Mazie King

File:Sweet heart, fond heart, true heart, darling Mazie (NYPL Hades-609576-1256612).jpg

Mazie King danced on Broadway in three shows: The Mimic World (1908),{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aU31ls6nUQC&q=Mazie+King&pg=PT352|title=Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution|last=Golden|first=Eve|date=2007-11-30|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813137605|language=en}} The Hen-Pecks (1911), and The Doll Girl (1913). She was also in The Rising Generation (1895), Hogan's Alley (1896), The Midnight Sons (1910),{{Cite journal|date=August 13, 1910|title=Lyric|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUgcAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Mazie+King%22+dancer&pg=PA1259|journal=The Reform Advocate|volume=39|pages=1259}} The Passing Show of 1913,{{Cite journal|date=April 18, 1914|title=Shubert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wERJAQAAMAAJ&q=Mazie+King&pg=PA80|journal=The Independent|volume=31|pages=8}} and Over the Top (1919).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVsKAgAAQBAJ&q=Mazie+King&pg=PA1028|title=Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows|last=Sampson|first=Henry T.|date=2013-10-30|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810883512|pages=1028|language=en}} Dances and songs were named for Mazie King; sheet music featured her likeness.George Linus Cobb, [http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/fa-spnc/id/32229 "The Mazie King Midnight Trot"] (Rossiter 1916). Sheet music online at Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music, Baylor University.

She was in a touring show called Painting the Town in 1907.{{Cite news|url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=RIA19071128.1.3|title=Charles H. Yale's Painting the Town|date=November 28, 1907|work=The Rock Island Argus|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=3|via=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections}} She toured in California as a dancer on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit in 1911, with her "artistic dance" titled "The Legend of the Spring".{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SU19111112.2.9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Notable Acts to be at Orpheum|date=November 12, 1911|work=Sacramento Union|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=3|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} Sometimes she danced with partners, including Tyler Brooke in Boston in 1915,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838734/mazie_king_1915/|title=Nat Wills Heads Bill at Keith's|date=August 24, 1915|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} and E. E. Marini in Delaware in 1917.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838274/mazie_king_1917/|title=Mazie King's Act Dancing Classic|date=April 18, 1917|work=The Morning News|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838837/mazie_king_1917/|title=Mazie King and 'Cranberries'|date=April 14, 1917|work=The Morning News|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}} She was touring again in 1919, with a program called "Dance Jingles".{{Cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUBPAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Mazie+King%22+dancer&pg=PA43|title=New Bill at the Orpheum|date=January 18, 1919|work=The Argonaut|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=43}} When she was starring in a vaudeville program in 1920, her partner was Harry Ormond.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838390/mazie_king_1920/|title=Mazie King Tops Big Holiday Vaudeville Program at Murray|date=November 21, 1920|work=The Richmond Item|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=18|via=Newspapers.com}}

King drew publicity for various unusual reasons. She was considered the first dancer to have her foot x-rayed en pointe, in 1898.Williams, Sarah Helen. [https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/thea_etds/8 "Noisy Feet: The Forgotten Click of American Toe-Tap, 1925 — 1935"] (M. A. thesis, University of New Mexico, 2012): 22-23.{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18980918.2.148.16&srpos=61&e=-------en--20--61--txt-txIN-%22Mazie+King%22-------1|title=X-Rays Turned on a Toe-Dancer's Foot|date=October 14, 1898|work=San Francisco Call|access-date=May 23, 2019|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} She was said to have her legs insured for $30,000 with Lloyd's of London.{{Cite journal|date=April 1, 1919|title=Vaudeville's Alphabet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9N1AAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Mazie+King%22+dancer&pg=PA152|journal=Western Magazine|volume=13|pages=152}} "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.{{Cite journal|date=April 23, 1900|title=Untitled brief item|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5EpCoIzl7_4C&q=%22Mazie+King%22+dancer&pg=RA4-PA39|journal=The Cast|volume=2|pages=39}}{{Cite journal|last=White|first=Stanley|date=1902|title=The Art and Agony of Toe-Dancing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnBEAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Mazie+King%22+dancer&pg=PA159|journal=The Royal Magazine|volume=8|pages=162}} In 1910, she posed for miniature portraits to show her "old-fashioned" and "beautifully moulded" shoulders.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838533/mazie_king_1910/|title=Dancer Poses for Miniatures|date=November 2, 1910|work=The St. Louis Star and Times|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=11|via=Newspapers.com}} She descended the stairs of New York's 45-story Metropolitan Life Building, en pointe, in 1911.{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19110603.2.127.2|title=A Dancer's Feat|date=June 3, 1911|work=Auckland Star|access-date=May 23, 2019|via=Papers Past}}{{Cite news|title=Walks on Toes from Tower|date=April 7, 1911|work=The New York Times|page=8|via=ProQuest}} In 1914, she repeated the feat at the Los Angeles Courthouse.{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19140506.2.5&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Mazie+King%22-------1|title=Dances on Toes Down Steps of Court House|date=May 6, 1914|work=Los Angeles Herald|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=1|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}

King took a break for a few seasons when she married late in 1920, but was back on the variety stage in 1923.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31839040/mazie_king_1923/|title=On View at Keith's|date=May 8, 1923|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}} 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".{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig11libr|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1928 Dramatic Compositions Motion Pictures For the Year 1928 Vol 1 Part 1|last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office.|date=1928|publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off.|others=United States Copyright Office|pages=[https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig11libr/page/218 218], 313|language=en}}

Mazie King married a fellow vaudeville performer, comedian John F. "Harry" Leonard. He died in 1908.{{Cite news|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=PT19080709.1.2|title=Harry Leonard, Comedian, Dies|date=July 9, 1908|work=Plymouth Tribune|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=2|via=Hoosier State Chronicles}} Her second husband was Floyd H. Nourse, a booking agent; they divorced in 1914.{{Cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/caliweekly24pill/page/n333?q=%22Mazie+King%22|title=Mazie King Gets Divorce|date=May 30, 1914|work=San Francisco Dramatic Review|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=13|via=Internet Archive}} She married a third time in 1920, to John G. Patton, a restaurateur in Philadelphia.{{Cite news|url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC19210105.2.49&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------|title=Mazie King Marries|date=January 5, 1921|work=New York Clipper|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=6|via=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31838782/mazie_king_1921/|title=Restaurateur's Bride Once Walked 2,000 Steps on Toes|date=January 6, 1921|work=Daily News|access-date=May 23, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IBDB name|id=387603}}
• [https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/sayre/id/4954/ A 1911 publicity photograph of Mazie King] from the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries.
• George Linus Cobb, [https://www.perfessorbill.com/covers/midtrot.htm "The Mazie King Midnight Trot"] (Rossiter 1916), a sound file.

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Category:American dancers

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:1888 births

Category:1968 deaths