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Catherine Annette Hanshaw (October 18, 1901 – March 13, 1985) was an American Jazz Age singer. She was one of the most popular radio stars of the late 1920s and early 1930s, with many of her most notable performances taking place on NBC's Maxwell House Show Boat. Over four million of her records had been sold by 1934, following the peak of her popularity.
In her ten-year recording career, she recorded about 250 sides. In a 1934 poll conducted by Radio Stars magazine, she received the title of best female popular singer (Bing Crosby was voted the best male popular singer). Second place went to Ethel Shutta, third place went to Ruth Etting, and fourth place went to Kate Smith.
Her aunt and uncle, Nellie McCoy and Bob "Uke" Hanshaw, were vaudeville performers. She sang for guests at hotels owned by her father and demoed sheet music at her family's music store, The Melody Shop, in Mount Kisco, Westchester County, New York. Hanshaw aspired to be a portrait painter, studying at the National School of Design for a year. Her professional music career started when she was paid to sing for society and birthday parties.
Before her recording career, Hanshaw sang on local radio stations while visiting Florida with her family. She first recorded a demo for Pathé featuring a medley of popular songs. Her first commercial recordings, "Black Bottom" and "Six Feet of Papa," were recorded on September 12 and 18, 1926. She recorded for Pathé until 1928; Pathé released her records on both the Pathé and the Perfect Records labels.
Beginning in June 1928, Hanshaw recorded for Columbia Records; most of these recordings were issued Columbia's budget or "dime-store" labels Harmony Records, Diva Records, Clarion and Velvet Tone. A handful were also released on the regular-priced Columbia and lower priced OKeh Records labels. Although most were released under Hanshaw's name, she used the pseudonym Gay Ellis for sentimental numbers, and Dot Dare or Patsy Young for her Helen Kane impersonations. Hanshaw recorded under a number of other pseudonyms, including Ethel Bingham, Marion Lee, Janet Shaw and Lelia Sandford.
In August 1932, Hanshaw began recording for ARC; her recordings were issued on the Melotone, Perfect, Conqueror, Oriole and Romeo Records labels. Her final session, on February 3, 1934, was placed on ARC's Vocalion Records label. Throughout her recording career, she sang with the Original Memphis Five, Willard Robison's Deep River Orchestra, Sam Lanin's Orchestra, Lou Gold's Orchestra, Frank Ferera's Hawaiian Trio and Rudy Vallée's Connecticut Yankees. Some of the artists whose solos were featured on her recordings were Red Nichols, Miff Mole, Phil Napoleon, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Adrian Rollini, Vic Berton, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden.
In 1929, Hanshaw began performing on network radio. In the early 1930s, she sang on the air with Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra. From 1932 to 1934, she was featured on the popular Thursday evening radio program Maxwell House Show Boat. She made her only film appearance in the 1933 Paramount short Captain Henry's Radio Show. Film clip, jazzage1920s.com; accessed January 30, 2007. On December 6, 1937 Hanshaw gave the final performance of her career on The Chevrolet Musical Moments Revue.
Hanshaw's singing style was relaxed and suited to the jazz-influenced pop music of the late 1920s and early 1930s. She combined the voice of an ingenue with the spirit of a flapper. She was known as The Personality Girl, and her trademark was saying "That's all!" in a cheery voice at the end of many of her records. Hanshaw had a low opinion of her voice and suffered from anxiety while broadcasting. When asked why, she said, "I'm so afraid I'll fail, not sing my best. Suppose I should have to cough. Suppose I didn't get just the right pitch. And all those people listening." Hanshaw's favorite singers were Marion Harris, Sophie Tucker, and Blossom Seeley. She also enjoyed her contemporaries, Ethel Waters, Ruth Etting and Connee Boswell. She composed two songs, "Sweet One" and "Till Your Happiness Comes Along." Hanshaw disliked show business. In a 1972 interview with Jack Cullen she said, Hanshaw married Pathé Records executive Herman "Wally" Rose in 1929.
For many years it was believed that Hanshaw was born in 1910. Lists Hanshaw's year of birth as 1910 and states that she started her career at 15 and retired at 24. The liner notes from the CD Lovable & Sweet: 25 Vintage Hits, on the Asv Living Era label, also contain this incorrect information. The Syncopated Times lists her birthday as October 18, 1901, in New York City. Her nephew, Frank W. Hanshaw III, confirmed that 1901 is the year on her birth certificate, the last two numbers of the year having been transposed, possibly by Hanshaw herself to shave years off her true age.
| 1928 | "For Old Times' Sake" | Frank Ferera Vocal by Annette Hanshaw | Harmony Records | 10 | 3 |
| 1929 | "In A Great Big Way" | Gay Ellis | 19 | 1 | |
| "Big City Blues" | Annette Hanshaw | Columbia Records | 10 | 3 | |
| "Am I Blue?" | Gay Ellis | Harmony | 11 | 2 | |
| 1930 | "Body and Soul" | Annette Hanshaw | 12 | 2 | |
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