Original photograph of Cora LaRedd performing at the Cotton Club, circa 1935

N.p. N.p., Circa 1935. Vintage matte-finish borderless photograph of African American musician Cora LaRedd performing at the Cotton Club, circa 1935. With the stamp of N.Y. Public Library Picture Collection to the bottom right corner and verso.

Manhattan-born LaRedd was billed as Harlem's "Terpsichorean riot" due to her proficiency as a jazz singer and tap dancer. She was best known for popularizing "Truckin," (stamped at the bottom margin of the photo), a swinging song accompanied by an exaggerated, shuffling dance move.

LaRedd was a frequent performer at the Cotton Club, a legendary Harlem nightclub active from 1923 to 1940. The club was a whites-only establishment with a high entry fee, with the exception of very famous (and very wealthy) African Americans, a fact which caused Langston Hughes to remark that the venue was "a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites." Nevertheless, the club provided a space to launch the careers of countless Black entertainers, including Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Bill Robinson, among many, many others.

8 x 10.75 inches, trimmed irregularly. Very Good plus, with faint soil to the bottom edge.

[Book #148713]