"Whispering" Jack Smith
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Jack Smith (31 May 1898 in New York City - 13 May 1950 in New York City) was known as “Whispering” Jack Smith and was a popular baritone singer in the 1920s and 1930s who made a brief come-back in the late 1940s. He was a popular radio and recording artist who occasionally appeared in films.
Smith was born John Schmidt. He died of a heart attack at the age of 51 and is buried next to his mother Anna Schmidt at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. His grave is unmarked.
He had a very distinctive style which was a combination of singing and talking in a very “intimate” way using the microphone very effectively as opposed to “belting” the song out. His “whispering” style of singing was a result of a World War I injury from poison gas that kept him from singing at full volume. He was a pianist at a radio station when he got his singing break substituting for a singer who failed to show up. He made the “whispering” style popular, and there were a number of imitators. Smith took to the relatively newly invented microphone, and it was singers like “Whispering” Jack Smith and the early “crooners” who developed the use of this “modern” technology.
At first Smith was exclusively on the radio, but beginning in 1925, he began making records. He also started performing on-stage on the vaudeville circuit. In 1927, Jack Smith was touring England, performing with the Blue Skies Theater Company singing tunes such as “Manhattan” by Rogers and Hart and songs by Gershwin, when he was suddenly replaced by a new all girl singing trio, the Hamilton Sisters & Fordyce.
Smith was born John Schmidt. He died of a heart attack at the age of 51 and is buried next to his mother Anna Schmidt at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. His grave is unmarked.
He had a very distinctive style which was a combination of singing and talking in a very “intimate” way using the microphone very effectively as opposed to “belting” the song out. His “whispering” style of singing was a result of a World War I injury from poison gas that kept him from singing at full volume. He was a pianist at a radio station when he got his singing break substituting for a singer who failed to show up. He made the “whispering” style popular, and there were a number of imitators. Smith took to the relatively newly invented microphone, and it was singers like “Whispering” Jack Smith and the early “crooners” who developed the use of this “modern” technology.
At first Smith was exclusively on the radio, but beginning in 1925, he began making records. He also started performing on-stage on the vaudeville circuit. In 1927, Jack Smith was touring England, performing with the Blue Skies Theater Company singing tunes such as “Manhattan” by Rogers and Hart and songs by Gershwin, when he was suddenly replaced by a new all girl singing trio, the Hamilton Sisters & Fordyce.
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