Twin sisters Emi and Yumi Ito were discovered singing in a small club in their native Nagoya, Japan. Their act consisted of Japanese-translated covers of popular songs mixed with traditional Japanese folk songs. They were signed by Sho Watanabe of the powerhouse talent agency Watanabe Productions. Watanabe controlled and represented the vast majority of the entertainment industry in 1960s Japan. The sisters, now dubbed The Peanuts, recorded the pop number “Kawaii Hana.” It became an instant hit. A string of Japanese hits followed. They toured extensively, delighting audiences with their unique ability to sound like a single voice recorded with reverb. This was achieved with simultaneous singing. Since the girls were nearly identical, their voices were at similar timbre, as well.

Soon, The Peanuts were appearing internationally, with stints in the United States on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Danny Kaye show. They established a reciprocal relationship with German singer Caterina Valente. They traded cover songs with Valente and gained a loyal following in West Germany.

In 1961, The Peanuts were tapped to appear in the sci-fi film Mothra from famed Toho Studios. The sisters played “Shobijin” (little beauties), a pair of tiny fairy spokespersons for the mighty title monster. They reprised the roles in the 1964 releases Mothra vs. Godzilla and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Japanese women in the entertainment business in the 1960s were expected to maintain certain social status, and the pursuit of a career after marriage was frowned upon by the rigid rules of society. Emi married in 1975, forcing The Peanuts into immediate retirement. The sisters disappeared from the public eye until 2012, when Emi’s obituary appeared in Japanese newspapers. She was 71. Four years later, Yumi passed away.

Comments

comments

Aida Overton Walker refused to be a stereotype.

Born in New York City in 1880, Aida had extensive musical training and joined The Octoroons, a notable performing group of the late 19th century. Soon, the teenage Aida joined the Black Patti Troubadours, another popular singing and dancing group. Although the group consisted of dozens of performers, Aida stood out and became a featured vocalist and dancer.

Aida joined up with renowned comedy team Bert Williams and George Walker, and appeared in all of their shows. Soon, she married Walker and became the director and choreographer of all of their productions, in addition to a featured performer.

A talented dancer, Aida enhanced and elaborated upon popular dances and became known as “The Queen of the Cakewalk,” a seductive dance popular around the turn of the 20th century. She refused to play the typical roles reserved for female African-American performers, shunning slaves and servants in favor of high society ladies.

Aida and her husband, along with Williams, toured the country, often breaking new ground by performing in vaudeville venues that typically banned African-Americans. The troupe’s popularity was too great for prejudice. George Walker, however, took ill and Aida retired to care for him. George passed away in 1911. Aida took to the stage within two months with a tribute show, performing his songs, dances and jokes in his clothing.

She worked for charitable causes and as a mentor for aspiring young female African-American performers. She helped with and served as an inspiration for costumes and dance routines, in hopes of squashing the perception that African-American women were loose and promiscuous and passing along her vision of African-American performance as refined and elegant. In the last years of her life, she produced shows for two such female groups — the Porto Rico Girls and the Happy Girls.

Aida passed away suddenly in 1914 at the age of 34. But, she set the stage for the likes of Lottie Gee, Florence Mills, Ethel Waters and Josephine Baker.

Comments

comments

Hattie McDaniel is one of the most talented actresses and one of the most underrated actress ever to come out of Hollywood.

After a successful beginning as an actress, singer and songwriter with her brother’s minstrel show, she toured with the Melody Hounds, a singing group. A radio performance by The Melody Hounds led to Hattie making a number of recording for Okeh Records, a label with a predominately African-American roster. Of the many tracks she recorded, only four were issued.

After the stock market crash in 1929, Hattie could only find work as a washroom attendant and waitress at Club Madrid in Milwaukee. Despite the owner’s reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular attraction. Shortly afterwards, she moved to Los Angeles with her brother Sam and her sister Etta, also aspiring actors. One of her first show biz jobs upon her arrival in Los Angeles was on a radio show performing as “Hi-Hat Hattie,” a bossy maid who often “forgets her place.” The show was a hit, but Hattie’s salary was so low that she had to continue working as a maid.

Beginning with The Golden West in 1932, Hattie was featured in over 300 film roles, most of which were uncredited. The majority of Hattie’s film roles were portrayals of feisty and outspoken maids. She (mostly) received praise for her performances, although she was chastised by Southern audiences for upstaging star Katherine Hepburn in 1935’s Alice Adams. Through her connections in show business, she became friends with such noted actors as Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda and Ronald Reagan.

Hattie’s most famous role was, undoubtedly, that of “Mammy,” the stern, but loving, maid (NOTE: This piece was originally written in 2017, before I was better educated. I have a better understanding of the depictions in Gone With the Wind and I fully acknowledge that Hattie’s character was a slave, not a maid. I do not wish to white-wash the truth. – JPiC) in David O. Selznick’s 1939 epic Gone With The Wind. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. Clark Gable, who was cast as the rakish Rhett Butler, recommend Hattie for the role, despite her mostly comic leanings. She showed up for the audition in an authentic maid’s costume and won Selznick over. When the film’s gala premiere was planned for Atlanta, Hattie was barred from the ceremony because of strict Southern segregation rules. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the event until a tearful Hattie convinced him to attend. Later in the year, Hattie was separated from the rest of the cast at the Academy Awards, although she was joined at her table by her agent, William Meiklejohn, who was white. Hattie’s name was announced as the winner of the Best Supporting Actress Award, the first Oscar ever won by an African-American. A gracious Hattie delivered a heartfelt acceptance speech, proclaiming it “one of the happiest moments of my life” and thanking everyone who had a part in selecting her for the award and for their kindness.

Despite criticism by civil rights leaders, Hattie continued to play maids and domestics. She took over the television role of “Beulah” when Ethel Waters left the series. The show was a big hit and Hattie thrived until she became too ill to perform. The role was then taken by Louise Beavers.

Hattie was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed away at the age of 57 in 1952. She requested to be buried “in a white casket, a white shroud with white gardenias in her hair.” She asked to be interred at Hollywood Cemetery, but, unfortunately, she was refused as they practiced racial segregation. Hattie was buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

In 1999, the new owners of the Hollywood Cemetery offered to have Hattie’s remains re-interred there. Her family declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery (as it was renamed) built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood’s most popular tourist attractions.

Comments

comments

Frederick Douglass was a one-time slave who, secretly, taught himself how to read a write. He eventually escaped his inhumane treatment, fleeing to the North and settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He became an outspoken proponent for freedom as a firm believer in equality for all people. He was an advocate for voting rights for women and African-Americans and gave many passionate public speeches on the issue. He became the first African-American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull (the first woman to run for U.S. President), on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

At a recent White House breakfast to kick off Black History Month, a vague and confused reference by the current president brought Douglass’s name to the headlines, prompting Robert Benz a co-founder of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, to issue this statement:

As Co-Founder of Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, I’m able to publish, exclusively, the following statement from the direct descendants of Frederick Douglass:

The President’s comments from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, about Frederick Douglass, were noted and appreciated by us, the Douglass family. In fact, we believe, if he had more time to elaborate, the President would have mentioned the following:

“Frederick Douglass has done an amazing job …

• Enduring the inhumanity of slavery after being born heir to anguish and exploitation but still managing to become a force for solace and liberty when America needed it most,
• Recognizing that knowledge was his pathway to freedom at such a tender age,
• Teaching himself to read and write and becoming one of the country’s most eloquent spokespersons,
• Standing up to his overseer to say that ‘I am a man!’
• Risking life and limb by escaping the abhorrent institution,
• Composing the Narrative of his life and helping to expose slavery for the crime against humankind that it is,
• Persuading the American public and Abraham Lincoln that we are all equal and deserving of the right to live free,
• Establishing the North Star newspaper when there was very little in the way of navigation or hope for the millions of enslaved persons,
• Supporting the rights of women when few men of such importance endeavored to do so,
• Arguing against unfair U.S. immigration restrictions,
• Understanding that racism in America is part of our “diseased imagination,”
• Recruiting his sons—who were born free—to fight in the war to end the enslavement of other African Americans,
• Being appointed the first black U.S. Marshal by President Rutherford B. Hayes,
• Being appointed U.S. Minister to Haiti by President Benjamin Harrison,
• Serving as a compelling role model for all Americans for nearly two centuries.”

Like the President, we use the present tense when referencing Douglass’s accomplishments because his spirit and legacy are still very much alive, not just during Black History Month, but every month. Leading up to the Bicentennial of Douglass’s birth, in February 2018, here are some of the initiatives that we, the Frederick Douglass family, will be implementing as well as some of those we hope to implement with the support of this administration, the institutions it leads and the American people (black, brown and white alike):

• Publishing the Bicentennial Edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,
• Giving this hard cover book to one million young people in schools, churches, clubs and detention centers as part of our “One Million Abolitionists” project,
• Collaborating to develop the PROTECT human trafficking prevention education program in the State of California,
• Creating a national Frederick Douglass curriculum for elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges,
• Renaming the original bill that governs the nation’s anti-human trafficking work both domestically and abroad: “The Trafficking Victims Prevention & Protection Act,”
• Further renaming the bill to honor him during his Bicentennial: “The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention & Protection Act.”

These are just a few examples of how Frederick Douglass has impacted and will continue to impact this country. We look forward to helping re-animate Douglass’s passion for equality and justice over the coming year leading up to his Bicentennial in 2018. We encourage the President to join in that effort.

In Freedom!

The Frederick Douglass family

All of the Dead Celebrity Spotlight posts for the month of February will be in honor of Black History Month. – JPiC

Comments

comments