(SOUNDBITE OF NAOMI MOON SIEGEL’S “IT’S NOT SAFE”)
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I am Terry Gross. Harry Belafonte, the well-known singer, actor, producer and civil rights activist, died Tuesday of congestive coronary heart failure. He was 96. We’ll hear again to the interview I recorded with him in 1993. His obituary in The New York Instances stated, quote, “at a time when segregation was nonetheless widespread and Black faces have been nonetheless a rarity on screens massive and small, Mr. Belafonte’s ascent to the higher echelon of present enterprise was historic,” unquote.
In an appreciation within the Instances, Wesley Morris described Belafonte as a people hero, quote, “he understood methods to dedicate his fame to a politics of accountability extra tenaciously than any star of the civil rights period or in its wake. He helped underwrite the Civil Rights Motion, paying for freedom rides. He maintained a life insurance coverage coverage on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Coretta Scott King because the beneficiary as a result of Dr. King did not consider he might afford it,” unquote. Belafonte helped set up the 1963 March on Washington, at which Dr. King gave his well-known “I Have A Dream” speech. Harry Belafonte first turned identified within the U.S. as a singer together with his 1956 hits “Jamaica Farewell” and “The Banana Boat Tune.” He popularized calypso in America.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DAY-O (THE BANANA BOAT SONG)”)
HARRY BELAFONTE: (Singing) Day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day, is a day-o. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Work all evening on a drink of rum. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Stack banana until the morning come. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Come mister tally man, tally me banana. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Come mister tally man, tally me banana. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Carry six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Day, is a day-o. Daylight come, and we wish go dwelling. Day…
GROSS: Within the Nineteen Fifties, Belafonte began his movie profession starring in such motion pictures as “Carmen Jones” and “Odds In opposition to Tomorrow.” However there have been few roles for Black actors then. And within the ’60s, Belafonte shifted his consideration to the Civil Rights Motion whereas persevering with to behave and to seem on TV. He was born in New York to a Jamaican mom and a father from Martinique. When he was 5, his mom despatched him to Jamaica. He instructed me why after we spoke in 1993.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
BELAFONTE: Effectively, my mom was – my father was continuously away. She was, for all intents and functions, a single mother or father. She was a home employee, a lady who was struggling to recover from as an immigrant on this nation. Her youngsters have been left to the whims of the neighborhood and to the streets of New York. And at a really early age, I used to be hit by an car…
GROSS: Oh.
BELAFONTE: …And was unconscious for a few days at – in Harlem Hospital. And that despatched a horror by way of my mom. And she or he felt that I’d maybe be safer within the mountains of Jamaica than I’d be within the streets of New York and despatched my brother and myself there.
GROSS: What did you consider the concept of going to Jamaica?
BELAFONTE: Effectively, I did not thoughts the concept of going to Jamaica. What actually bothered me was the truth that my mom needed to depart us there. And as soon as once more, there we have been, thrust into the midst of strangers and folks whom we did not know and having to make it on our personal, so to talk. And plus, the truth that we by no means stayed in a single place very lengthy. My brother and I have been fairly nomadic. We simply went from place to position and by no means actually established a way of group and by no means stayed lengthy sufficient with one household to have ourselves in some centered place.
GROSS: Had been the households that you simply stayed with a part of your prolonged household, or have been they strangers?
BELAFONTE: Each. Each prolonged household, in addition to some strangers.
GROSS: Why did not you keep in a single place for a very long time?
BELAFONTE: I feel it was a matter of economics. I feel some individuals discovered two further youngsters to their very own households a little bit of a burden. They have been poor, so we have been continuously shifted from place to position in order that others might assist share the duty. Some locations we have been simply very sad in and did not need to keep and have been despatched to different locations.
GROSS: Now, how did you get again to New York?
BELAFONTE: Effectively, the battle broke out between England and Germany. My mom was satisfied that – like many individuals have been – that the invincible Nazi machine was going to quickly conquer England. And what would occur to all the English possessions, all of their colonies? And she or he feared for that after which introduced us again dwelling after I was 12, and I have been residing in America ever since.
GROSS: Was it laborious to readjust to Harlem?
BELAFONTE: Very laborious. I had an accent from the Caribbean, and I regarded totally different. And I had this dyslexic drawback that I could not alter to the faculties that I used to be in, and my mom appeared to have – has been very a lot a part of that shifting from place to position to position to position. We lived everywhere in the metropolis inside the ghetto wherein we have been pressured to dwell, and we moved from one neighborhood to a different neighborhood, and my mom was all the time chasing work and chasing locations the place she thought we’d have higher lodging for much less cash. So we have been continuously on the transfer.
GROSS: So how have been you first uncovered to theater?
BELAFONTE: Once I got here out of the Second World Warfare, I used to be type of on the lookout for the place to go and what to do. And within the interim, I turned a janitor’s assistant in a constructing, and I repaired the Venetian blinds within the residence of a younger girl by the title of Clarice Taylor, who was identified by many individuals because the mom of Mr. Huxtable on “The Invoice Cosby Present.” And she or he performed the Good Witch in “The Wiz.” She was the tenant within the residence. And I repaired the Venetian blinds. She gave me two tickets to a play at a group theater referred to as the American Negro Theatre, which was on the Harlem Public Library. And I would by no means been to the theater earlier than, and I had this chance, so I went. And when the lights went down and the curtain opened and the gamers walked on, an entire new world opened up for me, and I used to be deeply touched and moved by it. That is how I acquired into theater.
GROSS: Might you clarify what it was that actually reached you concerning the efficiency?
BELAFONTE: I noticed individuals of coloration on a stage articulating a viewpoint on a topic. And I discovered it fairly magical. And I – largely, I noticed individuals in movement doing issues that have been very optimistic and really inventive. And I liked the rhythm of the playwright, the best way the language flowed or the best way individuals answered and spoke to at least one one other. I turned completely concerned. As a matter of reality, on the finish of the play, I went again to thank her for the ticket, and I needed to stand with an extended line of individuals ‘trigger it was the closing evening of the play. And it was a repertory format, and so they have been on the point of arrange the following play and have been taking down the units.
So I pitched in to assist take down the units. And – as a result of I might – I used to be good with my fingers. And I did not begin off desirous to be a performer, I began off simply desirous to be concerned. After which they got here up with a play for the techs to start to dismantle, to learn the way to make us construct a set for it. And the play was Sean O’Casey’s “Juno And The Paycock.” And I turned uncovered to this Irish playwright, who was, I assumed, probably the most unimaginable writers that I would ever learn. And I had not learn that a lot as much as that time.
GROSS: So while you began to check appearing, how did you’re employed on your self to type of rework your self into an actor each by way of the craft but additionally by way of the kind of individual you thought an actor wanted to be?
BELAFONTE: Effectively, after we acquired the play, my job was to work with a gaggle of younger women and men to construct units, and so they wanted somebody to play the younger male lead within the play. And so they did not have anyone inside – both within the faculty on the American Negro Theater or – and those that had auditioned they discovered have been considerably unacceptable. So that they requested me would I play it. And I simply – and within the spirit of teamwork, I accepted being a performer to carry out this half. And after I needed to be taught the phrases after which get into the play, then I used to be deeply touched by the truth that I now had a possibility to interpret and to articulate the phrases of this nice author.
And I needed to do extra of that, and I needed to grow to be proficient within the skill to have the ability to do this. And with a purpose to purchase this proficiency, I needed to go to an establishment that was dedicated totally and solely to this. And it was the New College of Social Analysis. Irwin Piscator, who ran the college, was a German Jew who had escaped Hitler. He was on the Max Reinhardt Theater in Germany. He launched us to Bertolt Brecht and to Jean-Paul Sartre, and he introduced a richness of literature and tradition to the college. Many individuals sought to be in his class, and amongst my classmates have been Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis – only a bunch of us, all younger children simply beginning out, younger women and men desirous to be in theater. And it was in that atmosphere that I developed this nice love and comfortability, actually, with the concept of being an actor.
GROSS: When you fell in love with theater after which acquired your theater coaching and developed into an actor, have been you capable of finding elements?
BELAFONTE: No. That was the irony of all of it. I then needed to take care of racial actuality. Regardless of how a lot I liked this factor, if I did not play within the American Negro Theater or as soon as each millennium when a Black play got here alongside, most of which have been musicals, there could be no alternative, actually, on a full-time foundation. So I used to be fairly ready to flirt with the theater and to do as a lot as I might in it whereas on the lookout for some work that may give me the chance to pay the lease. Earlier than I might even take care of that, I ran out of the federal subsidy that was given to us to be taught, to be on this faculty.
GROSS: From the G.I. Invoice.
BELAFONTE: Yeah, G.I. Invoice of Rights. And what occurred was that I used to be a frequent customer and a devotee of jazz and a frequent customer to a spot referred to as the Royal Roost. And I went there nightly as a result of our faculty was solely two blocks away from the nightclub in the midst of the guts of Broadway. And I struck up a friendship with a younger man named Monte Kay. And he was the promoter and the impresario for every part that went on in that membership. And he had heard me sing in a college play solely as an train for the play. And he then stated to me, nicely, I’ve heard you sing. Why do not you be taught a couple of songs? Are available to the membership. I will make you an intermission singer. And through that point you’ll make sufficient cash to proceed to pursue your research within the faculty if the college will then provide you with a scholarship.
And I went to the directors of the college, and so they gave me a scholarship, and I began to sing to pay my method by way of faculty. The singing then acquired so common, and folks responded so strongly to it that I feared that it might take me away from the theater. And I did not take into account myself a considerably necessary jazz singer. I did not discover that pop music significantly moved me to the locations that I needed to go after this heavy encounter with Shakespeare and Tolstoy and Chekov and all of the issues we have been doing as college students.
So I give up, and – singing, and I opened up a small restaurant with a few different buddies with the cash that I would saved referred to as The Sage in Greenwich Village. And whereas there, learning in the course of the day and dealing at evening, I found the Village Vanguard, a nightclub in New York, which was wealthy with people artists. And I found Leadbelly, and I found Massive Invoice Broonzy. And I found Pete Seeger. I found Woody Guthrie. And far to my amazement and delight, I found Josh White. I noticed these women and men singing songs that got here from all walks of life. It wasn’t simply songs about unrequited love. They have been full of drama. They have been full of characters. They have been full of parables and metaphor. And I noticed in that the chance to use my appearing abilities. And since I had a voice that was pretty snug to listeners, then I’d then have the instrument to have the ability to do that. And I started to develop a repertoire. And with that, I then opened on the Village Vanguard, and I simply have not regarded again since.
GROSS: We’re listening to the interview I recorded with Harry Belafonte in 1993. Let’s pause for a music from his 1958 album “Belafonte Sings The Blues.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MARY ANN”)
BELAFONTE: (Singing) Effectively, howdy, Mary Ann. You understand, you positive look high-quality. Effectively, howdy, Mary Ann. You understand, you positive look high-quality. Effectively, howdy, Mary Ann. I might love you on a regular basis. Oh, Mary Ann, I say, child, do not ? Oh, Mary Ann, nicely, child, do not ? Do not , do not , fairly child, that I really like you so?
GROSS: We’ll hear extra of my 1993 interview with Harry Belafonte after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUDY ROYSTON’S “BED BOBBIN'”)
GROSS: That is FRESH AIR. Let’s get again to the interview I recorded with Harry Belafonte in 1993. He died Tuesday on the age of 96.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
GROSS: You have been actually one of many first individuals from the leisure world to grow to be energetic inside the civil rights motion. Was there a interval that was a turning level or a consciousness-raising interval for you?
BELAFONTE: Sure, after I was born.
GROSS: (Laughter) OK.
BELAFONTE: And it was afterward exercised much more when the battle got here, Second World Warfare, and I acquired into it. And America propagandized us about ending totalitarianism and ending fascism, and ending racial superiority and ending anti-Semitism, and making the world excellent for a significant future. And I believed that. And after I got here again to my dwelling after having performed a tour of obligation and the battle ended, we anticipated that there was going to be some reward for all that we had performed, simply little issues like taking down the segregation indicators as a present to these of us who fought to make America protected and to finish the world with, , from – finish the world’s tyranny. And that did not occur. The choice was to acquiesce and to return to enterprise as standard or to make use of our power and our vitality to make it possible for America would by no means be snug in going again to enterprise as standard. And I made a decision that that is what I’d do as an artist and as a human being and as an individual. That was when my activism began.
Lots of people who didn’t know that a part of my life have made assumptions that it wasn’t till I turned well-known that I then turned to social and political exercise. However that is not true. Paul Robeson was a mentor of mine. I attempted to sample my life after what I noticed him do, his dignity, his power, his braveness. Dr. Du Bois was somebody whom I sought out. I met him unintentionally, and I sought him out afterwards and listened to him converse and listened to his ideas. He was one of many biggest intellects that this nation ever produced and positively one of many biggest within the Black group. And in that atmosphere, these males have been nice social thinkers. Eleanor Roosevelt turned a buddy of mine. She, too, had her personal ideas on social and political circumstances.
GROSS: How did you meet Martin Luther King?
BELAFONTE: He referred to as me. I used to be in New York. And he was coming right here to go to for the primary time in Harlem at Adam Clayton Powell’s church, the Abyssinian. He was speaking to a gaggle of individuals from the clergy and requested would I meet him after that assembly. And I stated, sure. And we met within the basement of the church.
GROSS: And also you turned fairly good buddies?
BELAFONTE: Superb buddies, turned very, very shut after I spoke to him within the room and he instructed me of his mission and what he hoped to have the ability to obtain, albeit he did not know fairly the place the trail would lead us. However he knew that it was a battle that needed to be made. And he wanted everybody he might get and requested me if I’d be part of. I stated, sure, I’d.
GROSS: You are about to carry out in New York. How do you’re feeling concerning the outdated songs that you simply recorded within the ’50s?
BELAFONTE: I really feel excellent about them. I assumed they have been songs that have been very a lot instructive. I assumed they introduced individuals to locations that they’d by no means been earlier than. And I feel it make them take concentrate on a gaggle of individuals in a area that they maybe knew nothing about. Paul Robeson as soon as stated to me, get individuals to sing your music and so they should – then they’re going to be required to know who you’re.
GROSS: There is a sure raspiness to your talking voice. Does that come by way of in your singing voice, too, now?
BELAFONTE: No, as a result of I interact totally different muscular tissues. Once I sing, my diaphragm kicks in additional totally and I mission extra totally. I am inclined to speak softly. And air escapes due to a tilted larynx, which I’ve, which allows air to return out in a free-flow, uncontrolled method that I’d not ordinarily have have been my larynx straight. But it surely was an act of delivery. And as a matter of reality, the print of my voice I like very a lot. It is like Louis Armstrong or others who’ve a voice that is simply very totally different from everybody else’s. And what it pressured me to do was to interpret materials in a method that may accommodate this obstacle or this imperfection, and subsequently gave me a really distinctive method to my singing that folks preferred. And I liked it. And I took nice confidence in the truth that one didn’t want – I feel in case you’ve acquired it, it is best to sound like a Pavarotti or sound like a Leontyne Value or no matter. However after I heard individuals like Walter Huston sing, who had a gruffy voice, and after I listened to different singers, I used to be assured that I might transfer comfortably on the earth of artwork and be accepted for what I used to be.
GROSS: I need to thanks very a lot for telling us a few of your story. Thanks very a lot for being with us.
BELAFONTE: Thanks.
GROSS: My interview with Harry Belafonte was recorded in 1993. He died Tuesday of congestive coronary heart failure. He was 96. After we take a brief break, we’ll hear from a doula who works with pregnant ladies, whether or not they plan on giving delivery or having an abortion. And David Bianculli will evaluate the brand new eight-episode drama “Deadly Attraction,” a remodeling of the 1987 movie of the identical title. I am Terry Gross, and that is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MATILDA”)
BELAFONTE: (Singing) Hey. Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela. As soon as once more now. Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela. 5 hundred {dollars}, buddies, I misplaced. Girl even promote me cat and horse. Hey, Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela. Everyone. Matilda. Sing out the refrain. Matilda. Sing a bit louder. Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela. As soon as once more now. Matilda – going across the nook. Matilda. Sing out the refrain. Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE MIDNIGHT HOUR’S “BETTER ENDEAVOR”)
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