Florence Mills (bornFlorence Winfrey; January 25, 1896 – November 1, 1927),^[1] billed as the "Queen of Happiness", was an Americancabaret singer, dancer, and comedian.

Florence Mills
Born	Florence Winfrey (1896-01-25)January 25, 1896 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	November 1, 1927(1927-11-01) (aged 31) New York City, New York, U.S.
Other names	Florence Mills
Occupation(s)	Singer, dancer, entertainer
Years active	1901–1927
Spouse	Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson (m. 1921)

Florence Mills (Florence Winfrey) was born a daughter of formerly enslaved parents Nellie (Simon) and John Winfrey in 1896 inWashington, D.C. She began performing as a child. At the age of six she sang duets with her two older sisters, Olivia and Maude.^[2] They eventually formed avaudeville act, calling themselves the Mills Sisters.^[3] The act did well, appearing in theaters along the Atlantic seaboard. Florence's sisters eventually quit performing, but Florence stayed with it, determined to pursue a career in show business. She joinedAda Smith,Cora Green, and Carolyn Williams in the Panama Four, which had some success. She then joined a traveling Black show, the Tennessee Ten, and in 1917 she met the dance director andacrobatic dancerUlysses "Slow Kid" Thompson (1888–1990), to whom she would be married from 1921 until her death.^[4][5][6]

Mills became well known in New York as a result of her role in the Broadway musicalShuffle Along (1921) atDaly's 63rd Street Theatre (barely onBroadway), one of the events marking the beginning of theHarlem Renaissance. She received favorable reviews inLondon,Paris,Ostend,Liverpool, and other European venues. She told the press that despite her years in vaudeville, she creditedShuffle Along with launching her career.^[3]

AfterShuffle Along,Lew Leslie, a white promoter, hired Mills and Thompson to appear nightly at the Plantation Club. The revue featured Mills and a wide range of Black artists, including visiting performers such asPaul Robeson. In 1922, Leslie turned the nightclub acts into a Broadway show,ThePlantation Revue. It opened at the Forty-Eighth Street Theatre on July 22. The English theatrical impresarioCharles B. Cochran brought thePlantation company to London, and they appeared at theLondon Pavilion in spring 1923 in a show he produced calledDover Street to Dixie. The show featured a local all-white cast in the first half and Mills starring with the all-BlackPlantation cast in the second half.^[6][7]

In 1924 she headlined at thePalace Theatre, and became an international star with the hit show Lew Leslie'sBlackbirds of 1926 at theLes Ambassadeurs inParis, inOstend and theLondon Pavilion in 1926.^[2][8] Among her fans when she toured Europe was the thenPrince of Wales, Edward, who told the press that he had seenBlackbirds 11 times.^[9]

Many in the black press admired her popularity and saw her as a role model: not only was she a great entertainer but she was also able to serve as "an ambassador of good will from the blacks to the whites... a living example of the potentialities of the Negro of ability when given a chance to make good".^[10]

Mills was featured inVogue andVanity Fair and was photographed byBassano's studios andEdward Steichen. Her signature song was her biggest hit, "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird". Another of her hit songs was "I'm Cravin' for that Kind of Love".

Exhausted from more than 300 performances of the hit showBlackbirds in London in 1926, she became ill withtuberculosis. She died of infection following an operation at theHospital for Joint Diseases inNew York City, New York on November 1, 1927. She was 31 years old. Most sources, including black newspapers, such as theChicago Defender and thePittsburgh Courier, and mainstream publications, including theNew York Times and theBoston Globe, reported that she died of complications from appendicitis.^[11]

Her death shocked the music world. TheNew York Times reported that more than 10,000 people visited the funeral home to pay their respects;^[12] thousands attended her funeral, including James Weldon Johnson, president of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and stars of the stage, vaudeville and dance. Honorary pall bearers included singersEthel Waters,Cora Green, andLottie Gee, all of whom had performed with Mills. Dignitaries and political figures of different races sent their condolences.^[13] She is buried atWoodlawn Cemetery, inthe Bronx, New York.^{[citation needed]}

Her widower,Ulysses Thompson, a native ofPrescott, Arkansas, was a dancer and comedian, having learned his trade in the world of circuses and travelling medicine shows in the early years of the century. He subordinated his career to hers, acting as her manager, promoter, minder and companion. After her death, he continued performing, travelling around the world, including appearances in China and Australia, until the late 1930s. He later marriedGertrude Curtis, New York's first black woman dentist (1911) and the widow of the lyricistCecil Mack (born as Richard Cecil McPherson). Thompson outlived both of his wives; he died in 1990, at the age of 101, inLittle Rock, Arkansas.

Mills is credited with having been a staunch and outspoken supporter of equal rights for African Americans, with her signature song "I'm a Little Blackbird" being a plea for racial equality. During her life she broke many racial barriers.^[14]

After her death,Duke Ellington memorialized Mills in his compositionBlack Beauty.Fats Waller also memorialized Mills in a song,Bye Bye Florence, recorded inCamden, New Jersey, on November 1, 1927, featuring Bert Howell on vocals with organ by Waller;Florence was recorded with Juanita Stinette Chappell on vocals and Waller on organ. Other songs recorded the same day includeYou Live On in Memory andGone but Not Forgotten—Florence Mills, neither of which were composed by Waller.

English composerConstant Lambert - also a friend and champion of Duke Ellington - saw Florence Mills when she performed inDover Street to Dixie at theLondon Pavilion in 1923, and again when she visited London a second time in 1926-7 for her showBlackbirds. On her death Lambert immediately wrote the piano pieceElegaic Blues in tribute, orchestrating it the following year. The rising triplet near the beginning (bar 8) is a quote from the fanfare that openedBlackbirds.^[15]

The Florence Mills Theatre opened on 8 December 1930 at 3511 South Central Avenue,Los Angeles. The 740-seat theater was commissioned by Sam Kramer. On opening night almost 1,000 people lined the street, with 10 police officers holding back the crowds.^[16]

A residential building at 267 Edgecombe Avenue inHarlem'sSugar Hill neighborhood is named after her.

Mills was pictured on a postage stamp issued by the island ofGrenada in honor of "The Birth of the Silver Screen".^[2][17]

A biography by Bill Egan entitledFlorence Mills: Harlem: Jazz Queen^[18] was published in 2006, and a children's book,Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage, by Alan Schroeder, was published by Lee and Low in 2012.

Mills is referenced in the 2023 video gameMarvel's Spider-Man 2, with a picture of her and a pair of her shoes appearing in a musical heritage museum.

• Florence Mills House inNew York City at 220 West 135th Street was believed to be where Florence Mills lived from 1910 to 1927. In 1976, the site was designated aNational Historic Landmark maintained as a landmark by theNational Park Service, but the designation was withdrawn in 2009.
• Flo-Bert Awards, named in honor of Florence Mills andBert Williams.

• Egan, Bill (2006).Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen. Scarecrow Press,ISBN 0-8108-5007-9

• Florence Mills tribute website
• Florence Mills laying in state
• Spatial audio piece dedicated to Florence Mills viamozilla