![]() ![]() She was a featured performer at President Dwight D. Another memorable stage performance, in 1954, was that of "Madame Fleur" in the Truman Capote musical House of Flowers. Louis Blues alongside Mahalia Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and Nat King Cole. Later that year she played the role of "Aunt Hagar" in the movie St. In the movie she sang what would become one of her signature numbers, "Tired." In the 1950s, she played important roles in two all-black major studio musicals: that of "Frankie" in Carmen Jones (1954) an updated musical rendition of Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, also starring Harry Belafonte, and that of "Maria" in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, also starring Sidney Poitier. Her first movie was Paramount's Variety Girl. Taking her act overseas she performed with other Jazz greats such as Count Basie on USO tours entertaining American troops during World War II.Īfter finding success with cabarets and stage productions she went on to try her talents in film. seemingly haphazard but in fact cunningly controlled lapses of vocal concentration causing the lyrics to disappear under a groundswell of mumbled monologue which always slipped back into the rhythmic pattern of the song with unerring accuracy.ĭuring the 1940s, she debuted as a soloist with Big Bands such as the Edgar Hayes Orchestra and the Cootie Williams band. ![]() The London Times described her "throw-away style," as it would come to be known, as: Her singing voice was described as throaty with a low growl best suited to jazzy classics such as Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye) and Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home. Her humorous and folksy style was well loved by audiences she was affectionately called “Pearley Mae” by her fans and close friends. She honed her distinctive style of entertaining through her nightclub act performing with Cab Calloway, who would become a life long friend, at the Zanzibar Nightclub on Broadway. Her debut earned her the Donaldson Award as best newcomer on Broadway that year. This was a breakthrough role that took Bailey from Vaudeville to Broadway. Louis Woman, produced by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. In 1946, she made her Broadway debut in the all black musical St. Later in life, she would return to her dream of receiving a higher education by entering college at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. After winning a talent contest at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, Bailey dropped out of high school to pursue a career on the vaudeville circuit. Her parents divorced when she was four and the children divided their time between their mother’s home in Philadelphia and their father’s in Washington D.C. Pearl Bailey had ancestral lines on both sides of her family that were descended from the Cree Indians.Īlthough Pearl Bailey had no official music education, she attributed her love of song and dance to her childhood experience in a Pentecostal "holy roller" church where her father was the preacher. She had two sisters, Virgie and Eura and a brother, Willie “Bill” Bailey whose career as a tap dancer was revitalized through the movie Taps starring Gregory Hines in 1989. ![]() She was born in Newport News, Virginia, (also the birth place of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald) to Rev. ![]() In 1988, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was appointed an “ambassador of love” by President Richard Nixon in 1970, and went on to serve as a special ambassador to the United Nations through three more presidential administrations. Throughout her life she performed with her husband, jazz drummer Louie Bellson and other notable musicians such as Louis Armstrong on USO tours that entertained troops overseas. Her unique delivery, which included ad-libbing and bantering back and forth with the audience, added to her personability and charisma. Bailey’s career spanned nearly fifty years in all forms of entertainment from Vaudeville to Broadway to Cinema. The all-black version of Hello, Dolly! played on Broadway from 1967 to 1969, and garnered Bailey the theater's highest honor, the Tony Award. She is probably most remembered for her role as matchmaker "Dolly Gallagher Levi" in David Merrick's production of Hello Dolly!-a part first created on Broadway by Carol Channing. Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918–August 17, 1990) was an American singer and actress. Louis Woman”, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1946 ![]()
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