by Donald Bogle
Youngman, Henny, 406
Young Mr. Lincoln (film), 432
YWCA, 364
“You’re Going to Leave the Old Home, Jim?,” 231
“You’re Lucky to Me,” 191–92
“You’re Mine,” 305
“You Said Sometin’ When You Said Dixie,” 153
“You’ve Got to Give Me Some,” 36
“You’ve Seen Harlem at Its Best,” 230
Zanuck, Darryl F., xii, 169–70, 287–88, 360, 429–39, 443–45, 470
Ziegfeld, Florenz, 57, 139, 141, 188, 219
Ziegfeld Follies, 50, 57, 141, 188, 260, 263, 269, 277
Zinnemann, Fred, 263, 469–72
Zonky, 187
Also by Donald Bogle
Dorothy Dandridge:
A Biography
Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams:
The Story of Black Hollywood
Primetime Blues:
African Americans on Network Television
Brown Sugar:
Over 100 Years of Black Female Superstars
Blacks in American Films and Television:
An Illustrated Encyclopedia
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks:
An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films
Copyright
HEAT WAVE. Copyright © 2011 by Donald Bogle. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Designed by Suet Yee Chong
All photographs not otherwise credited are from the author’s private collection.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bogle, Donald.
Heat wave : the life and career of Ethel Waters / Donald Bogle.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-06-124173-4
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062041722
1. Waters, Ethel, 1896–1977. 2. Singers—United States— Biography. I. Title.
ML420.W24B64 2011
782.42164092—dc22
[B] 2010029230
11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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1 “Sally could fight like”: Ethel Waters with Charles Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951), 2.
2 “Seems like I was”: Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, “New York Close-up,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1949, CF.
3 “My close kin didn’t”: William Hawkins, “Theater: Ethel Waters Discloses How Religion Helps Her,” New York World Telegram, June 4, 1949, CF.
4 “I was imaginative”: Ibid.
5 “They were just girls”: Ethel Waters, Just a Little Talk with Ethel Waters (Word Records Limited, 1977).
6 “I always wanted to”: Ibid.
7 “I’ve always had great”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 17.
8 “Whatever moral qualities I”: Ibid., 19.
9 “I didn’t fit nowhere”: Hawkins, “Theater: Ethel Waters Discloses How Religion Helps Her,” New York World Telegram, June 4, 1949, CF.
10 “in the same room”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 19.
11 “I never had a”: “Ethel Waters Talks of Her Rise to ‘Tops’ on Broadway,” Chicago Defender, October 12, 1935, 9.
12 “I loved to dance”: McCrary and Falkenburg, “New York Close-up,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1949, CF.
13 “I was constantly”: Ethel Waters, Person to Person, CBS, January 8, 1954.
14 “The only place I”: Hawkins, “Theater: Ethel Waters Discloses How Religion Helps Her,” New York World Telegram, June 4, 1949, CF.
15 “The beauty that came”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 50.
16 “But all my life”: McCrary and Falkenburg, “New York Close-up,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1949, CF.
17 “I began to grow”: Ethel Waters, “The Blackbird of the Blues,” Ethel Waters Souvenir Album (Decca Records, May 1943).
18 “I felt betrayed”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 58.
19 “I had done practically”: Ben Washer, “Ethel Waters Likes Changes of Songs in Lew Leslie Show, ‘Rhapsody in Black,’ ” Chicago Defender, May 23, 1931, 3.
20 “on my knees, as”: Leonard Lyons, “Lyons Den,” Chicago Defender, October 1, 1960, 8.
21 “I got $3.00”: Waters, “The Blackbird of the Blues,” Ethel Waters Souvenir Album (Decca Records, May 1943).
22 “Each Saturday and Sunday”: Russell Lee Lawrence, “I’m Not Afraid to Die, Honey . . . I Know the Lord Has His Arms Around This Big Fat Sparrow,” Sunday (Philadelphia) Bulletin/Discoverer, October 21, 1973, CF.
23 “poise, dignity, and whatever”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 68.
24 “They let me go”: Lawrence, “I’m Not Afraid to Die, Honey . . . I Know the Lord Has His Arms Around This Big Fat Sparrow,” Sunday (Philadelphia) Bulletin/Discoverer, October 21, 1973, CF.
25 “She had a tough”: Maude Russell, Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars, PBS/German Educational Television, 1988.
26 “She had a very”: Lena Horne, ibid.
27 “Minstrel shows were in”: Lee Young, Oral History Transcripts, Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
28 “Your makeup was cork”: Ibid.
29 “I was so frightened”: “Ethel Waters Talks of Her Rise to ‘Tops’ on Broadway,” Chicago Defender, October 12, 1935, 9.
30 “The audience there was”: Ibid.
31 “But they were also”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 7.
32 “I think it was”: Young, Oral History Transcripts, Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
33 “Often, we girls would”: Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase, Josephine: The Hungry Heart (New York: Random House, 1993), 63.
34 “I was as crazy”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 91.
35 “Come here, long goody”: Ibid., 92. There are two versions of the last word of this quote. In her memoirs, Waters ends with the sentence: “And you know damn well that you can’t sing worth a ___.” The other version, which appears in Chris Albertson’s biography Bessie, ends with Bessie Smith saying: “ . . . you can’t sing worth a fuck.”
36 “He took C, H”: Ibid., 115.
42 Hello, 1919!: In His Eye Is on the Sparrow, Waters wrote that she thought—obviously she was not certain—that she appeared in the show Hello, 1919! after temporarily l
eaving Edmond’s. But other sources indicate that she appeared in Hello, 1919! before working at Edmond’s.
37 “a great appeal to”: James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan (New York: Atheneum, 1972), 172.
38 “This was the era”: James Weldon Johnson, Along the Way (New York: Penguin, 1990), p. 380.
39 “After you worked there”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 128.
40 “I’ll show them bitches”: Author interview with Joan Croomes.
41 “for showing her laundry”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 126.
42 “I was just a”: Wilson, “V: Ethel Waters—Torch Singer to Dramatic Actress,” New York Post, December 6, 1940, CF.
43 “I never was like”: Sidney M. Shallet, “Harlem’s Ethel Waters,” New York Times, November 10, 1940, 149.
44 “It’s the story told”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 129.
45 “I used to work”: Wilson, “V: Ethel Waters—Torch Singer to Dramatic Actress,” New York Post, December 6, 1940, CF.
46 “For three years, Ethel”: Geraldyn Dismond, “Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 17, 1927, CF.
47 “The Williams woman is”: New York Age, June 3, 1922, CF.
48 “to great local crowds”: Johnson, Black Manhattan, 173.
49 “color complex”: Frank C. Taylor with Gerald Cook, Alberta Hunter: A Celebration in Blues (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), 51.
50 “too young . . . too small”: Josephine Baker and Jo Bouillon, Josephine (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 27.
51 “the first colored girl”: W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1969), 200.
52 “once they’d drawn the”: Sally Placksin, American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present: Their Words, Lives, and Music (New York: Wideview Books, 1982), 11.
53 “was a handsome young”: Handy, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography, 125.
54 “While in Atlantic City”: Roi Ottley and William J. Weatherby, eds., The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, 1626–1940 (New York: Praeger, 1969), 233.
55 “very prissy and important”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, p. 141.
56 “There was much discussion”: Ibid.
57 “Fletcher was in charge”: Garvin Bushell as told to Mark Tucker, Jazz from the Beginning (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988), 31.
58 “little bitty studio”: Taylor with Cook, Alberta Hunter: A Celebration of the Blues, 51.
59 “I sold 500,000 copies”: Ottley and Weatherby, eds., The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, 233.
60 “Ethel had been in”: Bushell as told to Tucker, Jazz from the Beginning, 32.
61 “ ‘the damn-it-to-hell’ ”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 147.
62 “Very few singers could”: Bushell, Jazz from the Beginning, 32.
63 “Before they left New York”: Walter Allen, Hendersonia: The Music of Fletcher Henderson and His Musicians: A Bio-Discography (Highland Park, NJ: Jazz Monographs No. 4), 24.
64 “Coming Your Way”: Advertisement, Chicago Defender, October 22, 1921, 7.
65 “Ethel Must Not Marry”: Chicago Defender, December 24, 1921.
66 “Greatest Social Event”: “20,000 People Will Attend the Great Football Classic,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 19, 1921, 1.
67 “Gibson’s New Standard Theatre”: Advertisement, Philadelphia Tribune, November 19, 1921, 3.
68 “Like every band that”: Bushell, Jazz from the Beginning, 33.
69 “He did some”: Ibid., 33.
70 “She literally sang with”: Ibid., 32.
71 “All right”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 153.
72 “I could like a”: Ibid., 154.
73 “Preceding Miss Waters’ appearance”: Baltimore Afro-American, December 2, 1921, CF.
74 “We didn’t play any”: Bushell, Jazz from the Beginning, 36.
75 “Congratulations on your wonderful”: New York Age, January 7, 1922, np.
76 “One week only—Starting Monday”: Advertisement, Chicago Defender, 7.
77 “When she sang the”: Hubert Saal, “Music: Rebirth of the Blues,” Newsweek, October 31, 1977, 101.
78 “Put some change in”: Author interview with Alberta Hunter for PBS/German Educational Television production of Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars.
79 “What will people say?”: Ibid., 72.
80 “The work of the”: “Ethel Waters Packs Grand: Lulu Coates & Co. Top Great Bill at Avenue; Good Bill at the Monogram,” Chicago Defender, January 21, 1922, 6.
81 “In those days”: Bushell, Jazz from the Beginning, 39.
82 “She felt it her duty”: “Musicians Quit; Ethel Waters Goes South,” Chicago Defender, February 11, 1922, 7.
83 “It has been voted”: New York Age, April 29, 1922, CF.
84 “The concert was heard”: Ibid.
85 “I heard this young man”: Down Beat, July 14, 1950, 4.
86 “Ethel Waters and her”: “Black Swan Jazz Babies Are Great,” Chicago Defender, June 3, 1922, 7.
87 “Ain’t I gonna”: Author interview with John Hammond for PBS/German Educational Television production of Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars.
88 “However, there is a”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 151.
89 “It ain’t no novelty”: Ibid., 153.
90 “The show was lousy”: Taylor with Cook, Alberta Hunter: A Celebration in Blues, 54.
91 “ever in the background”: Etta Moten, “ ‘Trust in God’ Is Secret of Ethel Waters’ Stage Success,” Washington Tribune, August 11, 1936, CF.
92 “they were set up”: Ottley and Weatherby, eds., The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, 234.
93 “The Black Swan Company”: Handy, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography, 211.
94 “Immediately dealers began to”: Ottley and Weatherby, eds., The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, 234.
95 “He was very handsome”: Author interview with Lennie Bluett. Other comments by Bluett in this chapter are from the same interview.
96 “We heard Ethel singing”: Earl Dancer, “Star Undimmed in 30 Years,” Amsterdam News, March 11, 1950, CF.
97 “I just didn’t like”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 172.
98 “ ‘stood up’ with the”: “Dotson Wed?” Chicago Defender, March 1, 1924, 7.
99 “After Ethel Williams left”: Dancer, “Star Undimmed in 30 Years,” Amsterdam News, March 11, 1950, CF.
100 “would need a little”: “Raves over Show,” Chicago Defender, March 29, 1924, 6.
101 “After exactly one year”: Dismond, “Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 17, 1927, CF.
102 “when I first stepped”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 74.
103 “A Jewish friend and”: Alvin White, “Ethel Waters Remembered,” Amsterdam News, November 19, 1977, 16.
104 “One who has seen”: “Plan Benefit Show to Help Cathedral,” New York Times, February 21, 1925, 16.
