Pearl Bailey
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Pearl Bailey, the first black beauty to make waves [in the postwar era], was hardly anyone's idea of a woman who might use sex to stalk a man down or to lash out at society. Instead Pearlie Mae personified the lively down-home diva, the ordinary, chatty, wisecracking neighborly lady who was telling a generation scared of its own shadow to just cool it honey, sit back, relax, and have some fun. She became a star by often laughing at and joking about the birds and bees, romance and men ...
Another comic selling point was her fatigue ... Sometimes Bailey's act was criticized as being a throwback to prewar stereotypes. Actually, the humor was both old and new ... Bailey, however, was always a soothing figure. She used humor to communicate her view of the world as a joyous, harmonious place that had no great problems or tensions. (This point of view, so much admired in the fifties, often distressed younger black audiences of later periods.) --Donald Bogle ("Brown Sugar", Da Capo Press, 1980)
Biography
This Broadway musical star was noted for her trademark song delivery in which she interrupted a number to make comic asides to the audience. Bailey began her career performing in amateur shows and as a band singer in vaudeville and cabarets where she was known at first as the younger sister of dancer Bill Bailey. By the mid-1940s, she had evolved her own unique style of delivery--a slyly sultry and husky drawl--and her superb comic timing which she displayed in her hit recording "Tired" and her show-stopping performance in the 1946 Broadway musical "St. Louis Woman."
The following year, Bailey made her film debut in "Variety Girl" (1947), and while her magnetic personality made itself felt in featured "best friend" roles in the lush film musicals "Carmen Jones" (1955) and "Porgy and Bess" (1959) and as an earthy, savvy presence in the melodramas "St Louis Blues" (1958) and "All the Fine Young Cannibals" (1960), it was on the musical and cabaret stage that she was a star. Bailey triumphed on Broadway as a practical-minded madam in the Truman Capote/Harold Arlen collaboration "House of Flowers" (1955) and as the perennial matchmaker Dolly Levi in the all-black production of "Hello, Dolly!" (1967). By the 1970s, Bailey was a familiar presence, chatting on talk shows, posing with innumerable presidents and hosting her own TV series in 1971.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Music (Special)
Cast (Short)
Life Events
1933
Began career as touring singer/dancer; debut on the vaudeville stage at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia
1941
First New York engagment (the Village Vanguard)
1943
Toured with Cootie Williams's band
1946
Broadway debut in the musical comedy "St. Louis Woman"
1947
Film acting debut in "Variety Girl"
1948
Appeared on the first telecast of Milton Berle's "Texaco Star Theater" (June)
1967
Starred on Broadway in the all-black production of "Hello, Dolly!"
1969
Appeared on a TV special with Carol Channing
1971
Hosted own TV show, "The Pearl Bailey Show"
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Pearl Bailey, the first black beauty to make waves [in the postwar era], was hardly anyone's idea of a woman who might use sex to stalk a man down or to lash out at society. Instead Pearlie Mae personified the lively down-home diva, the ordinary, chatty, wisecracking neighborly lady who was telling a generation scared of its own shadow to just cool it honey, sit back, relax, and have some fun. She became a star by often laughing at and joking about the birds and bees, romance and men ...
Another comic selling point was her fatigue ... Sometimes Bailey's act was criticized as being a throwback to prewar stereotypes. Actually, the humor was both old and new ... Bailey, however, was always a soothing figure. She used humor to communicate her view of the world as a joyous, harmonious place that had no great problems or tensions. (This point of view, so much admired in the fifties, often distressed younger black audiences of later periods.) --Donald Bogle ("Brown Sugar", Da Capo Press, 1980)
She was named Cue Magazine's Entertainer of the Year (1967).
Received the March of Dimes Award in 1968.
She was appointed "Ambassador of Love to the Entire World" in 1971.
Named special advisor to the US Mission to the United Nations by former President Gerald Ford in 1975.
She received the USO's Woman of the Year Award twice.
Awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1988.
