WELCKER, MERCEEDEES
Home base: Seattle, WA.
Stats: (1913-2000)
Misc Notes: "Seattle was graced throughout the 1950s by the presence of an extremely elegant and popular local chanteuse who billed herself simply as "Merceedees." Born Mercedes Welcker, she was a piano-playing Chicago teen who moved at a young age to New York City and went on to compose a song recorded by big-time artists like the Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey orchestras. Merceedees came to Seattle as a World War II veteran in 1949 and her citywide popularity as an African American performer soon played a significant role in narrowing the cultural chasm between various racial communities. Pretty, glamorous, smart, and musically talented, she quickly scored her own Music with Merceedees show on early television station KING-TV and then a weekly radio program on KING-AM. Her star rose further with a regular gig at the swanky Sorrento Hotel and a recording contract with Seattle's pioneering Linden Records. Ever ambitious, she also built and ran a recording studio and founded her own Gold Seal publishing company and record label. But life's challenges wore on her, and Merceedees Walton ended up living alone in squalor during her final years." [READ MORE...]
SEE ALSO:
1.) MERCEEDEES
"Seattle Guide," February 13-19, 1959
MISC NOTES:
LOCATION:
RECORDING PERSONNEL: Wallace MacKay (narrator); Merceedees Welcker (piano soloist).
RECORDING STUDIO:
RECORDING ENGINEER:
FORMAT: disc
SIZE: 10"
SPEED: "33.3 RPM"
DISC NOTES:
Issued with holiday holly-leaves graphics on white sleeve. Blank B-side.
No Serial Number listed on labels - but we've listed it as #10000 so that it won't appear at beginning of labelography.
A-SIDE STAMPER CODE: 3544-1 M