Vanishing Act: In search of Eva Tanguay, the first rock star
To begin, a few facts. The singer, actress, and vaudeville star Eva Tanguay was born in 1878 in Marbleton, a small town in Quebec, Canada; grew up in Holyoke, Mass.; and died on Jan. 11, 1947, in Los Angeles, where she lived her last years in a style that some suggest was the model for Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard—in a Hollywood bungalow festooned with yellowing newspaper clippings and memorabilia from her heyday.
Tanguay made just one recording, a version of her anthem, “I Don’t Care,” released on a 78 rpm disc in 1922 by the Los Angeles label Nordskog. By rights, this song should be as familiar as “Over the Rainbow” or “Like a Rolling Stone” or “Rapper’s Delight.” And here we arrive at the crucial fact: For roughly two decades, from 1904 until the early 1920s, Eva Tanguay was the biggest rock star in the United States. By Judy Rosen, Slate
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