Cora Green

Cora Green began performing at the age of 14. She never had any formal training, but her natural contralto voice made her an immediate success. She teamed with blackface comedian William Pugh for several successful engagements, and while appearing at the notorious Panama Club in Chicago, joined Florence Mills and Ada Smith (aka Bricktop) to form the Panama Trio. They were a big hit and toured the Pantages Circuit, with Carolyn Williams replacing Bricktop. Green later created a vaudeville act with comic Hamtree Harrington, with whom she starred in the 1921 revue in "Put and Take," and on Broadway in "Strut Miss Lizzie" in 1922 and "Dixie to Broadway" in 1924. They also recorded for Brunswick Records and played the Palace Theater in 1927. She headlined the 1929 revue "Ebony Showboat" and filmed a Vitaphone short, "Cora Green--the Famous Creole Singer," performing "I'll Tell the World," "Trav'lin' All Alone" and "Brother-in-Law Dan". The film is considered lost, but the soundtrack disc still survives. For five years, she was the sensation of Broadway and Europe and appeared with Fletcher Henderson's orchestra at Loew's State Theater in 1931. She had sole star billing in Oscar Micheaux's 1938 all-black film "Swing!," in which she sang "Heaven Help This Heart of Mine" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon." She also starred in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1938 black film "Moon Over Harlem" and in the 1939 stage musical "Policy Kings" at the Nora Bayes Theatre in New York. Not much is known about her later years or when she passed away.