Katherine Spencer Bloodgood Kipp (April 24, 1871 – January 1967) was an American contralto singer and vaudeville performer.
Early life Katherine "Kitty" Spencer was born in Ithaca, New York and raised in San Diego, California."Mrs. Bloodgood is Not Divorced" San Francisco Call (February 24, 1899) p. 12, via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Career
Bloodgood was a contralto singer of "singular power, richness, beauty and breadth", according to one reviewer, who also noted her "fine stage presence" and that she sang equally well in German and English."The Concordia Concert" The Wilkes-Barre Record (November 24, 1897) p. 5, via Newspapers.com She performed for the Manuscript Society of New York in 1897,"The Manuscript Society" The New York Times (April 23, 1897) p. 6 and at Carnegie Hall in 1898, where the New York Times reviewer said she "sang with the assurance and aplomb of an experienced artist.""Mr. Paur's Concert" The New York Times (November 14, 1898): p. 7.
In 1898, as a celebrated beauty, she sold kisses at a charity fair in St. Louis, Missouri, sometimes for as much as $500 a kiss. This publicity stunt was cited by her husband as a cause for their widely publicized divorce a year later."Fair Singer Now No Wife" The Times (Philadelphia, July 9, 1899): p. 9. via Newspapers.com"Celebrated Contralto's Divorce" Los Angeles Herald (September 29, 1898) p. 8, via Newspapers.com
After her divorce, she was often featured on programs that included a wide range of performance genres."Keith's Theatre" The Boston Post (March 27, 1904): p. 21, via Newspapers.com "She has decided to stay in the vaudeville field, at least for a time, as she finds it much more lucrative than the concert field," explained a San Francisco magazine."Kitty is Here Again" Town Talk (July 19, 1902), p. 23. In 1904 Bloodgood appeared on a vaudeville bill with Blind Tom Wiggins at an opera house in Rochester, New York, just months before Wiggins's health ended his long performing career."Grand Sacred Concert by Blind Tom" (advertisement) Democrat and Chronicle (February 28, 1904), p. 16, via Newspapers.com In 1906, she was "the artistic number" on a Washington, D.C., variety program that included acrobats, comedians, and trained animals."Katherine Bloodgood and Other Features of Chase's Vaudeville Programme" The Washington Post (April 17, 1906), p. 21, via Newspapers.com
Personal life Katherine Spencer married twice. She was first wed to William Denton Bloodgood in 1889, when she was 17 years old. This marriage ended in divorce in 1899. She married again in 1902, to Howard Hapgood Kipp, a Marine officer."Katherine Bloodgood Married" The New York Times (November 8, 1902): p. 1 She had two sons, Elwyn Lynotte Bloodgood (1890-1935) and Hapgood Kipp (1907-2000), and a daughter, Eleanore Mayo Kipp (born 1909 in the Philippines).Kip, Frederic Ellsworth. History of the Kip Family in America (Hudson Printin 1928): 439. Elwyn may have accompanied Lieutenant Kipp to a posting on Guam in 1903."Mrs. Kipp Not Going to Samar" The Philadelphia Inquirer (January 21, 1903), p. 6, via Newspapers.com"Society News of the Week" Los Angeles Herald (July 18, 1909), p. 8, via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Katherine Spencer Bloodgood Kipp died in 1967, in Los Angeles, California, aged 95 years.
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