Chester's Influence on American Music

Chester's Influence on American Music. Industrial Heritage Parkway. , Ethel Waters , Born to a young mother and raised in poverty, Ethel Waters overcame a difficult childhood to become an accomplished singer, radio host, and actress, having had roles in movies, on Broadway and on television. She was born in 1896 in Bethel Court, an infamous neighborhood of Chester that is now the location of Ethel Waters Park., Waters left Chester for Philadelphia, where she became a chambermaid at a hotel. While there, she participated in a night club talent show and was discovered by a small vaudeville circuit, which offered here a two week gig in Baltimore. She later continued as one of the "Hill Sisters," and assumed the stage name "Sweet Mama Stringbean.", Her recorded hits included "Dinah," "Am I Blue?," "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and "Heat Wave." She was among the first to record the famous song "Stormy Weather" in 1933, which became a favorite at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The song was selected for the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2004., Ethel Waters is believed to have been the first African american to perform on the radio in 1922, and was the first African American woman to star in a commercial network radio show in 1933. She is said to have been the first African American to have a starring role on television, in the 1939 NBC special The Ethel Waters Show. Ethel continued to work in television throughout her life, wit hroles such as the title character in the 1950s series Beulah. She also acted in many films, including the leading role in 1943's Cabin in the Sky, and earning an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in 1949's Pinky., Ethel Waters Park was dedicated on April 30, 1972, declared "Ethel Waters Day" by the city. She died in 1977., Bill Haley and his Comets , Originally from Highland Park, Michigan, Bill Haley moved to Boothwyn in the late 1930s. Moremost a musician, he worked for local radio stations including WPWA in Chester, where he was musical director. He organized a studio group for the station which he named The Four Aces of Western Swing, and later formed Bill Haley and the Saddlemen, both blues-inspired country and western groups. The Saddlemen evolved into the Comets in 1952. The name was inspried by the astronomical phenomenon known as "Halley's Comet.", The Comet were among the first rock and roll artists, and their recordings included "Crazy Man, Crazy," the first of the genre to be nationally televised, and "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Their most famous recording was "Rock Around the Clock," released in 1954. Popularized by its use in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, "Rock Around the Clock" became one of the first pouplar rock and roll records, and helped propel the genre into the forefront of American culture., The Comets continued to record rock and roll hists including "See You Later, Alligator," but their popularity declined with the increasing influence of other musicians such as Elvis Presley. Members of the group re-formed in various incarnations over the years, and "Rock Around the clock" was used in the 1970s as the original theme of the television show Happy Days. Bill Haley died in 1981 and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. the Comets were inducted in 2012., The Four Aces , A successful pre-rock and roll vocal group, the Four Aces were formed in Chester in 1949 by Navy shipmates Al Alberts and Dave Mahoney. Lou Silvestri and Sal Vaccaro rounded out the group. Their hits were the million-selling "(It's No) Sing," "Tell Me Why," and the themes to the films Three Couns in the Fountain and Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. Al Alberts later became a television personality with his TV program Al Alberts Showcase, which helped launch the careers of several performers., Alex North , A prolific composer, Alex North is best remembered as a successful composer of film scores. Born in Chester in 1910, North attended the Juilliard School in New York City and the Moscow Conservatory, where he was its first American pupil., During World War II, North contrib uted to the American war effort by writing music for over 25 Office of War Information documentaries. After the war, he began to write the scores for theater productions including Death of a Salesman (1949), and The Innocents (1950). He also wrote the scores for films such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Spartacus (1960), Cleopatra (1963), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and wrote the music for the well-known song "Unchained Melody," with lyrics by Hy Zaret., North received an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1986. He died in 1991., Marcus Belgrave , An accomplished trumpet player who was born in Chester, Marcus Belgrave began playing trumpet at the age of six, and as a teenager, played in Chester clubs such as the Belaire and the Harlan, but on 3rd Street. In the 1950s, Ray Charles frequented Club Belaire, and during one visit, Belgrave sat in with his band. Charles was so impressed that he invited Belgrave to play with his touring band, which he did for several years., Over the course of his career Belgrave played for the Charles Mingus and Max Roach Groups, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, and Aretha Franklin, among others. He moved to Detroit in the 1960s to play trumpet for many well-known Motown hits of the era. He cofounded the Jazz Studies programs at the Detroit Metro Arts Complex and was a jazz professor at Oberlin College and Oakland University. Belgrave was given the distinction of Jazz Master Laureate for the City of Detroit.