Hi there,
Does anyone know who is the singer in the Paris nightclub segment? One of the numbers she sings is "Clap Yo Hands."
Thanks.
If memory serves, it's Hazel Scott, then well-known as a blues singer. -- S. P. Hill.
shareYes, I see the IMDb credit lists "Hazel Scott."
But I was wondering which female Negro pianist Hazel Scott would have been portraying in the film.
My guess is that the film uses a fictional "composite" character, a combination of Hazel Scott and Josephine Baker, who did not play piano, but who was in Paris in the 1920s. Hazel Scott was born in 1920, so the film would have not have placed the real Hazel Scott in Paris in the mid Twenties. And her bio fails to mention any visit to Paris.
And note that the film fails to supply a marquee name to the fictional pianist. I suppose the audience is supposed to "assume" a Josephine-Baker-type of cabaret entertainer.
I had to look up "Josephine Baker" to double check if she did nor didn't play piano. (She did not.)
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The film is heavily Hollywood-ized.
No surprise that the characterizations and dialogue is stilted and dated.
The screenplay is super-duper condensed and composite-ized (to coin a word).
The so-called "love interest" plot line has no support in the biographies of Gershwin.
But that is not to say the music suffers! -- I am a big, big fan of all things Gershwin! I'll take the real Jolson, Whiteman, Levant, any day! I wish the film used more music. -- Like the quantity used in the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" which had the music really as the "star" of the film. They could have squeezed in six more cuts, in 95 minutes, I would have hoped! Oh, well. I'll take my Gershwin whereever I can find him.
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"The Shadow knows." -- Lamont Cranston
Thanks for your comments. It seemed strange to me that they were so clear that he was talking to Whiteman and Jolson while they didn't identify this girl. She must have been portraying someone really well known, judging by how "ritzy" the place was.
I was so delighted to have the real Jolson and Levant, among others, in this movie, but I agree there could have been more music. I was surprised how little of the "American in Paris" was played and how many times we heard "Swanee." And you're right when you say it's Hollywood-ized. The dialogue where George and Julie introduce themselves is one example of the stilted lines that's always bothered me. But, as far as Hollywood-ized bio-pics go, this one is pretty good and remains one of my favorite movies.
The star blues singer-pianist shown in the Paris nightclub (presumably, in the late 1920s) is indeed HAZEL SCOTT. And the film's credits are accurate to the extent that they indicate "Hazel Scott as herself." Exactly the same as the (accurate) credit which indicates "Oscar Levant as himself." But as some eagle-eyed viewers of this film have noticed, those credits can be accurate for IDENTITY but misleading as to CHRONOLOGY. (Both Levant & Scott would have been too young in reality to have met the adult Gershwin within the time-frame suggested by the film.) Put it down to poetic license; it's still a great film in many other respects. -- Prof Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, Univ. of Illinois.
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