Ethel Waters in New York City - the 1910's

from His Eye Is On the Sparrow, pages 145,146:

The master of them all, though, was Lucky Roberts. Everybody calls him Pop, but reverently. He now runs a restaurant up on the hill in Harlem. I don't call it Sugar Hill. I don't use that kind of language. Any night you can go up to Pop Roberts' place and hear operatic arias sung magnificently by the great singers who are waiters and waitresses there. Fine singers! People I know, people I admire, people I've worked with! But they are Negroes and have to wait on tables because they can't get any work in show business. They are colored. Period.

cite as

Charles Samuels and Ethel Waters, His Eye Is On the Sparrow (1950), p. 145,146. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1429194471218 accessed: 19 April, 2024

location of experience: New York City

Listeners

Ethel Waters
dancer, Singing
1896-1977

Listening to

hide composers
operatic singing
written by Domenico Cimarosa, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
performed by anonymous African-American men and women

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1910's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by Gill on Thu, 16 Apr 2015 15:27:51 +0100
Approved on Fri, 25 Sep 2015 20:06:31 +0100