(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 pay attention 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 had been nonetheless a rarity on screens giant 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 folks hero, quote, “he understood learn how 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 may 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 grew to become recognized within the U.S. as a singer along 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 would like go dwelling. Work all evening on a drink of rum. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Stack banana until the morning come. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Come mister tally man, tally me banana. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Come mister tally man, tally me banana. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Carry six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Six-foot, seven-foot, eight-foot bunch. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Day, is a day-o. Daylight come, and we would like go dwelling. Day…
GROSS: Within the Nineteen Fifties, Belafonte began his movie profession starring in such films as “Carmen Jones” and “Odds Towards 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 look 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 advised me why once we spoke in 1993.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
BELAFONTE: Properly, 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 had 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 vehicle…
GROSS: Oh.
BELAFONTE: …And was unconscious for a few days at – in Harlem Hospital. And that despatched a horror via my mom. And he or she felt that I might maybe be safer within the mountains of Jamaica than I might be within the streets of New York and despatched my brother and myself there.
GROSS: What did you consider the thought of going to Jamaica?
BELAFONTE: Properly, I did not thoughts the thought 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 had 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 had been fairly nomadic. We simply went from place to position and by no means actually established a way of neighborhood 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 had 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 believe it was a matter of economics. I believe some folks discovered two further youngsters to their very own households a little bit of a burden. They had been poor, so we had been continuously shifted from place to position in order that others may assist share the duty. Some locations we had been simply very sad in and did not wish to keep and had been despatched to different locations.
GROSS: Now, how did you get again to New York?
BELAFONTE: Properly, the struggle broke out between England and Germany. My mom was satisfied that – like many individuals had been – that the invincible Nazi machine was going to quickly conquer England. And what would occur to the entire English possessions, all of their colonies? And he or she feared for that after which introduced us again dwelling after I was 12, and I have been dwelling in America ever since.
GROSS: Was it onerous to readjust to Harlem?
BELAFONTE: Very onerous. I had an accent from the Caribbean, and I regarded totally different. And I had this dyslexic downside 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 had been compelled to dwell, and we moved from one neighborhood to a different neighborhood, and my mom was at all times chasing work and chasing locations the place she thought we might have higher lodging for much less cash. So we had been continuously on the transfer.
GROSS: So how had been you first uncovered to theater?
BELAFONTE: Once I got here out of the Second World Struggle, I used to be sort of on the lookout for the place to go and what to do. And within the interim, I grew to become a janitor’s assistant in a constructing, and I repaired the Venetian blinds within the residence of a younger lady by the title of Clarice Taylor, who was recognized by many individuals because the mom of Mr. Huxtable on “The Invoice Cosby Present.” And he or she 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 neighborhood 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 bought into theater.
GROSS: Might you clarify what it was that basically reached you in regards to the efficiency?
BELAFONTE: I noticed folks of colour on a stage articulating a viewpoint on a topic. And I discovered it fairly magical. And I – largely, I noticed folks in movement doing issues that had been very constructive and really artistic. And I beloved the rhythm of the playwright, the best way the language flowed or the best way folks answered and spoke to at least one one other. I grew to become 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 had been on the brink of arrange the subsequent play and had been taking down the units.
So I pitched in to assist take down the units. And – as a result of I may – I used to be good with my palms. And I did not begin off eager to be a performer, I began off simply eager 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 grew to become uncovered to this Irish playwright, who was, I assumed, one of the unbelievable writers that I would ever learn. And I had not learn that a lot as much as that time.
GROSS: So whenever you began to check appearing, how did you’re employed on your self to sort of remodel your self into an actor each when it comes to the craft but additionally when it comes to the kind of individual you thought an actor wanted to be?
BELAFONTE: Properly, once we bought the play, my job was to work with a bunch 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 had been considerably unacceptable. In order 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 chance 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 potential to have the ability to try this. And with a view 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 varsity, 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 varsity. Many individuals sought to be in his class, and amongst my classmates had been Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis – only a bunch of us, all younger youngsters simply beginning out, younger women and men eager to be in theater. And it was in that setting that I developed this nice love and comfortability, actually, with the thought of being an actor.
GROSS: When you fell in love with theater after which bought your theater coaching and developed into an actor, had been you capable of finding components?
BELAFONTE: No. That was the irony of all of it. I then needed to cope with racial actuality. Irrespective of how a lot I beloved 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 had been musicals, there can 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 may in it whereas on the lookout for some work that will give me the chance to pay the hire. Earlier than I may even cope with 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 all the pieces 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, properly, I’ve heard you sing. Why do not you be taught just a few songs? Are available to the membership. I will make you an intermission singer. And through that point you can make sufficient cash to proceed to pursue your research within the faculty if the varsity will then offer you a scholarship.
And I went to the directors of the varsity, and so they gave me a scholarship, and I began to sing to pay my method via faculty. The singing then bought so widespread, and folks responded so strongly to it that I feared that it could take me away from the theater. And I did not contemplate myself a considerably vital jazz singer. I did not discover that pop music notably 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 had 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 throughout the day and dealing at evening, I found the Village Vanguard, a nightclub in New York, which was wealthy with folks 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 had been crammed with drama. They had been crammed with characters. They had been crammed with 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 might 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 tune from his 1958 album “Belafonte Sings The Blues.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MARY ANN”)
BELAFONTE: (Singing) Properly, hi there, Mary Ann. , you positive look superb. Properly, hi there, Mary Ann. , you positive look superb. Properly, hi there, Mary Ann. I may love you on a regular basis. Oh, Mary Ann, I say, child, do not you already know? Oh, Mary Ann, properly, child, do not you already know? Do not you already know, do not you already know, 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 had been actually one of many first folks 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 in a while exercised much more when the struggle got here, Second World Struggle, and I bought into it. And America propagandized us about ending totalitarianism and ending fascism, and ending racial superiority and ending anti-Semitism, and making the world good for a significant future. And I believed that. And after I got here again to my dwelling after having carried out a tour of obligation and the struggle ended, we anticipated that there was going to be some reward for all that we had carried out, 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, you already know, from – finish the world’s tyranny. And that did not occur. The choice was to acquiesce and to return to enterprise as common or to make use of our power and our vitality to be sure that America would by no means be snug in going again to enterprise as common. And I made a decision that that is what I might 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 grew to become 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 by accident, and I sought him out afterwards and listened to him communicate and listened to his ideas. He was one of many best intellects that this nation ever produced and definitely one of many best within the Black neighborhood. And in that setting, these males had been nice social thinkers. Eleanor Roosevelt grew to become a good friend 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 bunch 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 grew to become fairly good buddies?
BELAFONTE: Excellent buddies, grew to become very, very shut after I spoke to him within the room and he advised 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 struggle that needed to be made. And he wanted everybody he may get and requested me if I might be a part of. I stated, sure, I might.
GROSS: You are about to carry out in New York. How do you are feeling in regards to the outdated songs that you simply recorded within the ’50s?
BELAFONTE: I really feel superb about them. I assumed they had been songs that had been very a lot instructive. I assumed they introduced folks to locations that they’d by no means been earlier than. And I believe it make them take concentrate on a bunch of individuals in a area that they maybe knew nothing about. Paul Robeson as soon as stated to me, get folks to sing your tune and so they should – then they’re going to be required to know who you might be.
GROSS: There is a sure raspiness to your talking voice. Does that come via in your singing voice, too, now?
BELAFONTE: No, as a result of I have interaction totally different muscle groups. Once I sing, my diaphragm kicks in additional totally and I mission extra totally. I am susceptible 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 might not ordinarily have had been my larynx straight. Nevertheless it 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 compelled me to do was to interpret materials in a method that will accommodate this obstacle or this imperfection, and subsequently gave me a really distinctive method to my singing that individuals favored. And I beloved it. And I took nice confidence in the truth that one didn’t want – I believe in the event you’ve bought it, it’s best to sound like a Pavarotti or sound like a Leontyne Value or no matter. However after I heard folks like Walter Huston sing, who had a gruffy voice, and after I listened to different singers, I used to be assured that I may transfer comfortably on the planet of artwork and be accepted for what I used to be.
GROSS: I wish 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 girls, 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 transforming 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. Lady even promote me cat and horse. Hey, Matilda, she take me cash and run Venezuela. All people. Matilda. Sing out the refrain. Matilda. Sing just a little 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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