Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American singer and actress. 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. The all-black version of Hello, Dolly! played on Broadway from 1967 to 1969 and garnered Bailey the theatre's highest honor, the Tony Award. Pearl Bailey’s career spanned nearly fifty years in all forms from Vaudeville to Broadway to Cinema. Her unique delivery, which included ad-libbing and bantering back and forth with the audience, added to her personability and charisma. Throughout her life she performed with her husband, jazz drummer Louie Bellson and other notable musicians such as Louis Armstrong on USO tours entertaining troops overseas. 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. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. .
Childhood and Career Highlights
She was born in Newport News, Virginia, (also the birth place of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald) to Rev. Joseph & Ella Mae Bailey. 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. Pearl Bailey had ancestral lines on both sides of her family descended from the Cree Indians.
Although 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 a preacher. 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. After winning a talent contest at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, Pearl dropped out of high school to pursue a career on the vaudeville circuit. Later in life, she would return to her lifelong dream of receiving a higher education by entering college at Georgetown Unversity in her late 60s.
She made her Broadway debut in the all black musical St. Louis Woman in 1946 produced by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. This was a breakthrough role that took Pearl from Vaudeville to Broadway. Her debut earned her the Donaldson Award as best newcomer on Broadway that year. 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 humorous and folksy style was well loved by audiences; she was affectionately called “Pearley Mae” by her fans and close friends. 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, Wont' You Please Come Home." The London Times described her "throw-away style," as it would come to be known, as:
- ...seemingly haphazard but in fact cunningly controlled lapses of vocal concentration causing the lyrics to disappear under a groundsell of mumbled monologue which always slipped back into the rhythmic pattern of the song with unerring accuracy.
Also during the 1940s she debuted as a soloist with Big Bands such as the Edgar Hayes Orchestra. Taking her act overseas she performed with other Jazz greats such as Count Basie and Noble Sissie on USO (United Service Organization) tours entertaining American troops during World War II.
After finding success with cabarets and stage productions she went on to try her talents in film. Her first movie was paramount's Vaiety Girl. In the movie she sang, what would become one 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. Later that year she played the role of "Aunt Hagar" in the movie St. Louis Blues alongside Mahalia Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and Nat King Cole. Another memorable stage performance, in 1954, was that of "Madame Fleur" in the Truman Capote musical House of Flowers.
She was a featured performer at President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration in 1957 beginning what would become a lifelong aside to her career - entertaining at the White House.
In 1967, at what must be heralded as the pinnacle of her career, Pearl Bailey played the lead role Of "Dolly" in the all-black Broadway revival of Hello Dolly!. She played opposite former nightclub entertainer and friend Cab Calloway. Pearl received unanimous raves for her work and was presented with a special Tony award for her performance. The Broadway production which ran for two years was forced to close due to Bailey's health concerns related to her ongoing heart problems.
Marriage, United Nations, and Education
In 1942 Pearl Bailey married fourth husband, Louie Bellson, an accomplished Jazz drummer who often performed backup for Pearl. Their's was an inter-racial marriage that lasted nearly forty years, until Pearl's death in 19 from heart failure. Together they adopted two children, Tony and DeeDee. They travelled often in the U.S. and abroad performing at events hosted by a wide array of world leaders from Anwar Sadat of Egypt (who was later assassinated), to the former Shah of Iran and King Hussein of Jordan among others. For many years Pearl Bailey and other entertainers performed on USO tours, the king of these tours according to Bailey being the perennially loved comedienBob Hope.
As a Special Ambassador to the United Nations Bailey's performances - and speeches - raised awareness for AIDS research and included visiting children in refugee camps in both Palestine and Africa. put dates of some of these trips...
Pearl Bailey was given an honorary degree by Georgetown University in 1978, and while receiving her degree she stunned and delighted her audience by telling them that she planned to return to college there the following year. After five years of studying and midterms, like her much younger Georgetown cohorts, she graduated with a B.A. in Theology, in 1985. She was sixty seven years young. At first Pearl majored in French and when asked why she switched from French to Theology she said, "Because it's easier to know the Lord than it is to know French. In her memoir, Between You and Me she encouraged other senior citizens to puruse their dreams.
Books and Awards
Awards Women's International Center presented the Living Legacy Award to Miss Pearl Bailey, on March 11, 1989. She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988 by President Ronald Reagan.
Pearl Bailey died from heart failure in 1990 at the age of 72.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bailey, Pearl, The Raw Pearl. New York: Harcourt, 1968. ISBN 0151759308
- Bailey, Pearl, Talking to Myself. New York: Harcourt, 1971. ASIN B000DCO646
- Bailey, Pearl, Between You and Me: A Heartfelt Memoir on Learning, Loving, and Living. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0385262027
- Bailey, Pearl, Pearl’s Kitchen: An Extraordinary Cookbook. New York: Harcourt, 1973. ISBN 0151716005
- Bailey, Pearl, Duey’s Tale. New York: Harcourt, 1975. ISBN 0151265763
- Bailey, Pearl, Hurry Up, America, and Spit. New York: Harcourt, 1976. ISBN 0151430004
External links
- The African American Registry
- Women's History
- Women's International Center
- Norfolk Music Legends
- Daily Celebrations
- Bailey Poster
- Pearl Bailey's Gravesite
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bailey, Pearl Mae |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 29 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Southampton County, Virginia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 17 1990 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | West Chester, Pennsylvania |
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