23, 1900.
  18. ↑ White, Stanley (1902). "The Art and Agony of Toe-Dancing". The Royal Magazine. 8: 162.
  19. ↑ "Dancer Poses for Miniatures". The St. Louis Star and Times. November 2, 1910. p. 11. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "A Dancer's Feat". Auckland Star. June 3, 1911. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Papers Past.
  21. ↑ "Walks on Toes from Tower". The New York Times. April 7, 1911. p. 8 – via ProQuest.
  22. ↑ "Dances on Toes Down Steps of Court House". Los Angeles Herald. May 6, 1914. p. 1. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  23. ↑ "On View at Keith's". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 8, 1923. p. 10. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Library of Congress. Copyright Office. (1928). Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1928 Dramatic Compositions Motion Pictures For the Year 1928 Vol 1 Part 1. United States Copyright Office. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 218, 313.
  25. ↑ "Harry Leonard, Comedian, Dies". Plymouth Tribune. July 9, 1908. p. 2. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Hoosier State Chronicles.
  26. ↑ "Mazie King Gets Divorce". San Francisco Dramatic Review. May 30, 1914. p. 13. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ↑ "Mazie King Marries". New York Clipper. January 5, 1921. p. 6. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  28. ↑ "Restaurateur's Bride Once Walked 2,000 Steps on Toes". Daily News. January 6, 1921. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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