Willie Smith

Willie Smith, born William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith on November 23, 1893, in Goshen, New York, was an American jazz and stride pianist who performed on Broadway, appearing in the 1932 play Child of Manhattan. He died on April 18, 1973.

Smith's full name reflected the deliberate choices of his mother, Ida Oliver, and grandmother, who selected Bonaparte to honor French heritage, Bertholf after his biological father, and Joseph after Saint Joseph, with William and Henry added for what the family described as spiritual balance. His biological father, Frank Bertholf, an electrician from Monroe, New York, was Jewish, and Smith grew up at least partially conversant in Yiddish, having worked at a footwear store where the owner valued his language skills. He also studied Hebrew with the children of a Jewish family who were clients of his mother and made his bar mitzvah at age thirteen in Newark. Ida Oliver herself was of Spanish, African American, and Mohawk Indian descent, and her mother, Ann Oliver, had been a banjo player who performed in Primrose and West minstrel shows. When Smith was three years old, his mother married John Smith, a master mechanic from Paterson, New Jersey, and the surname Smith was added to the boy's legal name. The family settled at 76 Academy Street in Newark, later moving to 90 Bloome Street in 1907, and again around 1912 to Harrison, New Jersey, after his stepfather took a position at Crucible Steel Company.

Smith's musical education began in childhood when, around age six, he discovered a deteriorated organ in the family home that his mother had once played. She taught him the melodies she knew, and his uncle Rob, a bass singer who led his own quartet, instructed him in dancing. Smith entered an amateur dance contest at the Arcadia Theater and won first place along with a ten-dollar prize. His path to the piano came through an unlikely contest: a piano retailer called Marshall and Wendell's invited readers to guess the number of dots printed in a newspaper advertisement, and Smith used arithmetic to determine his answer, won the contest, and received an upright piano. He taught himself pieces he heard in local clubs, including Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag, Joe Northrup's Cannonball Rag, and George Botsford's Black and White Rag. By the early 1910s he was performing at clubs in New York City and Atlantic City.

Smith served in World War I and saw action in France. During his service he played drums with the African American regimental band led by Tim Brymn, known as The Black Devils, and also played basketball with the regimental team. His nickname, The Lion, was said to derive from his bravery as a heavy artillery gunner, having volunteered to operate a French 75 cannon and reportedly mastering its mechanisms in a matter of hours rather than the month his commanding officer had anticipated.

Outside of music, Smith attended Barringer High School in Newark, then known as Newark High School, and was a student at the Baxter School before transferring to Morton School following a juvenile court appearance stemming from an incident at a neighborhood fruit store. He was an enthusiastic if informal athlete, pursuing boxing, swimming, basketball, cycling, and track, and he became acquainted with a number of prominent prizefighters of the era, including Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Gene Tunney, Sam Langford, and Bob Fitzsimmons, among others. He also belonged to a Newark gang called The Ramblers, whose membership included Abner Zwillman.

Smith's Broadway credit, Child of Manhattan in 1932, placed him within the theatrical world of New York during the height of his performing career, complementing his extensive work as a jazz and stride pianist across the clubs and venues of the city.