|PARA tPAR@ ` äTEXT ` vBailey, Pearl1918╨1990singerBorn March 29, 1918, in Newport News, Virginia, Pearl Mae Bailey was the daughter of Reverend Joseph James Bailey. Her father╒s church, the House of Prayer, was a ╥Holy Roller╙ style congregation, and Pearlie Mae, as she was known, attributed to her experience there her love of dance, song and rhythm. Her brother, Bill Bailey, enjoyed a career as a tap dancer; he too later became a minister.In 1933 Bailey╒s family moved to Philadelphia, and Pearl soon got her start in the entertainment business by winning an amateur-night contest at a local vaudeville house. Her prize was a two-week performance contract at a weekly salary of $30, but the theater closed and she was never paid. Undeterred, she entered and won another amateur contest╤this one at the Apollo Theatre in New York╤and went on from there to perform at small clubs in the vaudeville circuit in rural Pennsylvania. Despite her complete lack of formal training, she played a number of smaller clubs successfully, including club dates with jazz artists Cootie Williams and Count Basie, with whom she later recorded several albums. After moving to New York, she performed at the Village Vanguard in 1944 and at the Blue Angel, an East-side cafÄ.With the advent of World War II, she left New York for a USO tour of stateside training camps. Her stage debut came in 1946, as Butterfly in the ╥Negro╙ musical St. Louis Woman, for which she won a Donaldson award as the most promising new performer. During this period, she acted in Variety Girl, her first film. She played the part of an escaped Virginia slave in the stage musical Arms and the Girl, and in 1950 she was cast in the revue Bless You All.Between 1950 and 1954, Bailey performed in numerous nightclubs: the Latin Quarter in Boston; the Capital Theatre, the Greenwich Village Inn and La Vie en Rose in New York City; Ciro╒s in Hollywood and various clubs in London. Known for what critics called a ╥sexy, throaty drawl,╙ Pearl Bailey often embellished her material through ad-libbing and employing chit-chat and asides. She was famous for such songs as ╥Tired╙ (her first single); ╥Birth of the Blues╙; ╥Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye╙; ╥Takes Two to Tango; Row, Row, Row╙; ╥Bill Bailey, Won╒t You Please Come Home?╙ and ╥St. Louis Blues╙. She was briefly married in the 1930s, and again from 1948 to 1952. Her third marriage, to London drummer Louis Bellson, lasted until her death almost 40 years later. With Bellson, she adopted two children, a son, Tony, and a daughter, Dee Dee.In 1954, she starred opposite Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. Her film career also includes That Certain Feeling, with Bob Hope and Eva Marie Saint, 1956, Porgy and Bess, 1959, and All the Fine Young Cannibals, 1960. From 1967 to 1969, in perhaps the highlight of her career, she played opposite Cab Calloway in the title role of an all-black production of the musical Hello, Dolly! Her performance brought New York theater audiences to their feet nightly and won her a special Tony award; she was also named Entertainer of the Year by Cue Magazine. In 1968, an original cast recording of the show was released. A popular guest on television programs such as the ╥The Ed Sullivan Show╙ and the ╥The Perry Como Show,╙ she starred in her own show on ABC in 1970-71. In her later years she wrote several books: The Raw Pearl, 1968, Talking to Myself, 1971, Pearl╒s Kitchen, 1973, and Hurry Up America and Spit, 1976. In 1975 she was appointed special ambassador to the UN by Gerald Ford. She received an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University in 1978; she later enrolled at Georgetown and, at age 67, graduated with a bachelor╒s degree in theology. Her last book, Between You and Me, 1989, detailed her experiences with higher education. In 1988 Bailey received the Presidential Meal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan. She died on August 17, 1990, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ╬styl ` 0 ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ !I ¡ 5¬ « !I Γ 5¬ π !I à !I ö !I !I !I f !I w !I ƒ !I ¼ !I « 5¬ » !I 5¬
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