Title
Heat wave : the life and career of Ethel Waters / Donald Bogle.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780061241734
0061241733
Imprint
New York : HarperCollins, c2011.
Language
English
Description
xii, 624 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
Call Number
ML420.W24 B64 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification
782.42164092 B
Summary
Almost no other star of the twentieth century reimagined herself with such audacity and durable talent as did Ethel Waters. In this enlightening and engaging biography, Donald Bogle resurrects this astonishing woman from the annals of history, shedding new light on the tumultuous twists and turns of her seven-decade career, which began in Black vaudeville and reached new heights in the steamy nightclubs of 1920s Harlem. Bogle traces Waters' life from her poverty-stricken childhood to her rise in show business; her career as one of the early blues and pop singers, with such hits as "Am I Blue?," "Stormy Weather," and "Heat Wave"; her success as an actress, appearing in such films and plays as The Member of the Wedding and Mamba's Daughters; and through her lonely, painful final years. He illuminates Waters' turbulent private life, including her complicated feelings toward her mother and various lovers; her heated and sometimes well-known feuds with such entertainers as Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne; and her tangled relationships with such legends as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Harold Clurman, Elia Kazan, Count Basie, Darryl F. Zanuck, Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann, Moss Hart, and John Ford. In addition, Bogle explores the ongoing racial battles, growing paranoia, and midlife religious conversion of this bold, brash, wildly talented woman while examining the significance of her highly publicized life to audiences unaccustomed to the travails of a larger-than-life African American woman. Wonderfully atmospheric, richly detailed, and drawn from an array of candid interviews, Heat Wave vividly brings to life a major cultural figure of the twentieth century--a charismatic, complex, and compelling woman, both tragic and triumphant [Publisher description]
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Two women, two cities
On the road
The Big Apple
Back in the city
Broadway beckons
Stretching boundaries : Hollywood and Europe
Depression era blues, depression era heroine
Broadway star
A woman of the people, back on Broadway
A chance encounter
Waiting for Mamba
Living high
Mamba's daughters, at last
Eddie
On the run
California dreaming
Settling in
The making of cabin
Aftermath
Scandal
An ill wind
Coming back
The long winter of her discontent
A new day
Life away from the team
On her own again.
