Ethel Waters

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Born: 31 October 1896 Died: 1 September 1977

Country of origin: United States

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Description: Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recordings include "Dinah," "Stormy Weather," "Taking a Chance on Love," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time," "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky," as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Waters was the second African American, after Hattie Mc Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

Her best-known recordings include "Dinah," "Stormy Weather," "Taking a Chance on Love," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time," "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky," as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. She is also the first African American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962.

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been thirteen years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed-race middle-class background. Waters played no role in raising Ethel. Ethel Waters was raised in poverty and never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family."

Waters grew tall, standing 5'9½" in her teens. According to women-in-jazz historian and archivist Rosetta Reitz, Waters' birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures.

Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for $4.75 per week. On her 17th birthday, she attended a costume party at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs, and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore, MD. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage. ... (more)

Tags: Died 1977 (2), Born 1896 (2), 1950s (1), 1940s (1), American (1), Singer (1), Supporting Actress (1), Stage Actress (1), Film Actress (1)

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1. His Eye Is On The Sparrow: An Autobiography (Quality Paperbacks Series)

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2. To Me It's Wonderful

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Music

1. Incomparable Ethel Waters (2003)

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2. Ethel Waters' Greatest Years

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The Black Excellence Collection (59 person items)

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Tribute...Black excellance (161 person items)

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Black American Firsts in Film and Theatre (70 person items)

"If you’re not familiar with her name, actress and singer Ethel Waters is someone you should do a little research on. Though she got her start in the 1920s singing blues, it was her 1962 Emmy nomination that helped her make history. Along with becoming the first Black woman to ever be nominated for the award, Waters — contrary to popular belief — became the first African-American to star in her own television show, ‘The Ethel Waters Show’, in 1939."