13 Black Cats

When Bonnie Lake signed her first songwriting contract in nineteen thirty-three, she didn’t do it alone.  She couldn’t; she was only seventeen.

But a guardian’s signature was all the help she needed; she was one of America’s first female singer/songwriters. Here she is with “Her Beaus” singing “13 Black Cats”.

Lake’s songs would later be recorded by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and her famous sister Harriet. Don’t recognize Harriet Lake? She was better known as Oscar-nominated actress Ann Sothern.