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I TOOK CALIFORNIA |
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bell would ring, I would have to go to my room so nobody could see me. He wouldn't let me walk in the hallways or make up the beds or wait on the customers. So we had to hire a chambermaid and a clerk. That didn't pay and we sold out.
Afterwards Jelly and his band played up and down the coast at dances and cabarets. I went on even7 job with him. He made me sit right by the piano and not move or tap my feet or nothing. And he wouldn't let me dance with anybody. I didn't want to dance, because I loved him very much. But Jelly was so jealous he wouldn*t have anybody around us, he wouldn't even ask a man up to dinner.
In my day I was a good ragtime singer and 1 was always wanting to sing with the band. One night, playing for Patty Sullivan's Club in Vancouver, the girl singer got sick and, before Jelly could stop me, i went up and started singing and dancing. Right there Jelly quit playing and, because he was the leader, the rest of the band stopped playing, too, but I kept straight on with my song. When I finished, there was stacks of money on the floor. Jelly was furious. He dragged me outside and made me swear never to sing or dance again, but don't think he hit me. Jelly was a perfect gentleman.
You married? I wonder if you can say the same thing, because there's very few that can.
Well, we had a misunderstanding and he left for Chicago in 1922. He told me, "Baby, I don't think I can live away from you. Fd want to die first/* He said he would send for me and I waited. Then he wrote to me that he had a thousand dollars and when he got two, he'd send for me. Then he got sick. He never did send. He went and took up with another woman. But I was the only woman he ever loved. |
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