Radiolab - The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 4

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Our Harlem Moon.  In this spin-off tale, Ethel Waters hijacks a degrading song and makes the music her own. The Vanishing of Harry Pace was created and produced by Shima Oliaee and Jad Abumrad.�� This series was produced in collaboration with author Kiese Laymon, scholar Imani Perry, writer Cord Jefferson, WQXR’s Terrance McKnight, and WNYC's Jami Floyd. Based on the book Black Swan Blues: the Hard Rise and Brutal Fall of America’s First Black Owned Record Label by Paul Slade. Featuring interviews with Pace's descendants and over forty musicians, historians, writers, and musicologists, all of whom grapple with Pace’s enduring legacy. Thank you to our podcast friends at Throughline for featuring our series on their show. Check out their feed for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview about the series with Rund, Ramtin, Jad and Shima.

Wait, you're listening. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I ain't got a friend, my only sin is in my skin. What did I do to be so black and blue? You be so black and blue. Tyle, this is why I've been feeling like I blew in the face for years. I'm just like this period, basically between emancipation and the Harlem Renaissance. It is the key to our American character. Could I get your name in your title just to begin?

My name is Rianne Giddens and I am a singer, player, composer, and an armchair historian. Okay, quick intro. This is Vanishing of Harry Pace, a mini-series on Radio Lab, I'm Chad. I'm Shima. We begin this week by branching out from Harry and we couldn't resist but bring you this short episode.

Yeah, so this one came about when we called up Rianne and Giddens during our research. When I found out about Black Swan, I was like, yes, this is what we were doing. We were doing all of it. I wanted to ask her a whole bunch of questions about Ethel Waters because I knew she sometimes performed Ethel songs.

But then suddenly, what is black? What is American? We were on a bullet train speeding through hundreds of years of American history. Minstrelcy. It started with that word. Minstrelcy was such a big deal. It was like the first American cultural export.

It was like rock and roll before a rock and roll, right? Minstrelcy is this phenomenon starting in about the 1830s, went on for about a hundred years. You could even argue longer than that. Where you had white musicians dressing up in blackface and singing these disgusting racist songs using very exaggerated stereotypes of black people. We touched on this a bit in episode one. But on this particular call, Rihanna started telling us about the way this minstrel passed. Has never really passed. There was an Australian Prime Minister in a minstrel troop.

Oh my god. Literally, there's a picture. This online, I could show it to you. This will connect us back to Ethel in just a second. So it's weird you have like white people in blackface playing music that does actually have authentic African-American roots. But then black people start to join menstrualcy because you trying to get a job, honey. It is one of the few jobs that they have open to them. But to do it, they have to put on blackface. Yeah.

The very first moving picture done by the Lumiere brothers on British soil in London is of a blackface menstrual troop outside entertaining. The other place that meant to see went other than Hollywood movies is cartoons. You be holding this money, what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what Even Mickey Mouse, the formation of him with the white gloves, then you get to like bugs bunny and all this coming. Like bugs bunny and blackface. Multiple cartoons. You have to laugh because you cry, otherwise. And then you have the coon song, where this imagery from Instra-ci is getting funneled.

The most popular song of the period. All cooms look alike to me. I'm so fascinated with this song because a lot of these songs are so catchy. But this song was so incendiary that you can whistle it at somebody and you can start a fight. Are there other songs you can point to where you're like, wow, this is a great song if I just listen to the music?

All of them. Give it crack corn and I don't care. All the songs we learn in third grade or whatever, these songs are originally menstrual songs. Which ones? Oh, Jimicrat corn. Little brown jug. Camton races. I've been working on the railroad. Ini-mini-mini mo.

In the original, it wasn't a tiger they caught by the toe. They've been cleaned up. Dimbo, dimbo. Dimbo, dimbo, dimbo. I mean, anything with dim in it, menstrual singing. I remember being in choir singing a jump-down turn around pickabilla cotton.

I remember too. I come from Alabama with a badger on my knee. Everybody knows the song. The Ossuzanna, that verse. Oh, they took that one out. Oh, that's because James Taylor saying that. Wait a minute. Yeah, so I jumped aboard the telegraph

and traveled down the river. It's not a musical song, if it's not in dialect. You jumped aboard the telegraph and traveled down the river. River, you know, what that's going to rhyme with. The electric fluid magnified and killed 500 in words. Oh, dang. Yeah.

Wow. This is nothing. This is nothing, y'all. When I do a show, I get gasp, when I talk about coonsomes. Go all coons look alike to me and they're like, oh my heavens. Pearls are clutched.

You know, it takes a lot of thinking to figure out what to do with this music, but shoving it under the rug is not the answer. Do you yourself perform any of these songs when you do your shows? The one that I do is underneath the Harlem moon and I do Ethel Waters version of that song because I saw that film. I wanna be a great man.

But is it Rastas for President, Rufus for President? President. I can't remember, but it's with Sammy Davis Jr. Me? Sure. He's like four, not four, but he's very, very young. And he's bad, me and there. I'm not gonna do that.

In the movie, he gets elected president, becoming the first black president, but as a kid. You know, it's a dream, but it's the white people's idea of what what would happen if black people took over the presidency. From now on, home jobs will be free. IT! IT! IT! about the watermelon amendment and f***ing like that. It is two-minute-loaded ice in the c- shooting crafts and it's just the most horrible collection of stereotypes ever assembled on one screen. I mean, they're just awful. Hey!

Hey! At the end of the movie, they're in the courtroom and in strolls. Now I said it, isn't it? Ethel Waters in an evening gown. Maybe a fur, I can't remember. It's gonna wall since I've seen it. Ethel Waters plays the mother of Sammy Davis, Jr. And I'm also around.

And she sings the song. The old baby's walk along underneath the Harlemoon. And I was like, what the heck is this It's so good and then I looked it up And I was like whoa those aren't the words that she's saying And I was like She re-rope half of that song. How, what'd she do? Like look, these lyrics.

Like I found the original underneath the Harlem moon. Let's see, Creole babies walk along with them in their thighs, rhythm in their hips, and in their lips, and in their eyes, where the high browns find the kind of love that satisfies underneath the Harlem moon. They don't pick no cotton, pick and cotton is taboo. They don't live in cabins like the old folks used to do. Their cabin is a penthouse up on Linux Avenue underneath that Harlem moon so that's how the original goes she sings

we don't pick no cotton picking cotton is taboo right then there's a change she is owning it she's like no y'all aren't gonna talk about us we're gonna talk about ourselves underneath our Harlem that that is like the biggest change it's not underneath the Harlem it's underneath our Harlem and she's like oh no no no I'm going to talk about when people map even there's a line that line that's why the darkies were born. She changed to... That's why we schwarzes who are born. That's why we schwarzes were born. And if you know her relationship with that

Giddish song, the Valdville that was such a smash. It's a song that made Ethel famous in Valdville circuits called Ellie. You know, like the idea of blacks and Jews. All this, these are the things also that we don't talk about. The different cultural connections that we're going on. It was all the melting pot. Jewish people, Chinese, the tattoos, Polish people, Arabs.

Nobody in our race is jet black. I'm a brown skin woman. We are many colors. I'm a brown skin woman. We are many colors. I love her. Here's one of her verses. We don't pick no cotton, picking cotton instead,

who always pick his numbers. And that is new to White folks. And that includes you by folks too. Because if we hit, we pay our rent. On any avenue, underneath our Harlem move, right? Such a gravitas like you can just hear it. In her voice, once we wore bandana.

Now we wear pervasion hats. Once we wear barefoot. Now we're sporting shoes and spats. Once we wear Republicans. But now we're Democrats. And now we're Democrats. Which has a whole other meaning. Wow.

It's that political shift that happened around that time. I mean, she owns every aspect of being a black person. I get goosebumps every time I sing that song. We know that this won't belong with being a million times. I do her version of underneath the Harlem move. And that is the moment I don't unleash my bitterness. That's like that's the moment of me kind of just giving it to the world. Just like, you know, I wish I didn't have to talk about the stuff that I do, but you know what? Ethel gave me this vehicle to let loose.

If you could rewrite all of them to be like that, that's what I would do. This is a vanishing of Harry Pace, many series on Radio Lab. Who are you? I'm Shemouliai. And I am Chad. And this episode was a little bit of a shorty, but in just three days we have a bigger one coming. And it's a good one. His story is one of the most inspiring stories and lost sounds, I think, because boy, he was one of those people that just knocked down walls. This guy is like a battery grab. You know, when he went overseas, they were, you know, hide your daughter, you know, this black man is coming,

closed down the windows, because he's dangerous. Somebody's going to be pregnant before he leaves, all that kind of nonsense. When he walks out, he is booed and hissed. He believed that it was like the epiphany of the Apostle Paul. What he accomplished was extraordinary. This story is just bananas. It's a story we did not expect to tell, but when we bumped into it, we were so surprised that we just had to include it.

That is coming up in three days. And before we leave you, we just want to say thank you to Thurlin, Thurlin Podcast. We did a behind the scenes interview with them and they've just posted it on their podcast feed, if you search through Line Podcast. They're amazing, thank you Romteen and Rund. Definitely. Thank you for listening, we'll see you in a few days. Bye.