I believe you have a couple of errors in your bio of Belle Baker. According to reliable biographies and articles I have read, she certainly introduced "Blue Skies" (in "Betsy"),"All Of Me" and "Cohen Owes Me $97". However it was Emma Carus who introduced "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in a vaudeville house in Chicago shortly after Irving Berlin wrote it in 1911. Berlin and Harry Williams sang it just after that it the Friars Frolic in New York...so either could be credited with the song's introduction to the public. No doubt Belle sang it in her vaudeville act and would likely have been largely responsible for making it such an enormous hit, although many other performers would have eagerly sung the greatest hit song of the era. I'm not positive about "International Rag" (correct title is "THAT International Rag"). I have read that it was introduced by Sophie Tucker at the Palace Theatre (I also have a recording by Tucker and Jolson but that is not proof of the claim of introducing the song. With regard to your statement that she "appeared in several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies"...I think this is just plain factually incorrect. This error has also found it's way into Wikipedia and other online sources. Allan Price
I believe you have a couple of errors in your bio of Belle Baker. According to reliable biographies and articles I have read, she certainly introduced "Blue Skies" (in "Betsy"),"All Of Me" and "Cohen Owes Me $97". However it was Emma Carus who introduced "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in a vaudeville house in Chicago shortly after Irving Berlin wrote it in 1911. Berlin and Harry Williams sang it just after that it the Friars Frolic in New York...so either could be credited with the song's introduction to the public. No doubt Belle sang it in her vaudeville act and would likely have been largely responsible for making it such an enormous hit, although many other performers would have eagerly sung the greatest hit song of the era. I'm not positive about "International Rag" (correct title is "THAT International Rag"). I have read that it was introduced by Sophie Tucker at the Palace Theatre (I also have a recording by Tucker and Jolson but that is not proof of the claim of introducing the song. With regard to your statement that she "appeared in several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies"...I think this is just plain factually incorrect. This error has also found it's way into Wikipedia and other online sources. Allan Price