I Am Sophie Tucker: A Fictional Memoir

Susan Ecker and Lloyd Ecker have captured the voice of Sophie Tucker in their fictional memoir,
I Am Sophie Tucker.  After laughing out loud while reading this book and underlining many quotes to repeat later to friends and family, I am not sure Sophie Tucker could have written about herself quite as well as these authors did.  In this book they created a character that comes alive.  You can almost hear Sophie describing her experiences like she would if she were sitting in the room with you.  The Eckers have captured Tucker's speech patterns, and her enthusiasm for life in quite a realistic way.

Sophie Tucker, born Sophie Abuza, was a vaudeville actress, who rose to stardom from working in a family restaurant business in Hartford Connecticut.  Her family had come to this country from the Ukraine via Italy and after a few false starts had opened what became the popular Abuza's Family Restaurant, known for her mother's goulash.  Sophie worked in the family business as a waitress and dishwasher.  "I handled all fifteen tables and I never dropped so much a poppy seed on a customer."

Sophie marries young, then quickly realizes her mistake and leaves home to try her hand at a career in New York.  Her persistence and outspoken personality are what get her foot in the door.
Though she didn't have the figure of a model, she wasn't going to change herself for the stage.  She thought they should accept the person she was.

"According to Harry Tilzer, I was an unknown heavyweight.  I wasn't going to give up noodle kugel but I'd be damned if I was going to stay an unknown.  After a month of throw money and daily trips to Tin Pan Alley, it was Jimmy Durante - then a unknown himself, though his nose had quite a reputation - who helped me get my first break.  It is not surprising that most of my closest friends in show business were just like me, a little too funny looking to be a star.  You could dress me or my pal Fanny Brice in the fanciest gold lame gowns on earth, but you know what they say about a silk purse and a sow's ear.  Yt, give that sow a personality the size of Cleveland and a set of pipes?  That is an act people will pay to see."

Sophie had the personality and the pipes.

Then as she rises to fame her quick wit and comedic character keep her in the spotlight.  Her boldness and lack of fear are the tools she uses to keep taking risks to rise to the center of the stage in vaudeville and become the most popular and well known star of the time.  This book and all her experiences are fascinating and it is amazing how many famous people she knew.   She drops names of the famous people she worked with like they were just the boy next door.  In many cases for her that was how she knew them.  Irving Berlin, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton and Carol Channing just to name a few.  All of them starting out and becoming famous along with Tucker.  She also entertained royalty.  "I'd met some bigwigs in my time, but in 1922 George, the Duke of York, was second in line to be King of England.  Talk about a case of nerves.  I left the dressing room and stepped out onto a small set of stairs that led down to the stage.  While trying to spot George, I tripped on the hem of my long gown and landed on my biggest asset smack in the middle of the stage."

Tucker was married three times and though she likes men and had many male friends, husbands are another story.  "By and large the fellas in my life have been warm and kind and generous....Sex, I've found is the surest way to kill a perfectly good friendship....In truth, I've really only been with a few men other than my scmendrick husbands.  That's right I Sophie Tucker, the Last of the Red Hot Mamas, the duchess of the double entendre, has only had a handful of lovers.....Sixty years later, I've concluded that a juicy steak is always more satisfying than a lousy love affair."

Authors Susan and Lloyd do a terrific job of bringing to life the voice and personality of Sophie Tucker in all her glory.  The Eckers also do a wonderful job capturing the lifestyle in America during this time period and as a reader it makes you nostalgic for a time in history we will never be able to experience first hand.