What happened to Gonzell White?
Here’s an advertisement from Omaha’s Monitor newspaper from November 1922 showcasing Gonzell White’s “ten jazzers” and their upcoming week long stint at the downtown Gayety theater. They were accompanied by the Jimmie Cooper Beauty Revue. Gonzell White seems a forgotten and mysterious figure in the development of American 20th century music blurring faux minstrelsy, vaudeville, burlesque, and entertainment. The newspaper advertisement promoted “Gonzell White and Her Brown Skins” but only named saxophonist Ed Langford and Harry Smith, “the laughing cornetist with the crazy feet.”
Gonzell White was born in Chicago in 1897 and was first mentioned as a blues singer in 1914. She married her manager in Kansas in 1920. The wikipedia page calls him Ed Lankford but I bet it might also have been spelled Langford. What do you think? After Lankford or Langford died on tour in 1926, Gonzell White seemed to vanish from the public record. Her wikipedia page doesn’t even give a date of death.
The last reference to Gonzelle White that I can find at Newspapers.com is from the Lawton Constitution in Lawton, Oklahoma. She played the Orpheum Theater (probably on the Orpheum Circuit) on May 4 and 5, 1932 "with her red hot jazz band and brown skin chorus."
The January 1, 1927 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier (page 15) has a picture of Gonzelle and reports that her husband died in Indianapolis on December 16, 1926.
Gonzelle White played the Berchel Theater in Des Moines, Iowa for two nights, September 14 and 15, 1924. The show was called "Runnin' Wild" with Billy Foster, John O. Grant, Sam Micals, Babe Healy and "GONZELLE WHITE and her Celebrated Jazz Band." Both dates offered matinee and evening shows. Ticket Prices: Matinee -- 25 to 75 cents; Evening 25 cents to $1.00. The Berchel opened in 1911 and seated about 1,200.