| Birth Date: | September 11, 1894 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, IL |
| Death Date: | December 22, 1967 (aged 73) |
| Death Place: | Manhattan, NY, U.S. |
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Bee Palmer (born Beatrice Charlotta Palmer) was an American singer, dancer, and showgirl who achieved fame during the Jazz Age as the "Shimmy Queen."
Bee Palmer was born in Chicago, IL, to Charley A. Palmer and his wife, Anna (Larson) Palmer. She reportedly began performing before World War I "around the cafes of South Chicago where she would sit at tables and croon to guests" for small sums.[1] She also danced professionally and is said to have dubbed herself the “Shimmie Queen” by 1914.[2]
Palmer first attracted significant attention as a "Western girl" performing in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918. She got a good review for singing I Want to Learn to Jazz Dance.[3] She also won acclaim for her role in the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic of 1918. Described as "a blonde with trained shoulders who can sing rag and act jazz," she sang Let me Shimmy and be Satisfied. Another reviewer was less impressed with the same show, stating that Palmer "did the vulgar shimmy in a tightly fitting cerise dress trimmed merely with a cord at the waistline."[4]
Palmer was widely credited as the inventor of shimmy, although other white dancers, including Gilda Gray and Mae West, also claimed to have originated the act. Despite these assertions, the dance's origins remain contested, although it almost certainly had African American roots. Palmer herself was said to call the shimmy an African American “folk dance.”[5]
Palmer reaped fame when the shimmy became a craze personifying the "madcap exuberance and permissive morals of the Jazz Age." The dance inspired several popular songs, including Shimmee Town (performed in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919), Shim-Me-King’s Blues (recorded by Mamie Smith in 1921), I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, and Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble (1923).[6]
Such was Palmer's shimmy fame--or, to some, infamy--that she became one of the people who personified the Roaring Twenties. One writer described her as:
Palmer began touring in 1921 with a revue called Oh Bee! The band was called Bee Palmer's New Orleans Rhythm Kings and included such notables as Emmett Hardy, Leon Ropollo, and Santo Pecora in addition to pianist/songwriter Al Siegel. However, the act received criticism due to the perception that the shimmy was immoral. With guardians of public morals speaking out against the shimmy and other “modern dances,” at least one theatre is said to have canceled the show.[7]
Palmer continued to appear on Broadway throughout the 1920s. She starred in the Passing Show of 1924 at the Winter Garden and performed with Paul Whiteman at Carnegie Hall in 1928. By the mid-1930s, Palmer had faded from public attention.
Palmer recorded several early jazz songs.
In 1930, Palmer co-wrote the song Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone with Sidney Clare and Sam H. Stept.[9] Many famous singers later covered the tune, including Frank Sinatra, Ethel Waters, and Willie Nelson.
Palmer married and divorced at least twice: Albert Siegel (married 1921, div. 1928) and Sol "Sonny" Taubin (married 1942. div. ca. 1951). Palmer told the press in 1933 that she had married pianist Jack Fina, but Fina denied the report, calling it "embarrassing."[10]
In 1921, Palmer's then-husband, Al Siegel, filed a lawsuit against boxing champion Jack Dempsey for "alienation of his wife's affection." Palmer denied any indiscretion, saying "Al Siegel is a cheap piano player whom I picked out of the gutter and married." Dempsey also denied an affair, claiming the suit was "the scheme of two cheap vaudeville performers for publicity."[11]
Little is known about Palmer's later years. She died on December 22, 1967, in New York City and was buried in Cedar Park Cemetery, Calumet Township, IL.[12]