Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

Source: Ciniwiki

Born on 9 April 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, actor and baritone, Paul Robeson, first attended Rutgers as its third black student, then began acting and singing at Columbia University while studying law. He also played football on the NFL teams, the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. His theatrical debut was as Simon in the YWCA production of 'Simon of Cyrene' in 1920. Upon graduating from Columbia, Robeson renounced a career in law due to racism, instead becoming involved in the Harlem Renaissance, known at the time as the New Negro Movement.

His first role in silent films was 'Body and Soul' in 1925. He also made his first recordings in April that year for the Victor label. After a few trial titles, a couple with pianist, Lawrence Brown, toward fate unknown on 21 April 1925, Robeson's next row of five titles on 16 July 1925 yielded one to issue, 'Bye and Bye' on Victor 19743. A spiritual arranged by H. T. Burleigh, Brown joined him on that and others, as well as 'Li'l Gal' gone down on 27 July 1925 toward issue on Victor 19824. Music for 'Li'l Gal' was by J. Rosamond Johnson, lyrics by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Brown and Robeson had met during the latter's years at Columbia. He and Brown toured to Europe together in the latter twenties. Robeson was already acquainted with Great Britain, having first performed on stage there in 'Voodoo' in 1922. It was London again for 'Emperor Jones' in 1925. Robeson performed in 'Showboat' and 'Othello' in London in 1928. Recording for Victor and Columbia, London recordings were handled by Gramophone from 1935 onward.

'Bye and Bye'   Paul Robeson w piano by Lawrence Brown   1925

Recorded 16 July 1925 Camden NJ    Issued on Victor 19743

Spiritual arranged by H. T. Burleigh

'Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho'   Paul Robeson w piano by Lawrence Brown   1925

Recorded 30 July 1925 Camden NJ    Issued on Victor 19743

Spiritual arranged by Brown

'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'   Paul Robeson w piano by Lawrence Brown   1926

Recorded 7 Jan 1926 Camden NJ    Issued on Victor 20068

Spiritual arranged by Brown

This song was first recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1909.

Advancing into the thirties, the first talkie in which Robeson starred is thought to be 'The Emperor Jones' in 1933, also thought to be the first film in which a black person was cast in a starring role. Robeson visited the Soviet Union in 1934 upon invitation by Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein. He came to worldwide attention in 1935 in the movie, 'Sanders of the River'. It was the Spanish Civil War that moved Robeson's political activism beyond black civil rights, he traveling to Spain in 1938 to support the Republican International Brigade. Notable in 1939 was his radio broadcast of the song, 'Ballad for Americans'.

'Li'l Gal'   Paul Robeson  1932   HMV B 4093

Music: John Rosamond Johnson   Lyrics: Paul Laurence Dunbar

'Ol' Man River'   Paul Robeson  Film: 'Showboat'   1936

Composition: Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II

By World War II Robeson was a major star. But the only hotel that would accommodate him on tour was the Beverly Wilshire. It may have been his narration of 'Native Land', a 1942 documentary concerning trade unions, that brought him to the attention of the FBI, the film labeled communist propaganda. Throughout his career Robeson had been involved in some or other manner with civil, human and political rights. In 1946 he founded the ACAL (American Crusade Against Lynching). Due to his support of union activist, Revels Cayton, about that time, he was called before the Tenney Committee and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to respond as to his affiliation with the Communist Party (none), risking jail by not answering. He campaigned for Henry Wallace in 1948. The next year he toured Europe, as the FBI wished his dates in the States cancelled. In 1949 he revisited the Soviet Union.

'National Anthem of the Soviet Union'   Paul Robeson   1944

Keynote C & O conducted by Charles Lichter

Music: Alexander Alexandrov   1944   Text: Sergey Mikhalkov / Gabriel El-Registan

'Zog nit keyn mol' ('Never Say' aka 'Warsaw Ghetto Uprising')   Paul Robeson

Live in Moscow 13 June 1949

Text by Hirsh Glick set to music by Dmitri & Daniel Pokrass

It was 1950 that Robeson began experiencing defamation and blacklisting en force as an alleged subversive. NBC cancelled a scheduled appearance on television with Eleanor Roosevelt, and the FBI denied him passport to foreign countries. In 1951 he declared before the United Nations that the federal government's refusal to act against the lynching of black Americans was genocidal. (His earlier meeting with President Truman in 1946 concerning such had gone nowhere.) In 1952 Robeson accepted the International Stalin Prize, awarded by the Soviet Union, in New York. His first concert at the Peace Arch (monument spanning the border between British Columbia and Washington) was also held in 1952, on a flatbed truck. In 1956 Robeson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee for refusing to sign an affidavit stating he wasn't a Communist. Which result was another revoking of his passport, one exception made in March that year for concerts in Canada. About that time his films and recordings were getting removed from public distribution as the press in the United States vilified him. His response was the book, 'Here I Stand', written with Lloyd L. Brown, published in 1958. His passport was reinstated in June that year, Robeson then commencing a world tour.

'Going Home'   Paul Robeson   Carnegie Hall 1958

Melody by Antonin Dvorák from 'Symphony No.9' premiereing 16 Dec 1893

Text by William Arms Fisher (student)

In 1960 Robeson involved himself with the rights of Australian aborigines while on tour there, demanding their citizenship. In March of 1961 Robeson attempted suicide in the bathroom of a Moscow hotel room during a party, apparently a paranoiac breakdown likely assisted by harassment, government and not, over the years. Admitted to the Barvikha Sanatorium, upon release he was later admitted to the Priory in London, where he is said to have undergone fifty-four electroshock treatments, well reinforced with barbiturates. Friends concerned about his treatment there had him transferred to the Buch Clinic in East Berlin in August 1963, Robeson returning to the States later that year. In 1965 his wife for forty-four years, Essie, died. During the latter years of his life Robeson, a Marxist socialist, remained concerned as to civil rights, but the flame had subsided. Complications from a stroke killed Robeson on 23 January 1976 in Philadelphia. He began appearing on televised media again in 1978.