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Saturday, July 29, 2023

Bill Bailey & Pearl Bailey Performing The 1902 Dixieland Jazz Song "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey" In 1955 On "The Ed Sullivan Show" Un On


The Ed Sullivan Show, Mar 27, 2021  #EdSullivanShow #50s #EdSullivan

Pearl Bailey with Bill Bailey "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey" on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 13, 1955

[...]

The Ed Sullivan Show was a television variety program that aired on CBS from 1948-1971. For 23 years it air P ed every Sunday night and played host to the world's greatest talents. The Ed Sullivan Show is well known for bringing rock n' roll music to the forefront of American culture through acts like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. The entertainers each week ranged from comedians like Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield, to Broadway stars Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, to pop singers such as Bobby Darin and Petula Clark. It also frequently featured stars of Motown such as The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5. The Ed Sullivan Show was one of the only places on American television where such a wide variety of popular culture was showcased and its legacy lives on to this day.
**** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post showcases the American 1902 Dixieland Jazz song "Won't You Come Home" (Bill Bailey) or similar titles. This post presents information about that song along with information about singer Pearl Bailey, dancer Bill Bailey, and television series host Ed Sullivan. The lyrics for the chorus of this song are also included in this post. The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. Thanks to Hughie Cannon, the composer of the song "Won't You Come Home (Bill Bailey)". Thanks also to Ed Sullivan, Pearl Bailey, and Bill Bailey for their cultural legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube. -snip- Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/article-excerpt-about-ed-sullivan.html for the 2022 pancocojams post entitled "Article Excerpt About Ed Sullivan Breaking Color Barriers By Featuring Black Entertainers On His TV Series (with a clip of James Brown Performing on that show)"
**** INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "WON'T YOU COME HOME" (BILL BAILEY)
Excerpt #1 From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Won%27t_You_Come_Home)_Bill_Bailey
"(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please.... Come Home?" is a popular song published in 1902. It is commonly referred to as simply "Bill Bailey".

Its words and music were written by Hughie Cannon, an American songwriter and pianist, and published by Howley, Haviland and Dresser. It is still a standard with Dixieland and traditional jazz bands. The simple 32-bar chord sequence of its chorus also underpins many other tunes played mainly by jazz bands, such as "Over the Waves", "Washington and Lee Swing", "Bourbon Street Parade", "My Little Girl", and the final themes of "Tiger Rag" and "The Beer Barrel Polka".

Origin

Cannon wrote the song in 1902 when he was working as a bar pianist at Conrad Deidrich’s Saloon in Jackson, Michigan. Willard "Bill" Bailey, also a jazz musician, was a regular customer and friend, and one night told Cannon about his marriage to Sarah (née Siegrist). Cannon "was inspired to rattle off a ditty about Bailey’s irregular hours. Bailey thought the song was a scream (i.e. very good), and he brought home a dashed-off copy of the song to show Sarah. Sarah couldn’t see the humor...[but] accepted without comment the picture it drew of her as a wife." Cannon sold all rights to the song to a New York publisher, and he died from cirrhosis at age 35. Willard and Sarah Bailey later divorced; He moved to Los Angeles with their daughter Frances, he died in 1954, and Sarah died in 1976, age about 102. (See New York Times archives 1976, unknown date)

Popular recordings

In 1902, the first recording, sung and played by Arthur Collins on piano [1]

In 1953, the song featured in the film Meet Me at the Fair, directed by Douglas Sirk, where it was sung by Jo Ann Greer who dubbed the singing voice of actress Carole Mathews.

In 1960, Bobby Darin recorded the song, where it went to #19 on the Hot 100,[2] and #34 on the UK charts.

****
Excerpt #2
From https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-70284,00.html 

"Who was the Bill Bailey whose reluctance to return home has been made famous in song? [3]"

"Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home", written by Hughie Cannon in 1902, is the lyric narrative of a familiar story. Bailey was said to have been a performer in the American music hall who liked to drink excessively and pursue the debauchment of women other than his wife. Eventually, his wife kicked him out. So that is the reason why Bill Bailey will not come home - he still thinks his wife is finished with him. Hughie Cannon (1877 - 1912), was a performer and also a composer who played piano for many vaudeville acts. Next to "Bill Bailey", his other greatest hit was "He Done Me Wrong", written in 1904 for the musical "Frankie and Johnny". Other hits were "Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes" (1900) and "I Hates To Get Up Early In The Morning" (1901), both in collaboration with John Queen. "...

-John Bennett, Glasgow, Scotland

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PARTIAL LYRICS FOR THIS SONG

Chorus: Won't you come home Bill Bailey, won't you come home?
She moans the whole day long.
I'll do the cooking darling, I'll pay the rent;
I knows I've done you wrong;
Member that rainy eve that I drove you out,
With nothing but a fine tooth comb?
I know I'se to blame; well ain't that a shame?
Bill Bailey won't you please come home?
-snip-
Click http://www.perfessorbill.com/lyrics/lybailey.htm for the complete lyrics for this song.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT BILL BAILEY (Dancer) From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bailey_(dancer)
"Willie Eugene Bailey (December 8, 1912 – December 12, 1978), known professionally as Bill Bailey, was an American tap dancer.[1] The older brother of actress and singer Pearl Bailey, Bill was considered to be one of the best rhythm dancers of his time and was the first person to be recorded doing the Moonwalk, although he referred to it as the "Backslide," in the film Cabin in the Sky (1943), starring Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Lena Horne.

[...]

Career

At eighteen years old, Bailey was discovered in New York by Lew Leslie and put in his production Blackbirds of 1930. After the production, he and Derby Wilson, another prominent taps act, formed a team that challenged each other at the Cotton Club and toured with Duke Ellington when his band traveled to Europe in 1933.[2]

Bailey was often compared to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who he considered a mentor and friend.[4] Once Bailey and Wilson went solo, Bailey continued to be booked as a Bill Robinson imitation act, often standing in for Robinson when he was away filming. Black press at the time regularly predicted that Bailey would follow Robinson into film stardom.[2]

For much of his career, the "backslide," later known as the "moonwalk," was his signature exit. Its first recording was during his routine during "Taking A Chance On Love," sung by star Ethel Waters in the 1942 musical film Cabin in the Sky. He also performed in the black musical short, Harlem Variety Revue, 1950-1954 (1955), in the films Going Native (1936), The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise (1952), The Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955), and Showtime at the Apollo (1955)."...

**** INFORMATION ABOUT PEARL BAILEY
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Bailey
"Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress, singer and author.[1] After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946.[2] She received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.[3]

In 1976, she became the first African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.[4] She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.

Early Life

Bailey was born in Newport News, Virginia[1] to the Reverend Joseph James and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey.[5] When she was very young, the family moved to Washington, DC. After her parents' divorce, Bailey moved to Philadelphia to live with her mother.[6]

Bailey made her stage-singing debut at the age of 15. Her brother Bill Bailey[7] was beginning his own career as a tap dancer and suggested that she enter an amateur contest at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia. Bailey won and was offered $35 a week to perform there for two weeks. However, the theater closed during her engagement and she was not paid.[5] She later won a similar competition at Harlem's famous Apollo Theater and decided to pursue a career in entertainment"...

**** INFORMATION ABOUT ED SULLIVAN From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sullivan "Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, impresario,[2] sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. He was the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, which in 1955 was renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history.[3] "It was, by almost any measure, the last great American TV show", said television critic David Hinckley. "It's one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories."[4]

Sullivan was a broadcasting pioneer during the early years of American television. As critic David Bianculli wrote, "Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts. Before Bravo, he presented jazz and classical music and theater. Before the Comedy Channel, even before there was The Tonight Show, Sullivan discovered, anointed and popularized young comedians. Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was where the choice was. From the start, he was indeed 'the Toast of the Town'."[5] In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time".[6]

Early life and career

Edward Vincent Sullivan was born on September 28, 1901 in Harlem, New York City, the son of Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee. His twin brother Daniel was sickly and lived only a few months.[7] Sullivan was raised in Port Chester, New York, where the family lived in a small red brick home at 53 Washington Street.[8] He was of Irish descent."...

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

2021

1. 
@tomcat3360
"Ed featured many Black performers, treated them as equals, and was never afraid to shake hands or hold hands. Thanks, Ed."

**
Reply
2. @MrRichiekaye
"Who cares what color the skin.  I don't.  It's the talent that counts."

**
Reply
3. @tomcat3360
" @MrRichiekaye  exactly—that’s what Ed thought, even though he faced resistance and objection. Maybe you misunderstood my point."

**
Reply
4. @wilburmcbride8096
"@tomcat3360  Ed Sullivan is British. They believe that the only color that matters is green( money). Very different than the U.S culture."

**
Reply
5. 
@MaliceInCandyland
"@wilburmcbride8096  Ed Sullivan was from Harlem, NYC, where he saw plenty of talented Black performers during the Harlem Renaissance. Also, he was a very kind person unless you picked a fight with him (he was a New Yorker so he didn't back down from a fight). You have him confused with someone else."

**
Reply
6. @MaliceInCandyland
"@MrRichiekaye  People in Ed Sullivan's day cared about race, a lot. Ed took a lot of risk promoting Black entertainers, so he deserves a lot of credit. ❤"

**
Reply
7. @MaliceInCandyland
"@MrRichiekaye  People of color back then had to fight like 100 times as hard as white people in order to be recognized, so instead of ignoring their struggle, you can acknowledge it. Celebrities weren't recognized just based on their talent; race was a huge factor. White people had a lot of privilege. People like Ed Sullivan used their pivilege to help the disenfranchized."

**
Reply
8. @MrRichiekaye
"@MaliceInCandyland  No, it's not about the color of skin.  It's about the talent, the skill, the ability, the joy, the love, the passion, the intellect, the generosity of the performer and (in this case) her performance. That is what must be honored."

**
Reply
9. @tinotica, 2022
" @MrRichiekaye  dude! Obviously the people back in the 50s cared about the color of the skin since segregation didn’t end until the 60s. It’s good that you don’t care about it but majority of Americans back then did"

**
10. @haroldrisch1725
"He moonwalked 3 years before Michael Jackson was born."
-snip-
"He" refers to Bill Bailey.

**
Reply
11. @richardstewart8631, 2022
"Yes, he called it "the backside""

**
Reply
12. @silvermediastudio, 2023
"Moonwalk goes back to the 1920s. Bill Bailey rocked it in the 1950s."

**
13. @AntMan201490
"Ed Sullivan open doors for African Americans on his from Toast of The Town/The Ed Sullivan Show June 20,1948-June 6,1971😀👍🏿"

**
14. @kevinnorman2937, 2022
"They are REAL BROTHER AND SISTER!!"
-snip-
"They" here refers to Bill Bailey and Pearl Bailey.

**
Reply
15. @sheenabailey6934, 2022
"Really my great great aunt and great great grandfather something to see where I come from I wish I could’ve meet them"

**
Reply
16. @Jeremy-th5pt, 2022
"
That's so cool! They were great. He did the moonwalk before MJ !"

****
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