Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters
Donald Bogle
Language: English
Pages: 640
ISBN: 0061241733
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“Mr. Bogle continues to be our most noted black-cinema historian.”
—Spike Lee
“Donald Bogle [is a] pioneering safe-keeper of the history of blacks in film.”
—Vogue
From Donald Bogle, author of the bestselling Dorothy Dandridge and Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies, and Bucks, a groundbreaking history of African American portrayals in Hollywood, comes the long-awaited, definitive biography of one of America’s brightest and most troubled theatrical stars: actress and singer Ethel Waters. In Heat Wave, Bogle explores Waters’ relationships with other performing greats, including Lena Horne, Count Basie, Vincent Minnelli, and many others, and paints a vivid, deeply human portrait of this legendary performer—a must-read for any fan of jazz, blues, and classic American cinema.
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Baker has refined her art until there is nothing left of it.” Time’s comments were even harsher. “In sex appeal to300 jaded Europeans of the jazz-loving type, a Negro wench always has a head start, but to Manhattan theatergoers last week she was just a slightly buck-toothed young Negro woman whose figure might be matched in any nightclub show, whose dancing and singing could be topped practically anywhere outside France.” Baker was no doubt sulking, and when Ethel arrived at Baker’s hotel,
to live with him in Pittsburgh. Minnelli had been advised by the Negro Actors Guild that he had to persuade the young woman—Lena Horne—to leave Pittsburgh and become one of the stars of his show. Minnelli also wanted Buck and Bubbles in the cast. So set was he on doing the musical that he had begun to think of set designs for the countess’s luxurious bedroom in which Serena Blandish was to open. To have a better chance of getting the production financed, he dropped Vernon Duke and replaced him
Arlen: Happy with the Blues. New York: Da Capo Press, 1986. Johnson, James Weldon. Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. . Black Manhattan. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991. Jones, LeRoi. Blues People. New York: William Morrow, 1963. Kael, Pauline. 5001 Nights at the Movies. New York: Henry Holt, 1991. Kantor, Michael, and Laurence Maslon. Broadway: The American Musical. New York: Bulfinch Press, 2004. Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia.
actresses Evelyn Preer and Edna Thomas, was African American. James Weldon Johnson recalled that “because of the large number of coloured performers in a mixed cast playing important roles, Lulu Belle was extremely significant in the history of the Negro theatre in New York.” *** With the belief that the time was now right and that it was better to take the leap before another “term of exile” might begin, Dancer had initiated his boldest negotiations to bring Ethel to Broadway in a musical that
dressmaker for fittings, a hairdresser. But mostly Ethel conserved her energy for the evening’s performance. On days when she had a matinee, her time was even tighter. Always at the back of her mind, dictating her mood and her actions at home, was the thought of the evening’s performance. Nothing was more important. On those occasions when she had free time, Ethel, always ready to make a few extra bucks, sang at private gatherings. Wealthy white socialites loved those evenings at their homes