Who was Monette Moore? 1902-1962

Other than being the host at Monettes on w.133rd Street where a young Billie Holiday wowed John Hammond what else did she do? That ran thru my mind for years! How awful to have your own sucessses overshadowed by someone elses. So I had to do a little digging!

Monette Moore was never a star but she led a rich and varied life in show business. She began her career accompanying silent films in Kansas City and then toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist and singer. In the early 1920s she made her way to New York and became active in musical theater. Her recording career began in 1923. Many of her early records were released under the pseudonym of Susie Smith. In 1925, Monette was in the cast of the musical revue "Lucky Sambo". She sang with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra at Small's Paradise Club (229 1/2 7th Avenue at 135th Street) and Connie's Inn (2221 Seventh Avenue at 131st Street) in New York and made some wonderful recordings with the band in 1925. In 1927 and 1928 she was singing with Walter Page's Blue Devils in the mid-West. She returned to New York in 1929 and was very active in musical theater and cabaret work until the late 1930s. In the early 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles and performed in clubs, recorded with Teddy Bunn and the Harmony Girls and had small parts in a couple of films. From 1951 to 1953 she appeared on the Amos 'n Andy television program and recorded with George Lewis. In 1960, she began performing with the Young Men of Dixieland at Disneyland and appeared in the Disney television programs "The Wonderful World of Color" and "Disneyland After Dark".