The tragic life & career of groundbreaking singer-actress Ethel Waters

Hour 2

The singers Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald were influenced by her. Lena Horne described her as “the mother of us all.” The Chester, Pennsylvania-born singer and actress Ethel Waters started her career out in black vaudeville, became one of the first African American women of the early 20^th century to be heard on the radio, perform in Broadway shows, and star in a network TV sitcom. Many of the songs she’s known for are staples in the Great American Songbook, including: “Am I Blue,” “Suppertime” and “Stormy Weather.” We’ll talk to film scholar DONALD BOGLE to help understand the ambitious entertainer who broke racial barriers with destitute beginnings: Waters was the product of a rape-at-knife-point. His recent book is “Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters.”

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