Fortunately for Lloyd and Susan Ecker, they both were big fans of Bette Midler.
In 1973, he took her to see The Divine Miss M on their first date, which led not only to their 40-year marriage but to a cottage industry of bringing one of Midler’s idols — “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” Sophie Tucker — to the silver screen, the written page and, perhaps, the Broadway stage.
For most of their married life, the Eckers ran Babytobee, a home-grown business of pre- and post-natal care for expectant mothers. When they sold the firm in 2006, that freed the two of them up to pursue a long-deferred dream of spreading the word about Tucker. Among the vehicles for that mission is a new documentary biography, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker, which opened this weekend in ten locations in Florida as a market test before going national in the spring.
Eight years ago, they still had little idea who Tucker was, beyond a woman that Midler enjoyed telling jokes about. “So we delved into finding out who Sophie Tucker was and what she was about, because we had a lot of free time,” concedes Lloyd. And if that search leads to them making a feature film on Tucker that could win Midler an Oscar, all the better.
For the Eckers do not do anything in a small way. In addition to the documentary, they have written and published a “fictional memoir” called I Am Sophie Tucker, which they project will be the first of a three-volume series. Then they expect to make a feature film and a Broadway musical, also about the ground-breaking, bawdy star of vaudeville, burlesque, the stage and television.
Looking into how her life and career had been chronicled, the Eckers found to their amazement how little existed. “Nobody had done a major work or a major movie or anything, and then we got a hold of these unbelievable scrapbooks — she kept them from 1906 to 1966 — and there were 400 of them,” says Lloyd.
“After we started reading these, we realized that this was a treasure trove of a woman who never really got her due. We like to say that she was the real Forrest Gump of the first half of the 20th century.”
That is to say Tucker knew everyone who was anyone. “Aside from knowing all the entertainers in her business, she knew Al Capone and J. Edgar Hoover,” says Susan. “She knew the kings and queens of England,” and seven United States presidents. “She didn’t put on airs with anyone and that’s why they loved her and loved to be around her.”
Tucker wrote her own autobiography in 1945, but her publisher was so worried that it would offend the public, it was edited into pabulum. In fact, efforts to turn it into a movie back then were scrapped because virtually nothing happened in the book. Actress Betty Hutton was signed to play Tucker, but she was quoted as saying, “There’s no story; I don’t know what to do.”
Now, with Tucker’s scrapbooks as their source material, the Eckers have been able to put together a rip-snorter of a memoir. “From what we read, we can verify that 85 percent of what’s in the autobiography that we wrote is true, and 15 percent we think is true,” says Lloyd.
“We’re pretty confident we’ve captured her voice, every little nuance of the way she talked and what she would have said if she was alive today. The only thing we’re waiting for is for her to appear again in a séance, so we could actually ask her a few extra questions.”
Susan Ecker is particularly struck by the contrast between the onstage Tucker and the private woman. “She was such an iconic performer and entertainer, but to see the side of her that was so human and decent, it was almost incongruous. She had such a warm, generous heart, that’s the part that touched me the most.”
“She ended up giving, over her lifetime, about $8 million to various charities,” notes Lloyd. “In the 40s, she was rallying the troops to fight the Nazis. Because she was Jewish, she and Eddie Cantor were trying to get the word out about what was happening in Germany. And then finally in the ’50s, she took on Israel and gave millions of dollars to build schools there.”
According to the Eckers, Tucker broke the glass ceiling for female entertainers. In that sense, she was influential on not only Midler but such envelope pushers as Marilyn Monroe, Madonna and Lady Gaga.
“If you take a look at what they’re doing now, especially Lady Gaga, she is testing the limits, going beyond,” says Susan. “And that’s what Sophie did many years before.”
Asked to explain what so attracts them to Tucker, Susan responds, “We fell in love with her. I fell in love with the heart and soul of Sophie Tucker. I think for Lloyd it was her business acumen, the brilliant way she built her career and kept it on top for so long.”
They feel certain that moviegoers will fall in love with Tucker from reading the fictional memoir and from viewing the documentary. “They’ll never see a better entertainer than this lady. She’s just fabulous,” insists Lloyd. “They’ll laugh, they’ll cry and everything else a person can experience in 90 minutes will happen in this movie.”
THE OUTRAGEOUS SOPHIE TUCKER, Living Room Theaters, 777 Glaades Rd., FAU Campus, Boca Raton. Through Thursday. Tickets: $5-$9.50. Call: (561) 549-2600.