Pinc Thom

Ethel Waters (b. 31 October 1896) was a pioneering American singer and actress whose extraordinary career spanned vaudeville, blues, jazz, Broadway, Hollywood, and television. Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, under traumatic circumstances—her mother had been raped as a teenager—Waters endured an impoverished, unstable childhood before escaping into show business. By the 1920s, her rich, expressive voice and sophisticated phrasing had made her one of the most celebrated Black entertainers in America. Waters popularized such standards as “Stormy Weather,” “Am I Blue?,” and “Dinah,” bringing emotional depth and remarkable versatility to both popular music and the blues. She became one of the first Black performers to headline Broadway productions alongside white actors, earning acclaim in As Thousands Cheer (1933) and Cabin in the Sky (1940). After moving to Hollywood to star in the 1942 film Cairo, she reprised her stage role as Petunia in the all-black film musical Cabin in the Sky directed by Vincente Minnelli. Her dramatic performance in Pinky (1949) earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, making her only the second Black actress nominated for an Oscar. She later starred in The Member of the Wedding (1952) and became the first Black woman nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Offstage, Waters was fiercely independent, outspoken, and notoriously difficult to manage. Twice married and divorced, she had romantic relationships with both men and women. Her bisexuality was kept private, but during the early 1920s, she lived in Harlem with her romantic partner, dancer Ethel Williams, where they were known among the demimonde as "the two Ethels”. Her personal life was marked by financial difficulties, professional rivalries, and periods of profound loneliness. In later years, she embraced evangelical Christianity and toured with Billy Graham. Waters died in Chatsworth, California, on September 1, 1977, at age 80. A formidable talent who refused to be confined by racial barriers or conventional expectations, she helped transform American popular music and opened doors for generations of Black performers. Her legacy is that of a woman whose voice could break hearts, whose personality could rattle nerves, and whose determination was nothing short of extraordinary. 🏳️‍🌈 [Ethel, photographed by her close friend, Carl Van Vechten, the gay photographer with whom she shared a devout, lifelong friendship and a highly successful artistic partnership. He captured hundreds of portraits of her spanning multiple decades, documenting her evolution as an artist. Waters deeply respected Van Vechten's authentic immersion in the Black arts movement. She jokingly remarked that he was "credited with knowing, at the time, more about Harlem than any other white man except the captain of the Harlem Police Station".]