Mazie King

Mazie King (January 14, 1888 – November 1968)[1] was an American dancer, singer, and vaudeville performer.

Mazie King
Mazie King, from a 1916 publication.
Mazie King, from a 1916 publication.
BornJanuary 14, 1888
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 1968 (aged 80)
Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMazie Nourse
M. K. Patton
Occupation(s)Dancer, Singer
Years active1890s-1920s
Known forToe dancing stunts, Vaudeville, Broadway
Spouse(s)Harry Leonard (died 1908)
Floyd Nourse (divorced 1914)
John Patton
​
(m. 1920)​

Career
Sheet music for "Darling Mazie", featuring a photograph of Mazie King.
Sheet music for "Darling Mazie", featuring a photograph of Mazie King.

Mazie King danced on Broadway in three shows: The Mimic World (1908),[2] The Hen-Pecks (1911),[2] and The Doll Girl (1913). She was also in The Rising Generation (1895), Hogan's Alley (1896), The Midnight Sons (1910),[3] The Passing Show of 1913,[4] and Over the Top (1919).[5] Dances and songs were named for Mazie King; sheet music featured her likeness.[6]

She was in a touring show called Painting the Town in 1907.[7] She toured in California as a dancer on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit in 1911, with her "artistic dance" titled "The Legend of the Spring".[8] Sometimes she danced with partners, including Tyler Brooke in Boston in 1915,[9] and E. E. Marini in Delaware in 1917.[10][11] She was touring again in 1919, with a program called "Dance Jingles".[12] When she was starring in a vaudeville program in 1920, her partner was Harry Ormond.[13]

King drew publicity for various unusual reasons. She was considered the first dancer to have her foot x-rayed en pointe, in 1898.[14][15] She was said to have her legs insured for $30,000 with Lloyd's of London.[16] "Miss King is credited with being the only toe-dancer who has ever accomplished the feat of jumping from a table to the stage, alighting on her toes, and continuing her dance without intermission," noted one report in 1900.[17][18] In 1910, she posed for miniature portraits to show her "old-fashioned" and "beautifully moulded" shoulders.[19] She descended the stairs of New York's 45-story Metropolitan Life Building, en pointe, in 1911.[20][21] In 1914, she repeated the feat at the Los Angeles Courthouse.[22]

King took a break for a few seasons when she married late in 1920, but was back on the variety stage in 1923.[23] In 1928 she registered Safety First: A Nautical Farce and A Tale of the Sea: A Nautical Farce for copyrights, under the name "Mazie King Patton".[24]

Personal life

Mazie King married a fellow vaudeville performer, comedian John F. "Harry" Leonard. He died in 1908.[25] Her second husband was Floyd H. Nourse, a booking agent; they divorced in 1914.[26] She married a third time in 1920, to John G. Patton, a restaurateur in Philadelphia.[27][28]

References
  1. "Mazie King in Social Security Death Index".
  2. Golden, Eve (2007-11-30). Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813137605.
  3. "Lyric". The Reform Advocate. 39: 1259. August 13, 1910.
  4. "Shubert". The Independent. 31: 8. April 18, 1914.
  5. Sampson, Henry T. (2013-10-30). Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press. p. 1028. ISBN 9780810883512.
  6. George Linus Cobb, "The Mazie King Midnight Trot" (Rossiter 1916). Sheet music online at Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music, Baylor University.
  7. "Charles H. Yale's Painting the Town". The Rock Island Argus. November 28, 1907. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  8. "Notable Acts to be at Orpheum". Sacramento Union. November 12, 1911. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  9. "Nat Wills Heads Bill at Keith's". The Boston Globe. August 24, 1915. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Mazie King's Act Dancing Classic". The Morning News. April 18, 1917. p. 12. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Mazie King and 'Cranberries'". The Morning News. April 14, 1917. p. 14. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "New Bill at the Orpheum". The Argonaut. January 18, 1919. p. 43. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  13. "Mazie King Tops Big Holiday Vaudeville Program at Murray". The Richmond Item. November 21, 1920. p. 18. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Williams, Sarah Helen. "Noisy Feet: The Forgotten Click of American Toe-Tap, 1925 — 1935" (M. A. thesis, University of New Mexico, 2012): 22-23.
  15. "X-Rays Turned on a Toe-Dancer's Foot". San Francisco Call. October 14, 1898. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  16. "Vaudeville's Alphabet". Western Magazine. 13: 152. April 1, 1919.
  17. "Untitled brief item". The Cast. 2: 39. April 23, 1900.
  18. White, Stanley (1902). "The Art and Agony of Toe-Dancing". The Royal Magazine. 8: 162.
  19. "Dancer Poses for Miniatures". The St. Louis Star and Times. November 2, 1910. p. 11. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "A Dancer's Feat". Auckland Star. June 3, 1911. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Papers Past.
  21. "Walks on Toes from Tower". The New York Times. April 7, 1911. p. 8 – via ProQuest.
  22. "Dances on Toes Down Steps of Court House". Los Angeles Herald. May 6, 1914. p. 1. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  23. "On View at Keith's". The Phliadelphia Inquirer. May 8, 1923. p. 10. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Library of Congress. Copyright Office. (1928). Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1928 Dramatic Compositions Motion Pictures For the Year 1928 Vol 1 Part 1. United States Copyright Office. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 218, 313.
  25. "Harry Leonard, Comedian, Dies". Plymouth Tribune. July 9, 1908. p. 2. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Hoosier State Chronicles.
  26. "Mazie King Gets Divorce". San Francisco Dramatic Review. May 30, 1914. p. 13. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  27. "Mazie King Marries". New York Clipper. January 5, 1921. p. 6. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  28. "Restaurateur's Bride Once Walked 2,000 Steps on Toes". Daily News. January 6, 1921. p. 3. Retrieved May 23, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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