Black History Month: Billie Holiday Special on (DOLL) PBS

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Announcer: This evening's program is brought to you by your local PBS station WTTW Chicago. Remembering Billie Holliday and all the fine Jazz ballads from the 30's through the 50's, part of our Black History series for this month.

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Our music begins....

Riffin' the Scotch 1933 Benny Goodman Band 

Good evening, I'm your host, Gerry.

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What you just heard was "Riffin' the Scotch" with the Benny Goodman band in 1933 and an eighteen-year-old singer, Eleanora Fagan. 

Who was that, you may ask? The answer is the intrepid Billie Holiday. We celebrate tonight her amazing music and the great bands she performed with throughout her  career. Our program tonight will span some thirty years, so let's get started.

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I'm pleased to introduce someone you all know as Chicago's Jennifer. 

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Thank you, Gerry. This song has a long history going back to 1928 and composed by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for another Broadway show, "The New Moon". I'm singing to Billie Hollidays', "Lover Come Back" to me. 

Billie Holiday sings, "Lover Come Back to Me," 1944

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Jennifer: 

And while I'm waiting here

This heart of mine is singing

Lover come back to me.....

Gerry: Take a bow, Jennifer.

Our next song will be "I Cried for You" which Billie recorded for the Brunswick recording company in 1936. 

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Sonnie will switch to the sax with this great old tune. 

Sung by our Trio of Jennifer, Callie, and Ella, and they are all hometown gals from the Chicago area.

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Trio: ....that beauty need only be a whisper.

I Cried for You

Gerry: The next great tune, "Willow Weep for Me" was written in 1932 by a woman, Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics. Sung by many different artists over the years, you may even remember the Chad and Jeremy version from the 1965. 

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Tonight we will have the sultry tones of Ella singing this old standby for you, with Tres on guitar and Zara on Strings.

Willow Weep for Me 1954 by Billie Holliday

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.....When the shadows fall, 

bend old willow and 

weep for me, 

Weep, weep, willow, weep...

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Gerry: I'm speechless, great beauty, tone, and great lyrics. Thank you, Ella.

 Next, how about an upbeat number on film with Billie and Satchmo from the 1947 movie, "New Orleans" and "Blues are a Brewin'"was written by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter and originally performed by 

Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday.

That's just yesterday, no a few years ago, well seventy-seven. Phew...and who can stand up to Satchmo.

Now something upbeat...with the Mother-Daughter duo, Ella and Callie. Our ladies performing '

"Too Close for Comfort".

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Callie: Be wise, be smart, behave, my heart
Don't upset your cart when he's so close

Ella: Be soft, be sweet, but be discreet

Don't go off your feet, he's so close for comfort...

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Duo: 

...Too close, too close for comfort, oh, please, not again
Too close, too close to know just when to say ""when""

....
On your guard, take care, 

while there's such temptation
One thing leads to another
Too late to run for cover
He's much too close for comfort now.

Applauding Gerry: Ladies, please take a bow...!

We will end our time with Billie together with "I'll be Seeing You," the music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal. Composed in 1938 for a lost musical that closed after just fifteen performances. Billie was at her best tugging at our own heart's loves and losses.

This standard has endured and Billie Holliday's version is one of the best. Here's our band and our home town gals singing, "I'll be Seeing You."

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Ella:

 I'll be seeing you

 In all the old familiar places

That this heart of mine embraces
All day through...

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Callie:

In that small cafe

The park across the way

The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well...

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Jennifer: 

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way...

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Trio: We'll find you in the morning sun

And when the night is new....

We'll be looking at the moon 

But we'll be seeing you....

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Gerry: I hope you enjoyed our time together. We want to thank our lovely performers:

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Callie, Ella and of course Jennifer for their heartfelt performances. 

Special thanks to our talented band for bringing us back to the days of 

Billie Holliday and the great bands of the 1920's to through the 1950's.

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Tres on guitars.....(Tres riffing.....)

.            

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Zara on Strings...

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Sonnie on horns, sax and clarinet and 

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Gene, "Sticks" on percussion.

Gerry: We thank all our loyal viewers for your continued support for WTTW Channel 11, Chicago and Black History Month.  Without you, these programs would not be possible and of course the great career of 

Miss Billie Holliday!

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Thanks for Viewing:

All recordings are from Youtube share.

Lyrics found on LyricFind

Set design and diorama

   3 Black Foam core-Dollar store

    18" doll backdrop

    Dollar store chairs

    Piano---thrift store repainted

    Drums thrift store 

    Horns- Frenchorn-ornament, clarinet-painted plastic charm, sax-painted plastic charm.

   Ball lights---thrift store

   Dolls all Mattel, except Gerry/Gerard-Fresh doll

   Tuxedos Mattel    

   Gals clothing: Callie/Colette-hand sewn me, Ella-Etsy, Jennifer-China

   Keyboard and microphones-Mattel

Lighting--totally dark room with 3 small gooseneck spot lamps, 1 above, 1 left, 1 right. Photos taken on my phone, edited on computer.

Personal Note: My mother played the radio constantly all through my childhood. I probably know more songs and lyrics from the 30s-60's than any popular music now. There are so many Black artists to choose from, but it was the Big Bands I remembered the most: Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway as my mom's favorites and Billie Holliday crossed all those big band years with her catalog of  standards that are still performed today.  

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Black History: Madame C.J.Walker

I'm Sarah Breedlove, born in 1867 to freed slaves, orphaned in 1874, a washerwoman and servant until I married at the age of 14, and widowed at the age of 19 with a child, Leila. That's a lot for a 19 year old?

                                        

We moved to St. Louis so I could be a laundress for another 17 years. Then, my hair began to fall out in my 30's, and I created a concoction with ingredients from Africa. From old mouth-to-hand recipes, I experimented and refined the formulas and soon I had new hair and the beginnings of a new life.

Credit: New-York Historical Society

I moved to Denver for a better opportunity to sell my new products and arrived in 1905 with only $1.05 in my pocket, but with a trunkful of products designed for African American hair and skin. 

"Wonderful Hair Grower, Glossine, and Vegetable Shampoo were well accepted by the African-American women of Denver. By 1906, C. J. Walker moved to Denver and the two soon married."*2

     

From then on I was known as "Madame C.J.Walker Preparations".  Mr. Walker was a great help for a while, and then we separated. My business and my ambition continued to grow. Again, I had to take care of my family.

The women who sold my products were trained in how to be professional LADY consultants, administer the products, and of course--sell them.

I continued to build my business, filled needs in the market, promoted women's self reliance, and to expand. In 1908 I established a beauty college to teach women the use of all my preparations. We created a national sales force of women personally selling my products. I had traveling agents also teach them how to set up beauty shops in their homes and create businesses of their own.

There is much more to my story, my headquarters in Harlem, the new plant in Indianapolis, my activist years. Yes, I was a force to be reckoned with!

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"¹ 

Madame C.J.Walker, today, is credited with being the first African American woman millionaire. Much of her profits had been given to worthy causes.

This--all because my hair fell out---and I was tired of washing other-peoples' clothes. 

P.S. My formulas are still available in the marketplace to day---found on something called 'Google'.

Doll: an early Nikki

Dress: Vintage Toni dress (she is stuffed to fit this)

Black skirt: new fabric

Hat: unknown vintage

Gloves: Mattel High Society

Cosmetics: assorted vintage Mattel

Victorian cutouts -unknown source.

Notations:

1-A'Lelia Perry Bundles, Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991), 105.

2 National Park Service - https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/walker/WAfacts1.html

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless noted. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

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Sandi Magle

Black History Month: James A. Baldwin, author, activist, playwright, poet,

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Author, Activist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist 1924-1987.

During 1969-70, I was fortunate to take two Black Literature classes at University of Wisconsin-Stout. My instructor was a gentleman from South Africa---they were my most memorable courses of my college days. I wish I could remember his name, but, I do remember all the authors and the books, poems, and essays, we read, dissected, and debated. 

 Google search page James Baldwin books drawing from multiple sources.

At the top of the huge heap of reading for these classes---were the American works of James Baldwin. It was the peak of the civil rights movement. Baldwin was everywhere in the news. Our class had students of all nationalities and skin colors, so debates were heated and searching, no begging for points of understanding. 

This last December a movie adapted from James Baldwin's book, "If Beale Street Could Talk," 1974, was well received critically and currently nominated for several Academy Rewards 2018. I'm pleased that Baldwin is again in the news. Now, I have to read that book.

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Collage/Time Magazine cover --1963 from Google image page

His words were unabashedly truthful and unapologetic in assessing the African American experience. Baldwin's writings were and still are intense and unforgiving on all sides. James Baldwin fought for civil rights with his strong voice in novels, essays and poetry throughout the 20^thcentury. 

Born in Harlem, Baldwin wrote in a powerful voice for the oppressed and worked as an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. His early works of the 1950-60's were produced while still living in Harlem.

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Later, Baldwin considered himself a trans-Atlantic commuter, as he spent considerable time living in France.

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Here I imagine him, vividly alive, and still writing---perhaps at a retrospective event on his career. I have no source for the photo on the right.

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Collages from Pinterest photos and the large photo quote/I could not find the original source.

The quote is powerful and applicable today.

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“The place in which I will fit will not exist until I make it!”James Baldwin

Many of his essays as well as poetry are online…take a look. His words will take your breath away and evoke an emotional, as well as an intellectual response. Not for the faint of heart, his writing disturbs us, as does TRUTH.

"All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up."James Baldwin

Another source of interest, a video compiled for American Masters.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/james-baldwin-civil-rights-highlights/2670/ice 

Features highlights of Baldwin’s deep involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, including “The Fire Next Time,” the March on Washington, the March from Selma to Montgomery and the Baldwin/Buckley Debate at Cambridge University — all excerpted from the film, JamesBaldwin: 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless noted. I will be happy to give credit to the photos I used in the collages. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

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Sandi Magle