Nora Bayes

Bayes, Nora

Bayes, Nora [née Dora Goldberg?] (1880–1928), singer, songwriter. The earliest history of the famous vaudevillian is clouded by uncertainty about her real name and her birthplace, but it is known that she made her vaudeville debut in Chicago in 1899 and her Broadway stage bow two years later in The Rogers Brothers in Washington. In 1902 she popularized “Down Where the Wurzberger Flows,” and her career progressed slowly but steadily thereafter. Major recognition came in 1908 when she left Al Fields, her old partner and manager, to marry and team with Jack NORWORTH [né John Knauff] (1879–1959). He was born in Philadelphia and ran away from home to join a minstrel show, later switching to vaudeville. The couple's act had one of the most famous of all vaudeville billings:
NORA BAYES
Assisted and Admired by Jack Norworth.
The twosome appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908, where they introduced their “Shine On Harvest Moon”; The Jolly Bachelors, in which she introduced “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?”; Little Miss Fix‐It (1911), for which she wrote many of the songs; and Roly Poly (1912). Norworth's career waned after 1913 though he still worked in vaudeville and penned song lyrics, most memorably “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Bayes was featured in Maid in America (1915), The Cohan Revue (1917), Ladies First (1918), Her Family Tree (1920), Snapshots of 1921, and Queen o' Hearts (1922), but it was in vaudeville that she popularized such songs as “Over There,” “Just Like a Gypsy,” and “Japanese Sandman.” Douglas Gilbert has written of the tiny, big‐voiced performer, “Nora Bayes was the American Guilbert, mistress of gesture, poise, delivery and facial work. No one could outrival her in dramatizing a song.”

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bayes, Nora." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bayes, Nora." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-BayesNora.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bayes, Nora." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-BayesNora.html

Learn more about citation styles

Bayes, Nora

Bayes, Nora, see VAUDEVILLE, AMERICAN.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bayes, Nora." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bayes, Nora." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-BayesNora.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bayes, Nora." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-BayesNora.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

The odd origins of that seventh-inning symphony.(THE HOME FORUM)
Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor; 4/2/2004
Business: On with the show business; Irving Berlin's Showbusiness by David...
Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 1/14/2006
Commentary: Taking a look at the history of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 4/3/2002

Facts and information from other sites

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

See more pictures of Nora Bayes