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Ethel Waters ( October 31 , 1896 – September 1 , 1977 ) was an Oscar -nominated American Blues vocalist, who frequently performed Jazz , Big Band , Gospel , and Popular Music , on Broadway and off. EARLY LIFE Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania , the daughter of a twelve-year-old mother who had been Rape d, and was raised in a violent, impoverished Philadelphia ward. Even though she was adopted by her grandmother, she never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She began working as a hotel chambermaid for $4.75 a week, and at age 12 she married the first of three husbands. Her goal at that time was to become a maid/companion to a wealthy white woman; instead, she launched a show-business career at 17, when she entered a local talent contest on a dare. CAREER Waters obtained her first Harlem club job around 1919 at Edmond's Cellar, a typical club of the period and area patroned by a black audience. Along with Fletcher Henderson and sponsored under Black Swan Records , she toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. She stated that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass". According to Waters, she influenced him to practice in a "real jazz" style. She was later recorded by Columbia Records in 1925 ; this recording was given a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award in 1998 . During the 1920s, she performed and/or was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook , Lovie Austin, Fletcher Henderson As her career continued, she evolved toward being a pop and broadway singer performing with artists like Duke Ellington . Billed as Sweet Mama Stringbean in honour of her tall, slender frame, Waters toured the black vaudeville circuit singing such standards-to-be as 'St Louis Blues', and continued to hold on to her chambermaid job just in case the bubble burst. Throughout her singer years, Waters fought against performing hot - i.e. sexually suggestive - songs, preferring instead to perform religious music. But the audiences preferred hot, and that's what she gave them during her formative years. Her popularity extended to white audiences by way of the recording of her signature tune 'Dinah'. In 1927, she starred on Broadway in the all-black musical Revue ' Africana ', which she followed in quick succession with 'Vaudeville', 'Blackbirds of 1930' and 'Rhapsody in Black'. Booked into the Cotton Club , a Harlem night spot catering to a rich white clientele, Waters caught the eye of Irving Berlin with her rendition of ' Stormy Weather '. Berlin cast her in his 1933 musical revue ' As Thousands Cheer ', supplying her with the hit tunes 'Heat Wave', 'Harlem on My Mind' and 'Supper Time'. The difference between 'As Thousands Cheer' and Waters' earlier New York stage appearances was that, for the first time in Broadway history, a black female entertainer was given equal billing with her white co-stars. After spending several years in touring shows, she returned to Broadway in 1939 , making her dramatic, non-singing debut in 'Mamba's Daughters'. The following year, she starred in the musical 'Cabin in the Sky', in which she introduced 'Happiness is a Thing Called Joe' and 'Taking a Chance on Love'. Her film career, which began with her performance of 'Am I Blue?' in the 1929 Warner Brothers musical "On With the Show", was jump-started in 1943 with the movie version of "Cabin in the Sky", wherein Waters co-starred with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson , Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong . Back in New York , Waters was offered the role of housekeeper Bernice Sadie Brown in Carson McCullers ' ' The Member Of The Wedding ', but she turned it down, insisting that her character be rewritten to include more religion. She later accepted the role of Mulatto Jeanne Crain 's worldly-wise grandmother in the 1949 film " Pinky ", a performance that earned her an Academy Award Nomination , making her only the second black actress to garner such an accolade ( Hattie McDaniel being the first for " Gone With The Wind " in 1939). The following year, she finally opened on Broadway in 'Member of the Wedding', her role at last rewritten to her specifications. By the time Waters appeared in the film version of "Member of the Wedding", she'd become a law unto herself: when director Fred Zinnemann attempted to instruct Waters in a minor bit of stage business, she raised her head to the skies and bellowed "God is my director!" By rights, Ethel Waters should have spent her last years treated with the reverence and respect due a person of her accomplishments. Unfortunately, she managed to distance herself from her more militant black colleagues by (a) starring as a maid on the TV series ' Beulah ' (b) aligning herself with such white Establishment types as Billy Graham and Richard M. Nixon and (c) making such proclamations as "I'm not concerned with civil rights. I'm concerned with God-given rights, and they are available to everyone!" Waters worked only sporadically in her eighth decade. She died at the age of 80, in the Chatsworth, California home of the young couple then caring for her. Though she left behind a comparatively tiny financial estate, the artistic legacy of Ethel Waters includes dozens of 1920s recordings, 10 film appearances, and two autobiographies. She was posthumously recognized in 1984 by the Gospel Music Association where her name was placed in its Gospel Music Hall Of Fame . PRIVATE LIFE Waters was the aunt of Dance artist Crystal Waters . In the period before her death at age 80 in Los Angeles, California , she toured with The Reverend Billy Graham , despite the fact that she was a Catholic and he was a Protestant . AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
REFERENCES # Southern, Eileen. ''The Music of Black Americans: A History''. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0393971414 # Alexander, Scott. The Red Hot Jazz Archives: Ethel Waters . SEE ALSO |
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