Samuels was born in
Youngstown, Ohio, one of ten children, and began performing on stage as a child, winning an amateur talent contest at the age of 13. She performed in her teens with family members in an act called "Musical Hearts", and was spotted by a
talent agent. In about 1905, she was persuaded to become a solo performer. Official records indicate that Samuels and Forkins married in 1914, though they later claimed to have married in 1911. Samuels appeared in the
Ziegfeld Follies of 1912. An "exuberant" performer, she became one of the most popular and successful stars of the period as a singer and comedienne. Her songs included
Irving Berlin's "
Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning", which she introduced in 1918, to acclaim from her military audience. However, she did not record her songs, and they were generally not
sheet music hits, because they relied on her personal presentation style in performance. In 1932 she appeared in publicity photographs shortly before the repeal of
Prohibition, holding the last bottle of
Schlitz beer that had been produced before the legislation came into force. The following year, she appeared in her only movie,
The Big Benefit, which starred Bill Robinson and in which Samuels sang one song, "Poppa’s Back With Momma Now". She continued to make occasional stage appearances until 1935. She lived privately thereafter. Her husband, Marty Forkins, died in 1966. Rae Samuels died in
Mahwah, New Jersey, in 1979 at the age of 92. ==References==