SMITH, CHRIS. Songwriter ( in Charleston, South Carolina; in New York, New York). He was apprenticed to a baker as a boy but took advantage of every opportunity to perform at local social entertainments, including traveling shows that came to his town. Some time during the 1890s he and his long-time friend, Elmer Bowman , left home to tour with a medicine show. After the show was stranded, Smith and Bowman formed a vaudeville act and went...