|
Herb Jeffries (born Umberto Alexander Valentino; September 24, 1913 – May 25, 2014) was an American actor of film and television and popular music and jazz singer-songwriter, known of his baritone voice, he was of African descent and was Hollywood's first singing black cowboy In the 1940s and 1950s Jeffries recorded for a number of labels, including RCA Victor, Exclusive, Coral, Decca, Bethlehem, Columbia, Mercury and Trend. His album ''Jamaica'', recorded by RKO, is a concept album of self-composed calypso songs. He starred in several low-budget "race"〔 Western feature films aimed at black audiences, ''Harlem on the Prairie'' (1937), ''Two-Gun Man from Harlem'' (1938), ''Rhythm Rodeo'' (1938), ''The Bronze Buckaroo'' (1939) and ''Harlem Rides the Range'' (1939). He also acted in several other films and television shows. During his acting career he was usually billed as Herbert Jeffrey〔 (sometimes Herbert Jeffries, Sensational Singing Cowboy or simply Herbert Jeffries).〔http://www.b-westerns.com/herbj.htm〕 ==Early life and ethnicity== Jeffries was born Umberto Alexander Valentino in Detroit to a white Irish mother〔 who ran a rooming house. His father, whom he never knew, was of mixed Sicilian, French, Italian and Moorish roots.〔Feather, Leonard. "Jeffries, Herb" profile, ''Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' (Oxford UP, 1999). p. 354.〕〔Manzoor, Sarfraz. "(From Our Own Correspondent – The Black Cowboy )." ''BBC Radio 4.'' First aired on March 21, 2013. Segment on Jeffries begins at 22:10. Accessed March 22, 2013.〕〔"Jeffries, Herb" profile at (Biography and Genealogy Master Index ) (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013); accessed March 23, 2013.〕 He also claimed that his paternal great-grandmother was an Ethiopian with the surname of Carey. Firm evidence of Jeffries’s race and age is hard to come by, but census documents from 1920 described him as mulatto and listed his father as a black man named Howard Jeffrey. Jeffries himself, late in life, said that Howard Jeffrey was his stepfather. He said his biological father was Domenico Balentino, a Sicilian who died in World War I.〔 Jeffries once described himself in an interview as "three-eighths Negro", claiming pride in an African-American heritage during a period when many light-skinned black performers were attempting "to pass" as all-white in an effort to broaden their commercial appeal. In marked contrast, Jeffries used make-up to darken his skin in order to pursue a career in jazz and to be seen as employable by the leading all-black musical ensembles of the day.〔 Much later in his career, Jeffries identified as white for economic or highly personal reasons. ''Jet'' reported that Jeffries identified as White and stated his "real" name as "Herbert Jeffrey Ball" on an application in order to marry Tempest Storm in 1959.〔Johnson, John H., ed. "(Herb Jeffries Lists Self 'White' )". ''Jet''. June 11, 1959. pp. 48–49; accessed March 22, 2013.〕 Jeffries told the reporter for ''Jet'': Raised in Detroit, Jeffries grew up "a ghetto baby" in a mixed neighborhood without encountering severe racism as a child. In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he dropped out of high school to earn a living as a singer.〔 He showed great interest in singing during his formative teenage years and was often found hanging out with the Howard Buntz Orchestra at various Detroit ballrooms.〔 Intensely musical from boyhood, he began performing in a local speakeasy where he caught the attention of Louis Armstrong, who gave the teenager a note of recommendation for Erskine Tate at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago. Knowing that Tate fronted an all-black band, Jeffries claimed to be a Creole, and was offered a position as a featured singer three nights a week. Later he toured with Earl "Fatha" Hines's Orchestra in the Deep South.〔 A 2007 documentary short describes Jeffries as "assuming the identity of a man of color" early in his career. He is shown in ''Black/White & All That Jazz'' explaining that he was inspired by New Orleans-born musician Louis Armstrong to say falsely, at a job interview in Chicago, that he was "a Creole from Louisiana" when he was of Irish and Sicilian heritage, among other ethnic backgrounds.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Herb Jeffries」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|