Sophie Tucker: First of the Red Hot Yiddishe Mamas

("Red Hot" Sophie Tucker in 1917)

When Jack Yellen wrote the lyrics to My Yiddishe Momme, he  was caught in the cross-currents of the old and the new.  “Old” were the memories of his own formative years back in Poland, memories warmed by the love of a Yiddishe mother.  “New” was the stardom of Sophie Tucker, the singer whose stage persona might have made Yellen’s actual Yiddishe Momme cringe.

Yellen’s song lyrics (also recorded by Connie Francis, Neil Sedaka, Jackie Wilson, and the London Festival Orchestra) include descriptions such as these:  There sat the sweetest angel…  I’d like to kiss that wrinkled brow…  She never cared for fashion’s styles…  So old and gray…  How few were her pleasures…  These images were not exactly in sync with Tucker’s own “Red Hot Mama” one.

Although Tucker was also born in the “old country” (in her case, the Ukraine), her family was anxious to adapt to their new American homeland.  They changed their surname from Kalish to Abuza, one of many image adjustments for young Sophie.  At 17, she married Louis Tuck (which is how she derived the name “Tucker”). The marriage (like her two later ones) did not last all that long, but produced a son named Bert.

Wikipedia reports that Tucker went on to play piano and sing “burlesque and vaudeville tunes.”  She became wildly popular, emphasis upon “wildly.”  This was partially due to her carefully-cultivated persona, which included the delivery of such hits as “You Can’t Deep Freeze a Red Hot Mama” and “He’s Tall Dark and Handsome.”  She was not particularly known for hanging out in the back rooms of three-story tenement flats, but was instead spotlighted in everything from radio to film to television.  

Nevertheless, when Tucker sang My Yiddishe Momme, people sat up a little straighter in their seats.  After all, actual Yiddishe Mommes would expect no less. 

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Yellen

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/myyiddishemomme.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Tucker

Copyright May 12, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved