@TheBMURPH2012 Interesting comment~and,strange, now that you mention it. All of the white jazz singers such as Annette Hanshaw and Libby Holman who also sang this little number weren't blue either. Cher also sang this, and come to think of it, she did have a little bit of a blue tinge to her. Cher is just special.
@TheBMURPH2012 People, this film is BLACK and white. So how can you tell her color from this MURPH? View the colored, ummm sorry, color version and you will see that she is definitely so beautiffuly black she is blue.
@TheBMURPH2012 By Gosh! You've solved it. Congratulations and salutations etc. However,this is a cheap channel...(There is no prize for the winner).PH01
As a big Eartha, Billy and Ella fan .. I also had never heard of this brilliant woman.. Dark times in the states that linger on ... and currently revive .. Sadly. I love her voice, acting and beauty..
@MrZetteke Ethel opened the door for all of the talented ladies you mention. She had so many "firsts" there is not sufficient room to detail them here. A few are spoken of by commenters to this offering. Thanks for stopping by the museum.
When I started watching this kind-of-hokey movie on Turner Classics, I had no idea who this incredible black singer was, coming out of nowhere. I was absolutely blown away! I had to look the movie up in the IMDB to find out she was indeed a very talented and very famous actress of the time. She even overcomes the very tinny sound quality with distorted trebles from the early talkies. You have to kind of picture the natural brilliance of her voice through the distortion.
@ferociousgumby She was also a trailblazer for her race. ~ she achieved many" firsts" when she appeared in this movie. See some of the earlier comments about this clip. Thanks for your comment!
So glad to know this version -- her cut for Columbia is too fast for the mood of the song, and till now I thought the version in the movie "the Cotton Club" was the best of all the ones I've heard (I LOVE this song!)... Even Libby Holman doesn't measure up!
great post.. originals versions are always the best and Ethel Waters is a bit underrated in my opinion.. nice to see her signature song in her prime..
This is one of the fantastic lost classics of the past I wish the youth could enjoy rather than the ultra fast electronic forgettable stuff of today. The human mind can interpret and enjoy something like Ethel Waters than Top 40!
Lena Horne got recognized at the Oscars for her trail blazing achievements for black women but Ethel Waters was the true trail blazer, and a great singer IMO.
See "Hallelujah" if you like this--first all-African American "talkie", 1929, lots of fantastic voices, including Victoria Spivey (though mostly unknowns). Director King Vidor wanted Ethel Waters for the lead but couldn't get her (she would have been great).
Thank you for this! It means a lot to me to actually see & hear Ms Waters sing. I've always heared & read about her. I had a great respect for her as one of the first black entertainers. I never had an oppotunity until now & very grateful for this chance. Yes she was & is a true great talent. God bless & Peace always.
Singers back then put so much soul into their songs, & they actually had talent. I hate how most artists these days have their voices altered to sound better while there are many singers out there with real talent who will never have the chance to put it to real use.
I can't believe this is the first time I'm hearing this. The first time I heard this song was on the Bette Midler album, The Divine Miss M. Ethel Waters sings the hell out of this song!
i find this lady to be very fascinating. I only got to know about her when i had a project to do in school about Lena Horne and I read how Waters was kinda not her biggest fan, so i thought maybe she was a bit arrogant but i guess you cant believe everything you read. Ps I love them both by the way
@fairman1952 Waters recorded her version, which became her signature song, on the Columbia label May 14, 1929 in NYC for the movie On With the Show. Annette recorded Am I Blue for the Puritone, Velvet Tone, Harmony and Diva labels on May 31, 1929, also in NYC.
If this movie was filmed in color, it should be relatively easy to examine the black print and "colorize" it to restore it to its original presentation. I've seen it done for old Doctor Who episodes where the color print had been lost.
She was a true lady until her passing. Wow that woman could belt em out like nobody else could. One of my favorite videos of hers on youtube is when she sings "His eye is on the sparrow" from one of the Billy Graham crusades. God rest her soul.
Thanks lot for this. I've used to hear Eddie Cochran and Robert Gordon's versions out of this. It's rewarding education to read that Ethel was one of first black artist to appear on US tv, radio and so on. Too bad that segregation lasted so long.
Imagine that this was the first generally distributed All Color Musical w/the first appearance f a Black Artist. Originally shot in two color technicolor - the original negative lost after tranferred to a 16mm television reduction print. I have seen short snippits of copies from the a surviving color print.
I have been an Ethel Water fan since I was about 9 years old and my father played the first two recordings I ever heard of her: Am I Blue" and "Black and Blue" I wonder what it is/was that would make a 9 year old boy identify and enjoy this kind of a recording alomots40 years past its debut? I don;t know but I sure love Ethel Waters!!!
Thanks, so much, pres, for showing us the young, very sexy EthelW; by the way, those four gentlemen on at the end were the Four Emperors of Harmony,. a great black quartet. Likewise, why not post the clip for "Birmngham Bertha", which was later in the same movie? It was the logical sequel to this song. (She mentions being stuck down here in Birmingham, etc. and the latter song is about her going to Chicago to reclaim her man. ) The true mother of the blues.
Does anyone have a copy of Ethel Waters singing 'I just couldn't take it, baby' & 'A hundred years from today. I know John Hammond was involved as it was a Goodmans recording (1923).
I've got I Just Couldn't Take It Baby and A Hundred Years From Today, but they're on vinyl and I don't know how to transpose them to youtube. Any suggestions?
My meaning was in the Sound medium, and first Color Musical, sorry for miscommunicating. "The Gulf Between" I don't think is 2 color Technicolor as that prcess was not introduced until after WWI; It may have been hand colored, which was introduced by Pathe.I can sure see your comment of "Toll of the Sea" I have a copy of CB DeMilles "Ten Commandments"1923 w/Rod LaRocque & Nita Naldi. The Pharoah's Chariot sequence heading into the Red Sea during the exodus, was shot n Two Color Technicolor.
actually, 78timothy, that isn't true. the first two-color technicolor film was "the gulf between "(1917), and the first commercial, two-color technicolor feature film made was the six-reel "the toll of the sea" (1922). the first feature-length blockbuster color picture using this same innovative process was "the black pirate" (1926) with douglas fairbanks, sr. & billie dove. "on with the show" was the first all-color sound MUSICAL film.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've wanted to see this for ages. Many interesting things. Waters is supposedly out picking cotton in that gorgeous outfit! The things they would do to try to appease Southern audiences. It is good to have documentation of the beauty of Miss Waters in her Sweet Mama Stringbean days. And against a fairly "straight" background and singers, you can hear her swing. One of the first female jazz singers, and still one of the greatest. Brilliant!
Thanks for all your info Someone. For an even jazzier version, I'll try to post the arrangement of "Am I Blue" that she sang in "Rufus Jones" in 1930.
Not to mention that this was a first. First Color Motion Picture w/the First performance of this song on Film by the Woman who introduced this song. Firsts all the way !!! 5***** for posting this.
I had thought her her performance of Am I Blue in Rufus Jones for President co-starring with 5 year old Sammy Davis preceded this....You're right-After checking, this performance from On With the Show was a year or two earlier.
Ethel Waters made history, garnering many "firsts." She was the first black woman to appear on radio (on April 21, 1922); the first black woman to star on her own at the Palace Theater in New York (in 1925); the first black woman to star in a commercial network radio show (in 1933); the first singer to introduce 50 songs that became hits (in 1933); the first black singer to appear on television (in 1939); and the first black woman to star on Broadway in a dramatic play (also in 1939).
Wow! I didn't know all of that and I've been an Ethel Waters fan since childhood. But I question the last one. Wasn't Rose McLendon the star of Langston Hughes' 1935 Broadway hit, "Mulatto"? Ms. McLendon was such a hit that many actors flocked to see her, including Ethel Barrymore, who said, "She can teach even our most hoity-toity actresses class."
this is an example of a song bn classicat. i do believe that this is my 1st time seein ethel water doin this (Am I Blue) at such an early era (1929). thank u 4 sharin it.
Too bad we couldn't watch this as it was originally filmed-in color. The folks in Hollywood who now seemed to be so concerned with film preservation lost every color copy of the first sound movie ever filmed in color. Amazing.
The "mother" of 'em all she broke the ice for them in Hollywood, Broadway, and stage..........and at the end with Billy Graham .......she side broke and alone.........but she had one Hell of a life.........
Actually, she didn't die broke or alone - died at the home of dear friends, and while she had given most of her money away, was far from broke. Her life with the Billy Graham group was so different from her earlier life, artistically and otherwise, that it's always been hard to reconcile the two. She was indeed "the mother of them all".
like an angel...
Bastard0fYoung 1 week ago
What an amazing voice!
hollyrr 1 month ago
The great Ethel, and her signature song,, which, of course, she introduced.
13loomisst 1 month ago
i love her
iiLulu10 1 month ago
ummm no shes not blue shes black
TheBMURPH2012 2 months ago
@TheBMURPH2012 Interesting comment~and,strange, now that you mention it. All of the white jazz singers such as Annette Hanshaw and Libby Holman who also sang this little number weren't blue either. Cher also sang this, and come to think of it, she did have a little bit of a blue tinge to her. Cher is just special.
preservationhall01 2 months ago
@TheBMURPH2012 People, this film is BLACK and white. So how can you tell her color from this MURPH? View the colored, ummm sorry, color version and you will see that she is definitely so beautiffuly black she is blue.
curleyQ01 2 months ago
@curleyQ01 0:17 white people, 1:03 black lady. CURLEY. dark colors r black and light colors r white in black and white things
TheBMURPH2012 2 months ago
@TheBMURPH2012 LOVVL!
preservationhall01 2 months ago
@curleyQ01 Hey Curley and Murph, she's still BLUE. Said so herself.
preservationhall01 2 months ago
@preservationhall01 hey preservationhall shes purple black mixed with blue is purple. i think
TheBMURPH2012 2 months ago
@TheBMURPH2012 By Gosh! You've solved it. Congratulations and salutations etc. However,this is a cheap channel...(There is no prize for the winner).PH01
preservationhall01 2 months ago
I remember watching Ethel Waters when I was a boy. she was very well know in the 40's.
wasjrs13 4 months ago
As a big Eartha, Billy and Ella fan .. I also had never heard of this brilliant woman.. Dark times in the states that linger on ... and currently revive .. Sadly. I love her voice, acting and beauty..
MrZetteke 5 months ago
@MrZetteke Ethel opened the door for all of the talented ladies you mention. She had so many "firsts" there is not sufficient room to detail them here. A few are spoken of by commenters to this offering. Thanks for stopping by the museum.
preservationhall01 5 months ago
When I started watching this kind-of-hokey movie on Turner Classics, I had no idea who this incredible black singer was, coming out of nowhere. I was absolutely blown away! I had to look the movie up in the IMDB to find out she was indeed a very talented and very famous actress of the time. She even overcomes the very tinny sound quality with distorted trebles from the early talkies. You have to kind of picture the natural brilliance of her voice through the distortion.
ferociousgumby 7 months ago
@ferociousgumby She was also a trailblazer for her race. ~ she achieved many" firsts" when she appeared in this movie. See some of the earlier comments about this clip. Thanks for your comment!
preservationhall01 7 months ago
So glad to know this version -- her cut for Columbia is too fast for the mood of the song, and till now I thought the version in the movie "the Cotton Club" was the best of all the ones I've heard (I LOVE this song!)... Even Libby Holman doesn't measure up!
Randidan 7 months ago
@Randidan Annette Hanshaw does a great version of this song.
preservationhall01 7 months ago
@preservationhall01
Randidan 7 months ago
great post.. originals versions are always the best and Ethel Waters is a bit underrated in my opinion.. nice to see her signature song in her prime..
RoryVanucchi 7 months ago
This is one of the fantastic lost classics of the past I wish the youth could enjoy rather than the ultra fast electronic forgettable stuff of today. The human mind can interpret and enjoy something like Ethel Waters than Top 40!
nspacemonkey 9 months ago
The best version of this song, ever.
SFRaeAnn 9 months ago
Merci
dom29175 9 months ago
What a treat! Thanks!
Pie2 9 months ago
what a beauty and what a talent
fefebabes2 9 months ago
A remarkable piece of film, would love to see the colour version.
goatface1000 10 months ago
isn't she adorable?
renascencewoman 11 months ago
Love Ethel Waters - a true, tuneful voice, a great performer.
dgarnes1 11 months ago
Lena Horne got recognized at the Oscars for her trail blazing achievements for black women but Ethel Waters was the true trail blazer, and a great singer IMO.
filmmekker 11 months ago
dabulidabudaj dabulidabudajjj
DobrzyLudzieZPyn 11 months ago
What a "one of a kind" talent. The world is a much better place because of your having lived in it. May you rest in peace, dear soul!
shemiska 1 year ago
See "Hallelujah" if you like this--first all-African American "talkie", 1929, lots of fantastic voices, including Victoria Spivey (though mostly unknowns). Director King Vidor wanted Ethel Waters for the lead but couldn't get her (she would have been great).
172juice 1 year ago
Thank you for this! It means a lot to me to actually see & hear Ms Waters sing. I've always heared & read about her. I had a great respect for her as one of the first black entertainers. I never had an oppotunity until now & very grateful for this chance. Yes she was & is a true great talent. God bless & Peace always.
outerspaceoutpost 1 year ago
So amazing.
Pentagonshark666 1 year ago
Judith Durham's version of this I believe is well worth listening to.
wasslic 1 year ago
Singers back then put so much soul into their songs, & they actually had talent. I hate how most artists these days have their voices altered to sound better while there are many singers out there with real talent who will never have the chance to put it to real use.
Thanks for the upload.
FaithBlack2001 1 year ago
Thank you, thank you for sharing these wonderful songs.
triangle2U 1 year ago
I can't believe this is the first time I'm hearing this. The first time I heard this song was on the Bette Midler album, The Divine Miss M. Ethel Waters sings the hell out of this song!
voceangelo 1 year ago
Damn she was a beautiful woman and one of the best singers I have ever heard.
LaserBeam002 1 year ago
i find this lady to be very fascinating. I only got to know about her when i had a project to do in school about Lena Horne and I read how Waters was kinda not her biggest fan, so i thought maybe she was a bit arrogant but i guess you cant believe everything you read. Ps I love them both by the way
leplaq 1 year ago
I WANT THIS ON MY IPOD where can i download these?
revolverbangbang 1 year ago
An incredible voice sadly under underused by Hollywood
easyoldbear 1 year ago
black power mutha fucker
qkiller123 1 year ago
Any idea if Annette recorded this first? This song seems to have been a WILD hit for a generation or two.
Thank you.
fairman1952 1 year ago 2
@fairman1952 Waters recorded her version, which became her signature song, on the Columbia label May 14, 1929 in NYC for the movie On With the Show. Annette recorded Am I Blue for the Puritone, Velvet Tone, Harmony and Diva labels on May 31, 1929, also in NYC.
preservationhall01 1 year ago 2
Did not know that singer Crystal Water is her great great niece. They look just alike too.
longn4longhair 1 year ago
Do you have a MP3 copy of this rendition of "Am I Blue". This is the best one I can find, but noone has it in downloadable form.
Emorylawgrad39 1 year ago
@Emorylawgrad39 Download it into real player, then RP will let you convert it to MP3.PH01
preservationhall01 1 year ago
Hot diggedy dog!
MrRedFredSaid 1 year ago
If this movie was filmed in color, it should be relatively easy to examine the black print and "colorize" it to restore it to its original presentation. I've seen it done for old Doctor Who episodes where the color print had been lost.
harleykman 1 year ago
She was a true lady until her passing. Wow that woman could belt em out like nobody else could. One of my favorite videos of hers on youtube is when she sings "His eye is on the sparrow" from one of the Billy Graham crusades. God rest her soul.
ncguy207 1 year ago
Thanks lot for this. I've used to hear Eddie Cochran and Robert Gordon's versions out of this. It's rewarding education to read that Ethel was one of first black artist to appear on US tv, radio and so on. Too bad that segregation lasted so long.
jarirusi 1 year ago
Thanks for this preservation! Jeff.
gamarchesseault 1 year ago
Well fan my brow. If that ain't Jimmy Rushing in the chorus! Can it possibly be?
shinotora1X 1 year ago
Lovely performance!
paulostroff99 2 years ago
God, what is the damn obsession with cotton...
MightyAlz 2 years ago
Imagine that this was the first generally distributed All Color Musical w/the first appearance f a Black Artist. Originally shot in two color technicolor - the original negative lost after tranferred to a 16mm television reduction print. I have seen short snippits of copies from the a surviving color print.
rather lush for the period.
78timothy 2 years ago
Too bad about the basket of cotton. She's so gorgeous!
bixchick007 2 years ago 9
@bixchick007 OH LORD WHY DID I CLICK THIS COTTON ?COTTON ?LORD NO MORE COTTON!
HERBLANDZ 2 years ago 2
Inside and out!
norfolk03 2 years ago
My name is Ethelle Weltjens haha (;
MiniMindi 2 years ago
I have been an Ethel Water fan since I was about 9 years old and my father played the first two recordings I ever heard of her: Am I Blue" and "Black and Blue" I wonder what it is/was that would make a 9 year old boy identify and enjoy this kind of a recording alomots40 years past its debut? I don;t know but I sure love Ethel Waters!!!
MarkieJ117 2 years ago 2
You simply had excellent taste! We had "Not on the first night, baby" on the Victrola when I was little, loved her ever since!
norfolk03 2 years ago
I have about 100 or so of her recordings but have never even heard of that one~! Do you have a copy of it on the computer you can share?????
MarkieJ117 2 years ago
I wish I did! That old Columbia is in North Carolina in a box, hope you can get them from MarkieJ117, that is an amazing record, both sides!
norfolk03 2 years ago
Thanks, so much, pres, for showing us the young, very sexy EthelW; by the way, those four gentlemen on at the end were the Four Emperors of Harmony,. a great black quartet. Likewise, why not post the clip for "Birmngham Bertha", which was later in the same movie? It was the logical sequel to this song. (She mentions being stuck down here in Birmingham, etc. and the latter song is about her going to Chicago to reclaim her man. ) The true mother of the blues.
dennykdoe 2 years ago
I have never seen this perfromance ("Birmingham Bertha") and would Love to!!!!
MarkieJ117 2 years ago
Does anyone have a copy of Ethel Waters singing 'I just couldn't take it, baby' & 'A hundred years from today. I know John Hammond was involved as it was a Goodmans recording (1923).
ThankYouAndHello 2 years ago
I have thehose recordings on Vinyl adn I believe CD
MarkieJ117 2 years ago
But the year would be about 1933 not 23
MarkieJ117 2 years ago
thanks for clearing that up
ThankYouAndHello 2 years ago
I've got I Just Couldn't Take It Baby and A Hundred Years From Today, but they're on vinyl and I don't know how to transpose them to youtube. Any suggestions?
Gangstagran 2 years ago
I have those recordings and if yo usend me your E Mail address I will try and sedn them to you if I can download them ~
MarkieJ117 2 years ago
My meaning was in the Sound medium, and first Color Musical, sorry for miscommunicating. "The Gulf Between" I don't think is 2 color Technicolor as that prcess was not introduced until after WWI; It may have been hand colored, which was introduced by Pathe.I can sure see your comment of "Toll of the Sea" I have a copy of CB DeMilles "Ten Commandments"1923 w/Rod LaRocque & Nita Naldi. The Pharoah's Chariot sequence heading into the Red Sea during the exodus, was shot n Two Color Technicolor.
78timothy 2 years ago
actually, 78timothy, that isn't true. the first two-color technicolor film was "the gulf between "(1917), and the first commercial, two-color technicolor feature film made was the six-reel "the toll of the sea" (1922). the first feature-length blockbuster color picture using this same innovative process was "the black pirate" (1926) with douglas fairbanks, sr. & billie dove. "on with the show" was the first all-color sound MUSICAL film.
supremes70sstyle 2 years ago
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've wanted to see this for ages. Many interesting things. Waters is supposedly out picking cotton in that gorgeous outfit! The things they would do to try to appease Southern audiences. It is good to have documentation of the beauty of Miss Waters in her Sweet Mama Stringbean days. And against a fairly "straight" background and singers, you can hear her swing. One of the first female jazz singers, and still one of the greatest. Brilliant!
Somepeople 2 years ago 4
Thanks for all your info Someone. For an even jazzier version, I'll try to post the arrangement of "Am I Blue" that she sang in "Rufus Jones" in 1930.
preservationhall01 2 years ago
Not to mention that this was a first. First Color Motion Picture w/the First performance of this song on Film by the Woman who introduced this song. Firsts all the way !!! 5***** for posting this.
78timothy 2 years ago
I had thought her her performance of Am I Blue in Rufus Jones for President co-starring with 5 year old Sammy Davis preceded this....You're right-After checking, this performance from On With the Show was a year or two earlier.
preservationhall01 2 years ago
Ethel Waters made history, garnering many "firsts." She was the first black woman to appear on radio (on April 21, 1922); the first black woman to star on her own at the Palace Theater in New York (in 1925); the first black woman to star in a commercial network radio show (in 1933); the first singer to introduce 50 songs that became hits (in 1933); the first black singer to appear on television (in 1939); and the first black woman to star on Broadway in a dramatic play (also in 1939).
jagib2 2 years ago 13
Thanks for that info!
preservationhall01 2 years ago
Wow! I didn't know all of that and I've been an Ethel Waters fan since childhood. But I question the last one. Wasn't Rose McLendon the star of Langston Hughes' 1935 Broadway hit, "Mulatto"? Ms. McLendon was such a hit that many actors flocked to see her, including Ethel Barrymore, who said, "She can teach even our most hoity-toity actresses class."
DiamondRedd1 2 years ago
this is an example of a song bn classicat. i do believe that this is my 1st time seein ethel water doin this (Am I Blue) at such an early era (1929). thank u 4 sharin it.
phdseuss 2 years ago
Superb. The best interpretation of this great song. Thank you for posting
normwebs 2 years ago
My pleasure
preservationhall01 2 years ago
Comment removed
yogisuperman 2 years ago 11
ditto to that Yogi
preservationhall01 2 years ago
She is sooo wonderful. And its fantastic to watch a "video" eighty years old! Many thanks!
Lindgren33 2 years ago 2
Too bad we couldn't watch this as it was originally filmed-in color. The folks in Hollywood who now seemed to be so concerned with film preservation lost every color copy of the first sound movie ever filmed in color. Amazing.
preservationhall01 2 years ago
The "mother" of 'em all she broke the ice for them in Hollywood, Broadway, and stage..........and at the end with Billy Graham .......she side broke and alone.........but she had one Hell of a life.........
HarborGuy 3 years ago
As I understand . . .she was one of the first African American entertainers to have a starring role in an otherwise "white" movie.
preservationhall01 2 years ago
Actually, she didn't die broke or alone - died at the home of dear friends, and while she had given most of her money away, was far from broke. Her life with the Billy Graham group was so different from her earlier life, artistically and otherwise, that it's always been hard to reconcile the two. She was indeed "the mother of them all".
Somepeople 2 years ago 13