BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Blues singer Ethel Waters paved the way for Black TV hosts
During the early development of television, and long before the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s, Black entertainers had opportunities to host TV variety shows. Several programs were hosted…
During the early development of television, and long before the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s, Black entertainers had opportunities to host TV variety shows. Several programs, including “The Bob Howard Show,” “The Nat King Cole Show” and Ellis Hazlip’s “Soul!,” were hosted by Black men.
However, a Black woman paved the way for their achievements.
In 1939, Ethel Waters — a blues singer and actress — became the first Black person to host a show on television. “The Ethel Waters Show,” as described by the author Donald Bogle in his book “Primetime Blues,” included a segment of Waters’ performance in the play “Mamba’s Daughters,” plus skits with other Black actors.
Ron Simon, curator of the Paley Center for Media, said that no known recordings of “The Ethel Waters Show” exist from this experimental time for television networks such as NBC, CBS and DuMont.
“NBC was looking for all sorts of ideas, and they wanted to see if Waters would be a prime person to offer a variety show,” Simon said. “It was a remarkable feat to host that show.” The experiment worked, resulting in numerous15-minute and sometimes longer variety shows hosted by Black entertainers.
“In the late 1940s and ’50s, it was not unusual to have 15-minute shows,” said Simon. “Television was still experimenting as to what time and how long shows should be. It was just a way of trying to understand people’s habits of television and more about how the audiences would respond to television.”
In 1949, CBS launched “The Bob Howard Show,” a one-man show aired five days a week, with the host singing and playing the piano. It lasted for 13 episodes.
In 1948, singer-musician Bob Howard hosted “The Bob Howard Show” on CBS. (CBS via Getty Images)The same year, CBS broadcast “Sugar Hill Times” three days a week — a live, one-hour-long show hosted by Harlem’s Apollo Theater emcee Willie Bryant. Its guests included well-known stars such as Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey. The show’s name was changed to “Uptown Jubilee” and it finally became “Sugar Hill Times.” The show’s format also changed — it became a bi-weekly, half-hour program – but it was canceled after five episodes.
“In television, so much of primetime was a male domain,” said Simon. This changed briefly when Hazel Scott, a classically-trained music prodigy who studied at Julliard, made a name for herself in New York nightclubs and later as an actress. She became the second Black woman to host a TV variety show.
“The Hazel Scott Show,” a mix of jazz, classical, boogie-woogie and blues music, debuted July 3, 1950, on the DuMont Television Network. The weekly local New York show was changed to three days a week.
Piano virtuoso Hazel Scott’s show premiered in 1950 and was eventually aired three times a week. (Musical America / James Kriegsmann / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)At the time, Scott was married to the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a U.S. congressman and influential minister from Harlem. She became an international sensation because of her virtuosity, such as the talent to play two pianos simultaneously, and she was also adored for her pleasant character. Reviewing her show, Variety magazine said the “most engaging element” of the show “is the Scott personality, which is dignified, yet relaxed and versatile.”
Scott was also an ardent activist against racial discrimination. She often spoke out against injustices within the music and film industries. She was blacklisted because her name had appeared in the right-wing “Red Channels: A Report of Communist Influence on Radio and Television” with other performers suspected of being communist sympathizers.
“She was listed in Red Channel – different performers were – and that perhaps hampered her career in television,” said Simon.
“The Hazel Scott Show” ended on September 29, 1950, three months after it began. But Scott’s experience did not impede the ambitions of future Black TV hosts. In 1952, “The Billy Daniels Show,” premiered on ABC. The Sunday night show lasted 13 weeks.
“He was a really good entertainer,” Simon said. “He was the first one to actually have a sponsor for his show. One problem with so many different shows, especially for Black entertainers, was getting sponsorship that would allow the show to be underwritten from show to show, year to year.”
Early networks only sponsored a new show until a corporate sponsor could be found. In the early days of television, advertisers were hesitant about being associated with Black entertainers.
In 1956, during the second year of the Civil Rights Movement, “The Nat King Cole Show ” – a weekly primetime show by the popular singer and pianist – appeared on CBS.
Cole’s guests included an array of Black and white entertainers, from Mahalia Jackson to Mel Torme. J.P. Shanley of The New York Times said Cole was offering “a refreshing musical diversion.” Shanley wrote, “The premiere made it seem like a most attractive investment.”
CBS canceled the show in 1957 because of low ratings and lack of a sponsor. Cole told Jet Magazine that “Madison Avenue was afraid of the dark.”
At the end of the Civil Rights Movement in 1968, the Black-hosted variety show found their way back on television. That year, Ellis Hazlip became the first Black producer on a public television station and he introduced “Soul!,” his variety-talk show.
Aired on WNDT-TV, which was rebranded WNET during the run of Soul!, Hazlip’s critically acclaimed show featured guests such as Nikki Giovanni, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and Muhammad Ali, among others. Soul! secured public and private funding, along with a start-up grant from the Ford Foundation, and became a successful Black cultural show. When the show ran out of funding the next year, the Ford Foundation provided the program with a three-year, $3.5 million grant.
In 1973, Soul! was cancelled due to low funding and pressure from government and other outside forces who sought to integrate the show’s all-Black content which they viewed as divisive.
Although many of the Black variety shows broadcast between 1939 and the mid-1970s were short-lived, they left an indelible impression on audiences, proving that Black entertainers earned a place in television history.
“It really showed the creativity and just adventurousness of some of our Black entertainers,” said Simon. “If only there could have been some type of sponsorship to live out and grow on television, whether it be Billy Daniels or Nat Cole or Hazel Scott. It would have been nice to see how they could have developed.”
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