Sophie
Tucker once called up JFK in the Oval Office, was immediately connected, and
successful convinced him to veto pending stock dividend taxation legislation.
If that does not duly impress you, keep in mind she also sang—for decades, as
one of the top speakeasy and night club attractions in the country. Filmmaker
William Gazecki and producer-Tucker biographers Susan & Lloyd Ecker
chronicle her bawdy, trailblazing career in The
Outrageous Sophie Tucker (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.
Tucker’s
career spanned six decades and just about every Twentieth Century form of
media. She was tough and shrewd, but also loyal and generous. She made her debut
in the Ziegfeld Follies at twenty-two, but she was too much of a smashing success,
at least from the star diva’s vantage point. Before Mae West, she became a
sensation suggestively interpreting double entendre-laden lyrics. She was still
a household name well into the 1960s, thanks in part to her old crony, Ed
Sullivan, but she has largely slipped into the memory hole of a collective
cultural memory that barely reaches back to Madonna.
Fortunately,
this is where the Eckers come in, burnishing her legacy and promoting
awareness. For their books, website, and work on this film, the Eckers were invaluably
assisted by the exhaustive multi-volume scrapbooks Tucker maintaining,
recording her career almost day-for-day. They also serve as time-capsules,
capturing the state of show business from 1907 to 1964.
Tucker
had such a strong sense of syncopation and a flair for giving lyrics her own
unique twist, she could have easily billed herself as a jazz artist, if she had
wanted to be paid less. Yet, what is most striking is how far ahead of the
curve she was when it came fan outreach. She probably had a myspace page ready
to go, just waiting for the internet to me created.
Tucker’s
music and her tart-tongued Horatio Alger story are wildly entertaining. However,
despite some creative use of graphics, Outrageous
does not look very cinematic. In fact, many of the talking head segments
(featuring 1st class artists like Tony Bennett, Carol Channing, and
Michael Feinstein) feel very TV-ish. The Eckers (especially Lloyd) are clearly
determined to explain just how much Tucker means to them, whether we are
interested or not. Nevertheless, it must be granted, they have become the
definitive authorities on all things Tucker.
