Harlem Wisdom in a Wild Woman's Blues: The Cool Intellect of Ida Cox‪.‬

There is a story circulating about Ida Cox that addresses Ms. Cox's 1934 billing as "The Sepia Mae West" at the newly re-opened Apollo. This story, which may very possibly be apocryphal, explains why this title might have gone deeper than a marketing ploy exploiting the white singer's significant celebrity at the time. It seems that, rather than Ida Cox being a "Sepia Mae West" it was actually the other way around: Mae West was a pale imitation of Ida Cox, because Ida had taught her those dangerous and sexy moves. (2) Ms. Cox gave Chris Albertson another reason for the pseudonym that he recounted in his biography, Bessie. She said that her billing as "The Sepia Mae West" kept her identity secret from the possible venom of Bessie Smith, who never appreciated sharing her marquis with any other performer and particularly not with Ida Cox. Whether or not her tutelage of Mae West actually took place, those of us who never witnessed Ida Cox perform might gain some sense of the power of her performance (if we kick Mae West's considerably powerful performance up a notch) and why she was often billed, "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues." Although Ms. Ida's business was Chicago based, she carried a personal and professional connection to New York that was unquestionable. This connection went beyond her periods of performance in New York. (3) Ida Cox's style--her glamour, her sense of self-possession, her independence, her cool and, most tellingly, her determination to "put you wise"--took New York (or, more specifically, Harlem) to the rest of the country.