![]() ![]() Thereafter Bailey kept busy with a steady round of nightclub appearances, stage plays, and movies. Her two numbers, "A Woman's Prerogative" and "Legalize My Name," were considered the highlights of an otherwise average show, and Bailey received the 1946 Donaldson Award as best newcomer on Broadway. In 1946 she made her Broadway debut with a major role in St. Bailey worked 20 weeks with Calloway at the Zanzibar nightclub on Broadway and forged a friendship with him that would last for decades. The entertainer's fame was assured in 1945, when she signed on as a stand-in with Cab Calloway and his orchestra. She had a special way of styling a song, with a flavor of jazz and often some worldly wise aside on the music's sentiment." The critic added: "Bailey inherited a special tradition of earthy, sexually aware singing from such pioneers as Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday, tidied it up a bit for general consumption and won an enthusiastic following in nightclubs." Her voice had a pleasant tone, an impressive clarity and a way of projecting words with exquisite care. McLellan wrote: "The public image projected through Bailey's songs was less earth mother than earthy. That advice helped her to create a signature style-easy and personal, with throwaway lines and jokes added between and during songs. She was working at the Village Vanguard in New York City in 1944, when the owner suggested she loosen up and be herself onstage. servicemen.Īfter the war Bailey became a headliner in her own right. (United Service Organizations) troupe, entertaining stateside U.S. The onset of World War II found her touring the country with a U.S.O. For 15 dollars a week she sang in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Pottsville before graduating to larger venues in Washington, D.C. Soon thereafter she set out on a club circuit that took her through the rough-and-tumble coal mining towns of central Pennsylvania. She was undaunted, however the brief experience on stage convinced her that it was the only career for her.īailey entered and won another amateur contest, this time at the renowned Apollo Theatre in New York City. Unfortunately, the theater had hit hard times, and it closed before Bailey could be paid for her services. ![]() She sang "Poor Butterfly" and won first prize-five dollars and a two-week engagement at the theater. One night when he was late returning home for dinner, she went down to get him and wound up entered in an amateur-night contest. Her brother was a professional tap dancer who often worked at the city's Pearl Theatre. It was in Philadelphia, during her teens, that Bailey was introduced to show business. When she was only four her parents divorced, and she moved with her two sisters and brother, first to Washington, D.C. Her father was an evangelical minister, and from her earliest years she sang and danced during his church services. Pearl Mae Bailey was born in the small town of Newport News, Virginia, in 1918. She was, first and foremost, a vaudevillian who relished the intimacy of live performances." was a star of the old school, a performer who could wow you with the expressive power of her art or bowl you over with the acuity of her intellect. "Here was no skinny starlet of small renown," wrote Karl Stark in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the Washington Post, Joseph McLellan called Bailey "America's ambassador of love," adding: "She used her voice-and her heart-to become an eloquent advocate for the poor, oppressed and suffering, working to promote interracial harmony and more recently to help those worldwide suffering from AIDS."īailey began singing on the lightly comic vaudeville theater circuit in the early 1930s, eventually carrying her special talents into the largest nightclubs and onto the Broadway stage. ![]() Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford. The energetic and personable Bailey was beloved by three generations of theater and movie fans, and was the favorite of presidents Dwight D. Pearl Bailey's sudden death at the age of 72 deprived America of one of its best-known goodwill ambassadors. Education: Georgetown University, B.A., 1985. (a jazz drummer), Novemchildren: Tony, DeeDee. Full name Pearl Mae Bailey born March 29, 1918, in Newport News, VA died of heart failure, August 17, 1990, in Philadelphia, PA daughter of Joseph James (a minister) and Ella Mae Bailey married fourth husband, Louis Bellson, Jr. ![]()
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