Give Ethel Waters a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

By Michael Musto Fri., May 6 2011 at 1:00 PM

Categories: Film

Who?

Oh, hush, I'm going to tell you.

By the end of it, you'll be as certain that Ethel Waters deserves a star on the Walk of Fame as you are that Rin Tin Tin didn't.

Here are her credentials, as lovingly forwarded to me by her band of supporters:

*First to sing "Stormy Weather" into history on the radio in 1933

*First African-American to star in a Broadway play (Mamba's Daughters, 1939)

*First African-American actress to star in a television series (Beulah, 1950)

*First African-American nominated for an Emmy Award (Route 66 in 1962)

*Second African-American nominated for an Oscar (Pinky)

*First international hit song by an African-American: "Dinah"

*First woman to scat. Ethel began scatting before it was called scat! (And I don't want to hear any scat jokes, please.)

*Stage credits included Stormy Weather, As Thousands Cheer, and Cabin in the Sky.

*Films include Member of the Wedding and The Sound and the Fury.

Oh, and let me personally add that she was reportedly mean to younger, prettier African-Americans in some of her movies.

Doesn't that certify her diva status as much as anything?

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Waters fan

The list above doesn't scratch the surface of Waters' incredible accomplishments on stage, television, records, radio, and the movies. She was a pioneer in each, and her work is still marvelous to behold. What's more, she managed to stay vital and profoundly watchable well into her eighties. Just watch the Crusade videos on Youtube if you doubt me. From her 1920's records to her late 1970's Graham performances, she was always one of a kind, and in her singing she influenced almost every other popular performer, black or white, who came after her. If you listen to Dinah, Am I Blue, My Handy Man, Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night, Miss Otis Regrets, Stormy Weather or about two dozen other recordings, you can hear that influence. They still sounds marvelous today. She ought to have a star for radio, for records, for TV and for the movies. Fortunately, theater people have better memories, and she is already in the Theater Hall of Fame.

Abel

A true star and one of the best singers who ever lived. She had a brutal childhood and she was as skinny as a rail when she started her career, known as "Sweet Mama Stringbean." My favorite moment in her movies occurs in CABIN IN THE SKY, when, after Lena Horne has sung "Honey in the Honeycomb," Ethel comes in, feels a musical urge, and sings the same number, and blows the roof off the place, effectively wiping the floor with Ms. Horne. Miss Waters rocked!

Petey

She gave my mother a banana when my mother was a child.

DPOMA

She also sang at many Billy Graham crusades, especially "His Eye Is On The Sparrow". I'm old enough to have enjoyed her TV show. She had "depth" in her life and in her performances...something very few 'stars' now could even begin to imagine! She was real.

Timmie

She was also fairly openly lesbian. Some of the hostility towards the younger prettier girls stemmed from them rejecting her advances.

DavidE

Not mere' "fairly openly lesbian" she once got even with a greilfriend who dumped her by stealign said girlfriend's husband and marrying him. Yes, she was that mean. Or as my boyfriend Bill Reed (who deals with her life extensively in his book "Hot From Harlem") says "My favoirte character in American fiction is Ethel Waters."

Rip

Well, the link describes how to raise the money.

MarilynLastman

The "stars" pay to be on the Walk of Fame. It has nothing to do with worthiness. 30 grand and you're in.

Musto

Thanks, Dave. I was hoping you'd chime in with some background.

Buddy88mo

Ethel's deeply touching performance in Member of the Wedding alone should qualify her. And the jaw-dropping over coming the odds facts in her auto-bio His Eye is On the Sparrow, further illustrate this remarkable woman's place in show biz history. Human to a fault, but magic too .

David Cuthbert

Just pop in the DVD of "Cabin in the Sky" or "The Member of the Wedding" and watch a genius entertainer at work.

In the former, she sings the title song, "Takin' a Chance on Love" and "Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe." She also dirty dances with John "Bubbles" Sublette, just to remind folks that she could still get down as she did in her early years, when she was "Sweet Mama Stringbean."

And in "Member," she sings "His Eye is on the Sparrow" accapella.

Like Ella, no matter how old she was, her voice remained "sweet" and youthful.

Two more songs she introduced on Broadway were "We're Having a Heat Wave" and the classic "Suppertime," written for her by Irving Berlin for "As Thousands Cheer."