Adelaide Hall facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Adelaide Hall
Born	Adelaide Louise Hall (1901-10-20)20 October 1901 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	7 November 1993(1993-11-07) (aged 92) London, England
Occupation	Singer musician actress dancer nightclub chanteuse
Years active	1921–1992
Spouse(s)	Bertram Hicks ​ ​ (m. 1924; died 1963)​
Musical career
Genres	Jazz swing traditional pop spirituals musical theatre
Instruments	Vocals ukulele acoustic guitar
Labels	Victor Columbia Brunswick CBS Lucky Decca London
Associated acts	Art Tatum Ethel Waters Josephine Baker Louis Armstrong Lena Horne Cab Calloway Duke Ellington Fats Waller

Adelaide Louise Hall (20 October 1901 – 7 November 1993) was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington (with whom she made her most famous recording, "Creole Love Call" in 1927) and with Fats Waller.

Early life and marriage

Adelaide Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, to Elizabeth and William Hall in 1901. Adelaide and her sister Evelyn attended the Pratt Institute, where William Hall taught piano. Her father died on March 23, 1917. Three years later, Evelyn passed away of influenza on March 25, 1920 leaving Adelaide to support herself and her mother.

In 1924, Hall married the British sailor Bertram Errol Hicks, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago. Soon after their marriage he opened a club in Harlem, New York, called "The Big Apple" and became her official business manager.

Career

Hall began her stage career in 1921 on Broadway in the chorus line of Noble Sissle's and Eubie Blake's musical Shuffle Along. Shuffle Along became a huge hit and propelled Hall's career. She went on to appear in a number of similar black musical shows, including Runnin' Wild on Broadway in 1923, in which she sang James P. Johnson's hit song "Old-Fashioned Love".

Hall was hired to join the cast of the Chocolate Kiddies revue in New York, where they rehearsed before setting sail for Europe. The initial tour started at Hamburg, Germany, on 17 May 1925, and ended in Paris, France, in December 1925, visiting many major cities in-between.

In New York in October 1927, Hall recorded her wordless vocals on "Creole Love Call" and "The Blues I Love To Sing" with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, and on November 3, 1927, Hall recorded "Chicago Stomp Down" with Duke Ellington and The Chicago Footwarmers for Okeh Records. "Creole Love Call" became a worldwide hit and catapulted both Hall's and Ellington's careers into the mainstream.

Cotton Club, Harlem, in 1930

Adelaide Hall in Blackbirds of 1928

In 1928, Hall starred on Broadway with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Tim Moore and Aida Ward in Blackbirds of 1928. The show became the most successful all-black show ever staged on Broadway at that time and made Hall and Bojangles into household names. In Europe, Hall rivalled Josephine Baker for popularity on the European stage.

Vu, issue N°77, Wednesday, 4 September 1929, front cover, with Adelaide Hall star of Blackbirds at the Moulin Rouge, titled "Au revoir Black Birds !", saying farewell after a production run of four months

With Blackbirds′ music score written by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Hall's performances of the songs "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby", "Diga Diga Do", "Bandanna Babies" and "I Must Have That Man" made them into household hits, and they continued to be audience favourites throughout her long career.

Adelaide Hall in Blackbirds of 1928

Adelaide Hall and Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson in the musical comedy, Brown Buddies on Broadway, in 1930.

Adelaide Hall tour 1931-32

In 1931, Hall embarked on a world concert tour that visited two continents (America and Europe). The tour was estimated to have performed to more than one million people. During the tour, she appeared four times at New York's Palace Theatre. She was accompanied on stage by two pianists who played white grand pianos. It was during this tour that Hall discovered and employed the blind pianist Art Tatum, whom she brought back to New York with her at the end of the tour. In August 1932, Hall recorded "Strange as It Seems", "I'll Never Be the Same", "This Time It's Love" and "You Gave Me Everything but Love" using Art Tatum as one of her pianists on the recordings.

Hall arrived in Paris, France in the fall of 1935 and remained living there until 1938. Her husband Bert opened a nightclub for her in Paris, situated at 73 rue Pigalle in Montmartre, called La Grosse Pomme where she frequently entertained.

After many years performing in the US and Europe, Hall went to the United Kingdom in 1938 to take a starring role in a stage-adapted musical version of Edgar Wallace's The Sun Never Sets at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She was so successful and became so popular with British audiences that she stayed and made her home there, becoming one of the most popular singers and entertainers of the time. Hall lived in London from 1938 until her death.

Hall's career was almost an uninterrupted success. She made more than 70 records for Decca, had her own BBC Radio series, Wrapped in Velvet (making her the first black artist to have a long-term contract with the BBC), and appeared on the stage, in films, and in nightclubs (of which she owned her own in New York, London and Paris). In the 1940s, and especially during World War II, she was hugely popular with civilian and Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) audiences and became one of Britain's highest paid entertainers.

Death

Adelaide Hall died in the early hours of 7 November 1993, aged 92, at London's Charing Cross Hospital of natural causes (old age). Honouring her wish, her funeral took place in New York at the Cathedral of the Incarnation (Garden City, New York) and she was laid to rest beside her mother at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.

In London, a memorial service was held for her at St Paul's, Covent Garden (known as the "actors' church"), which was attended by many stars including Elaine Paige, Elisabeth Welch, Lon Satton and Elaine Delmar. One of the participants, TV presenter and broadcaster Michael Parkinson, remarked during his eulogy: "Adelaide lived to be ninety-two and never grew old."

Legacy

In June 2020, British Vogue acknowledged Adelaide Hall in their list of "7 Remarkable Black Women Who Shaped British History".

Black Plaque awarded to Adelaide Hall, 2021

Adelaide Hall was honoured in 2021 by the Black Plaque Project, an initiative of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, with a plaque commemorating her outstanding career and achievements in the world of entertainment. The plaque is placed in the world-renowned Abbey Road Recording Studios in St John's Wood, London, where Hall recorded with fellow American jazz artiste and composer Fats Waller. Hall is No. 15 in the Black Plaque Project that honours the achievements throughout history of members of the UK's black community.

One Minute Theatre Top 10 People of Colour in Musicals, 2021

In March 2021, 1 Minute Theatre Reviews acknowledged Adelaide Hall in their 10 "people of colour who have made a major contribution to the stage musical".

Women Inspire podcast, 2021

Adelaide Hall - "Sing to the moon Addie and the stars will shine."

In January 2021, the Women Inspire podcast devoted an episode to the life and career of Hall, titled "Sing to the moon Addie and the stars will shine".

Discography

1927–1938

The Decca years, 1939–1945

Odeon (Argentina) 1943

London Records, Spirituals, 1949

Adelaide Hall and Kenneth Cantril, Spirituals, 78 rpm set

Columbia (EMI) – 1951

Oriole – 1960

UK singles chart entries

US singles chart entries

Filmography

• A Son of Satan (1924) (USA) (Micheaux Film)
• Dancers in the Dark (1932) (USA) (Hall's singing voice is used but she is uncredited)
• On the Air and Off (1933) (USA short, filmed at Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City) (Universal Pictures)
• Broadway Varieties (1934) (USA short, filmed at Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City) (Universal Pictures)
• All-Coloured Vaudeville Show (1935) (USA)
• The Kentucky Minstrels (1939 (British TV movie)
• The Thief of Bagdad (1940) (UK)
• Behind The Blackout (1940), British Pathé Newsreel
• Stars In Your Eyes (TV series, UK) 1946–1950.
• Variety in Sepia (1947) (UK) (BBC TV)
• A World Is Turning (towards the coloured people) (1948) (UK)
• Olivelli's (1951), British Pathé Newsreel
• Love From Judy (1953) TV movie.
• Night and the City (1959) (UK) (role – singer – the scenes were deleted from the final edit)
• Looks Familiar (9 January 1974) (ITV)
• What Is Jazz? (1974) (TV Documentary)
• It Don't Mean A Thing (15 June 1976)
• Parkinson (TV series): 300th edition (1981) (BBC TV)
• The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington (1982) (MGM) – recorded at St. Paul's Cathedral, London (released 1983)
• The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz (1985) (A documentary with live performances at the Ritz Hotel, London, featuring former Cotton Club performers)
• Chasing a Rainbow: The Life of Josephine Baker (1986)
• Brown Sugar (1986) (American TV mini-series)
• Sophisticated Lady (1989) (UK) (documentary about Adelaide Hall)
• Royal Ellington (1989) (live concert footage)
• Adelaide Hall – Live at the Riverside (1989) (UK) (Adelaide Hall in concert)

Exhibitions

Exhibitions that feature or have featured content relating to Adelaide Hall:

• Women and War – Imperial War Museum, London (2003–04).
• Little Black Dress – Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton (2007).
• Devotional – Sonia Boyce, National Portrait Gallery, London (2007)
• Little Black Dress – London Fashion Museum, London (2008).
• Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front 1939–1945 – Cuming Museum, London (2008).
• Jazzonia and the Harlem Diaspora – Chelsea Space, London (2009).
• The Living Archive Exhibition – The London Palladium (opened 2009 – on permanent display). The collection throws a spotlight on 100 years of black performers at the Palladium, such as Adelaide Hall, the Harlem Renaissance star who made her London debut at the venue in 1931.
• Oh! Adelaide – Art installation, Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon College of Art, London (2010).
• There is no Archive in which Nothing Gets Lost – Oh! Adelaide – Art installation – The Museum of Fine Arts, Glassell School of Art, 5101 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, America – 7 September 2012 – 25 November 2012.
• Creole Love Call – Exhibition – VIERTELNEUN Gallery, 1090 Vienna, Hahngasse 14, Austria – Exhibition (25 January to 28 February 2013) – Catalogue published with the presentation.
• The Harlem Renaissance – Kurá Hulanda Museum, Curaçao, Willemstad, Caribbean (2013).
• Scat: Sound and Collaboration – Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London EC2A 3BA (5 June – 27 July 2013).
• Untitled – etching by Sonia Boyce. Permanent Collection, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. In her 2006 etching Untitled, Boyce pays tribute to 14 black female contributors to British music history. Performers featured in the composition include Dame Shirley Bassey, Adelaide Hall, Millie Small and Cleo Laine.
• Black Women in Britain, Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square, Brixton, London SW2 1EF (24 July – 30 November 2014.
• Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain: Explores the emergence of Jazz in Britain and its continuing influence over the last century. Two pictures of Adelaide Hall, one by photographer Angus McBean, and another extremely rare photograph of Miss Hall taken at her Florida (Mayfair) nightclub were on display at the exhibition, which was curated by Catherine Tackley, from 27 January 2018 until 22 April 2018, located at William Waldorf Astor's mansion at Two Temple Place, London.

Adelaide Hall archives and photo collections

• The Indiana University Adelaide Hall Collection (1928–2003): The collection is housed at the Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University, collection number SC 134: The collection contains photographic materials, articles, programs and ephemera related to Hall's performance career: contact: Archives of African American Music and Culture, 2805 E 10th St., Suite 180–181, Bloomington, Ind. 47408–4662.
• Writer Iain Cameron Williams and Adelaide Hall's former manager Kate Greer own a private Adelaide Hall Collection, from which items have been loaned for public exhibitions.
• Alamy Photo Archive: Adelaide Hall on set of the 1940 Alexander Korda directed movie The Thief of Bagdad.
• The British Library in Euston Road, London, holds a considerable archive relating to Adelaide Hall; the collection contains mainly audio, interviews, live concert tapes, and recordings, some of which are quite rare.
• The British Lion Film Production disc collection (held at the British Library) contains music from the film soundtrack of Night and the City (1950), on which Adelaide Hall is featured.
• Detroit Public Library Digital Collection houses a portrait of singer Adelaide Hall by photographer Germaine Krull dated 1929, photographed during Blackbirds residency at the Moulin Rouge, Paris.
• Duke University Libraries – Rosetta Reitz Papers (1929–2008) – Adelaide Hall photograph collection series (Box 17): Rosetta Reitz Papers – Adelaide Hall Reference Materials Series (1946–2005) Box 36.
• Getty Images (archive) holds several photographs of Adelaide Hall, including one of her singing "There's Something in the Air" at her Mayfair nightclub (the Florida Club) in London, circa. 1945, and an extremely rare picture of Miss Hall performing in concert circa.1930, and a portrait photograph of Miss Hall by John D. Kisch circa. 1934.
• The Al Hirschfeld Foundation holds two caricatures of Adelaide Hall by the artist Al Hirschfeld, one dated 1928. and the other dated 1929.
• The Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia: Adelaide Hall
• The David Lund Collection held at the British Library contains live audio recordings of Adelaide Hall in concert with The Alan Clare Trio and John McLeary performing at the University College School Theatre, Hampstead, London.
• Millersville University Special Collection: Adelaide Hall, File – Box: 4, Folder 21, 1929 photograph of Miss Hall by Walery (aka Stanisław Julian Ignacy Ostroróg).
• Museo Alinari Image (AIM), museum, Trieste, Italy, hold two portrait photographs of Adelaide Hall ca. 1925–29.
• The National Jazz Archive (UK) holds a significant collection of magazines and newspapers containing articles and reports documenting Adelaide Hall's career dating from the 1930s to 1990s.
• National Portrait Gallery, London (Archive) holds two Adelaide Hall portraits from the 1940s.
• NYPR Archive Collections, New York Public Library, hold a live recording of Adelaide Hall captured in concert in New York in the early-1990s.
• Smithsonian – Adelaide Hall portrait – Le Tumulte Noir / Dancer in Magenta by Paul Colin, 1929, Paris, at the Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery Collection, Washington D.C.
• The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), South Kensington, London, holds a watercolour caricature of Adelaide Hall by Gilbert Sommerlad, dated 12 May 1954, drawn during Hall's starring role in the musical Love from Judy, plus various posters relating to Miss Hall's career, and a cotton souvenir headscarf containing a printed portrait of Adelaide Hall ca.1930s–50s.
• Yale University Archives, Adelaide Hall – Josephine Baker correspondence, etc., (dated 1976–1979) part of the Henry Hurford Janes – Josephine Baker Collection at Yale University Archives, Box: 2, Folder: 77.
• Yale University Library – Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Rare Adelaide Hall photographs by Carl Van Vechten taken of Miss Hall performing on stage during her 1931/1932 World Tour at the Palace Theatre, Times Square, New York.
• Yale University Library – Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Adelaide Hall publicity photographs collected by writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten.

• Oral History of Jazz in Britain: In 1988, the journalist and radio host Max Jones conducted a live radio interview with Adelaide Hall. Transcripts from the taped recording, which is housed in the British Library, are available to listen to upon request at the British Library. Three excerpts from the interview can be heard in an article (published 17 December 2020) on the British Library blog, including, in "excerpt 1", where Adelaide explains how she came up with the counter-melody in the worldwide hit "Creole Love Call", which she recorded in 1927 with Duke Ellington.
• Williams, Iain Cameron. (2022), The KAHNS of Fifth Avenue, iwp Publishing, February 17, 2022, ISBN: 978-1916146587 - chapters 10 & 11 details Blackbirds of 1928 and discusses Miss Hall's contribution to its success and the effect the show had on Roger Wolfe Kahn in whose nightclub the revue ran for five months before the show transferred to Broadway.

See also

In Spanish: Adelaide Hall para niños