Pearl Bailey

American entertainer in vaudeville, night clubs, films and records. One of America's most beloved show-stoppers, she was known as a singer, dancer, humorist, stage, film and TV actress, social and political activist, author and a wife and mother. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.

The daughter of a Holy Roller-style revivalist, Bailey was the youngest of four kids and was singing in her dad's church choir by the time she was three. Her high cheekbones reflected the Cree Indians among her forebears. When she was 15, she won an amateur contest that held a $5.00 prize for a song and dance routine. In love with show business, she dropped out of school to become an entertainer. She was a chorus girl in Philadelphia nightclubs and worked the coal mining circuit during the height of the Depression. In 1944 she broke into major New York nightclubs where she cut her musical teeth working with such greats as Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Cab Calloway.

In 1946 she was noted as the best newcomer on Broadway when she made her stage debut in St. Louis Woman. Her movie debut was a year later in Variety Girl. Her films include Carmen Jones, St. Louis Blues and Porgy And Bess, in which she played the cook shop woman. Her Broadway credits include Arms and the Girl and Bless You All. From January to May 1971, she had her own TV show, The Pearl Bailey Show.

Bailey's heart problems began in the early 1960s, but when she performed, everything else faded. It was not unusual for her to collapse from exhaustion or heart strain after a nightclub show, be given oxygen and insist on returning to the stage to belt out a second show.