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Ethel Waters: Strength and Warmth

© K Cruver

She stylishly introduced some of the most beloved tunes in the American songbook, including St. Louis Blues, Stormy Weather and Am I Blue?, but Ethel Waters has not taken her rightful place alongside Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday as a vocal stylist. Though she only made a few films, today she is remembered more for her screen roles than her singing. Though it is a shame that Waters' rich vocal legacy is not better known, she is rightfully remembered as not only a charismatic musical star, but also a powerful dramatic actress.

She was born October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a thirteen-year-old rape victim. Though her grandmother took responsibility for raising Waters, she was a live-in maid and could only come home on her day off. Without supervision, she ran wild as a child. A series of early growth spurts and a startling command of profane language gave her a commanding presence on the streets. Throughout her childhood she would move constantly, sometimes living with her mother or aunts.

As a child, she danced and sang at church functions, where her talent was widely admired. By her teens, she was performing in vaudeville; the lithe young woman was billed as Sweet Mama Stringbean. She went on to perform at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where she impressed songwriter Irving Berlin so much that he cast her in the Broadway production As Thousands Cheer. She became the first African American woman to be billed equally with her white costars and, a few years later, to star in her own radio show.

She made her first movie appearance in 1929, singing Am I Blue? for the musical On With the Show. She appeared in a few more small roles, including Rufus Jones for President (1933) and Tales of Manhattan (1942), before, at the age of forty-seven, she won her first starring role in Cabin in the Sky (1943). Thereafter, though she would have liked to have made more films, she found that roles were scarce for middle-aged African American women, especially with strong opinions as she had.

Though it is a shame she was not able to perform more on the screen, her small filmography is astonishing. With powerful performances in Cabin in the Sky, Pinky (1949) and The Member of the Wedding (1952), she has earned herself a place among the best film actors.

Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli

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