Roma, Rosa.

Rosa Roma, the Gypsy violinist, performed in theatres in the early 1900s.

Sophie Tucker was an entertainer. Born Sophia Abuza somewhere in Russia, the daughter of Jennie "Dolly" Yacha and Charles Abuza (born Kalish), a deserting soldier en route to the United States who took on a dead companion's identity and became a restauranteur. After eight years in Boston, the Abuzas moved their restaurant to Hartford, Connecticut, where Sophie sometimes sang to its show-business clientele from the kitchen door. In her autobiography Some of these days, Tucker said that at fourteen she considered a show-business career. Though she was large, she believed that "size didn't matter if you could sing and make people laugh." In 1908 Florenz Ziegfeld hired her for his second Follies. However, Tucker stopping the show did not please Ziegfield's other female stars. Because Nora Bayes complained, Tucker was reduced from twelve minutes to one number. When Eva Tanguay wanted that number, Ziegfeld fired Tucker. American Biography Online - Sophie Tucker http://www.anb.org (Retrieved July 14, 2009)

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