Zaidee Jackson
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Zaidee Jackson | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | December 15, 1970 | (aged 71)
Nationality | American, Romanian |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1924–1959 |
Spouses | James Jackson (m. 1920–1927)Barbu Neamțu (m. 1938–1955) |
Musical career | |
Genres | Spirituals, music hall, jazz, traditional pop |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano |
Labels | Columbia, Duophone Records, Odeon |
Zaidee Jackson (December 30, 1897 – December 15, 1970) was an American-born
Early life
Zaidee Jackson was born December 30, 1897, in
Career
Early career (1924–1927)
From late 1924 to early 1925, Jackson traveled across the South as an actress with the Andrew S. Bishop Players, an extension of the old Lafayette Players Company. The company toured Tennessee and Kentucky performing the play Paid in Full.[citation needed] By mid-1925, she had become the lead performer in Wilbur Sweatman's Creole Revue, touring the Eastern Seaboard and Canada.[1]
In January 1926, director
In April 1927, Jackson appeared in Desires of 1927 at the Lafayette Theatre. The revue was staged and produced by Irvin C. Miller with Adelaide Hall as its star.[citation needed] In July, Jackson was cast as Magnolia in Rang Tang, co-produced by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, which opened July 12 for 112 performances at the Majestic Theatre.[citation needed] The two-act musical comedy was set in Madagascar and Harlem and featured Miller & Lyles with Daniel L. Haynes and Josephine Hall. After its Broadway run closed on October 22, the show prepared to go on the road.[citation needed]
However,
European career (1928–1936)
Having performed on stage in
Jackson continued to make appearances throughout Europe. In early 1933, film director Andrew Buchanan gave her parts in two short films made for the Ideal Cine-Magazine, I've Got the Wrong Man and Black Magic.[7] She recorded numbers from the films with Decca Records and then returned to Paris. From June to October 1933, Jackson starred in Joe Zelli's new cabaret, Chez Les Nudistes, appearing semi-nude in the extravagant revue, Au Dela... des Reins, at Zelli's Club in Paris.[8]
Jackson toured Switzerland and the French Riviera during the next two years. In February 1936, she was in
America in 1937–38
In October 1937, Jackson sailed from Cherbourg to New York on the RMS Queen Mary to begin a ten-month night club engagement there and in Philadelphia. She was met by American journalists including one from the Pittsburgh Courier who reported:[10]
Zaidee Williams Jackson was singing sweet songs at Chez Florence in Montmartre when we met her. A slim bronze young woman, who had Paris by its ears. We wonder if anyone who has lived over there for ten years as she has can come back here to prejudice and hate and pick up where she left off. We don't doubt that she'll return to Europe where, she says 'her work is more appreciated... and more lucrative'.
Romania (1938–1945)
Jackson went back to Romania in September 1938 but had some difficulty in renewing her work visa as the Romanian government insisted that she must be an "Ethnic Romanian". She married Neamțu about this time and was granted Romanian citizenship.[9] In November, she returned to Paris and appeared at Jimmy Monroe's Swing Club.[citation needed] The following month she appeared in the revue, Harlem au Coliseum at the Paris Coliseum, alongside The 3 Dukes and Myrtle Watkins with music provided by Willie Lewis and His Entertainers.[11]
In February 1939, after warnings of impending war were issued by the American Embassy in Paris, Jackson returned to Craiova and appeared regularly on Radio-Bucharest, performing popular American songs she had learned during her 1938 trip to the States.[citation needed] She had another residency at the Restaurant Zissu, alongside Jean Moscopol, and appeared in various concerts with other Romanian entertainers, including a jazz event at the Romanian Athenaeum in January 1940. That concert was a great success and increased her popularity among Romanian audiences.[citation needed] As Romania was allied to Nazi Germany, Jackson was largely unaffected by World War II until the Red Army invasion in August 1944. Theatres, cabarets and cinemas were shut down so Jackson was unable to perform again until the war ended and the entertainment venues reopened.[citation needed]
Communist Romania (1946–1956)
From 1945, Jackson continued her Restaurant Zissu residency until the end of 1947 when it was closed down. After that, she had difficulty finding work and making ends meet.[9] The Romanian Communist Party came to power in 1948 and promptly nationalized all businesses and establishments. Jackson became, despite being an entertainer, effectively an employee of the state. Because of that, the American Embassy in Bucharest declared her passport void and so she could not visit the United States.[9]
In April 1951, her husband and some of his family were arrested as "bourgeois spies" and imprisoned for the next four years.[9] Living alone and fending for herself, Jackson was still able to perform but on meagre wages.[citation needed] She decided to petition the US Embassy for the return of her passport. Similar efforts were made by her sister in New York.[9]
When her husband was released in 1955, he was ordered to take a provincial job away from Bucharest and Craiova. He asked Jackson to accompany him but she decided to remain in Bucharest and they agreed to divorce. In April 1955, her sister wrote directly to
Later years
In January 1956, as the result of an appeal filed by the
References
- ^ Berresford, Mark (2010). That's Got 'em!: The Life and Music of Wilbur C. Sweatman. University of Mississippi. pp. 133–143.
- ^ "Here and There". The Afro-American. December 17, 1927.
- ^ "A Negro Actress". The Glasgow Times. October 4, 1928.
- ^ a b c "Zaidee Jackson Making solid reputation in London". The Afro-American. November 10, 1928.
- ^ Fabre, Michel (1993). From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840–1980. University of Illinois. pp. 83–141.
- ^ "Cabaret-Dancing Sheherazade". La Semaine à Paris. June 27, 1930.
- ^ Gifford, Denis (1998). Entertainers in British Films: A Century of Showbiz in th,e Cinema. Flicks Books. p. 130.
- ^ "Zaidee Jackson turns Nudist". The Afro-American. June 17, 1933.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Singer Freed from Red Romania". The Pittsburgh Courier. January 21, 1956.
- ^ "Toki Talks..." The Pittsburgh Courier. November 27, 1937. p. 14.
- ^ "Sensationnel au Coliseum". Paris-Soir. December 25, 1938.
- ^ a b "Immigration, 1956–1960. 23pp" (PDF). University Publications of America. p. 54.
- OCLC 56098170.
External links
- Zaidee Jackson at IMDb