Bessie Smith Documentary - Mini Bio

This Bessie Smith documentary produced by The Biography Channel (Bio.) offers a short overview of Bessie's life and death. It touches on her early days with Ma Rainey to traveling the country during segregation and eventually being discovered by Columbia Records. Related Article: Bessie: History vs. Hollywood











Related Videos (2)
WATCH
 Bessie Smith Movie St. Louis Blues (1929)

Watch Bessie Smith in her only movie appearance, the 1929 short film St. Louis Blues. In one of the first talkies ever made, Bessie catches her two-timing boyfriend, Jimmy, fooling around with a younger woman. To ease her pain, she sings the blues.

WATCH
 Bessie HBO Movie Trailer

Queen Latifah portrays legendary blues singer Bessie Smith, who rose to fame in the 1920s and earned the nickname "The Empress of the Blues." A pioneer of the Jazz Age, Smith was also a bisexual.




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