Lillian Yarbo

Lillian Yarbo
Lillian Yarbo in James Whale's "Wives Under Suspicion" (1938).jpg
Yarbo in Wives Under Suspicion (1938)
Born(1905-03-17)March 17, 1905
Washington, DC, United States
DiedJune 12, 1996(1996-06-12) (aged 91)[citation needed]
Other namesCredited, prior to October 8, 1928, as Billie Yarbough, and—from that point until her 1936 screen debut (at which point the stage name "Billie" would be shelved indefinitely)—as Billie Yarbo
OccupationActress, singer, dancer
Years active1927–1949

Lillian "Billie" Yarbo (March 17, 1905 – June 12, 1996) was an American stage and screen comedienne, dancer, and singer.

Early life

Born Lillian Yarbough in Washington, DC, Billie eventually made her way to New York, as did both her mother and at least one sister—though exactly when this happened and whether they made this pilgrimage all at once or separately and at different times, remains unclear.

Career

Stage

The 'Real' Billie
By her early 20s, Yarbo—credited, prior to October 1928, as Yarbough—was a rising star, both in Harlem night spots and on the Broadway stage. Writing in the March 10, 1928 issue of The New Yorker (reviewing the new Miller and Lyles musical, Keep Shufflin'), a young Charles Brackett put readers on alert:

There is a Miss Billie Yarbough, who must have been designed by Covarrubias and must be seen.

With a style sometimes likened to that of her contemporary, Josephine Baker, Yarbo was embraced by audiences and critics alike, beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until her 1936 screen debut. As for her vocal stylings, just a few, fleeting, onscreen remnants exist (see relevant excerpt from The Family Next Door (1939) in External links). That said, Yarbo clearly did not lack for confidence, having once told trumpeter Buck Clayton, "To hell with Billie Holiday! Come down and listen to me, the real Billie."

Screen

Twenty-Four Sheet' Lil
Yarbo appeared in at least two films in 1936 and one in 1937 before receiving glowing notices—and her first onscreen credit—the following year in the otherwise indifferently received Warren William vehicle, Wives Under Suspicion. For that and her equally acclaimed performance in Frank Capra's hugely successful adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You (which, by virtue of the film's panoramic, full-cast billboard, also inspired a new nickname), Yarbo was judged 1938's best Negro comedic actress by Pittsburgh Courier film critic Earl J. Morris. In 1939, she was awarded that same distinction by the short-lived Sepia Theatrical Writers Guild. Indeed, even prior to 1938, the then-as-yet thoroughly anonymous Yarbo—as Claire Trevor's maid in Alfred Werker's much-rewritten Big Town Girl—caught the eye of one discerning reviewer.

... and a Negro lassie—inexcusably omitted from the cast list [emphasis added]—renders yeoman service and considerable comedy as the "countess' " maid.

Awards and critical plaudits notwithstanding, and despite the sentiments ascribed to director King Vidor as early as 1937 (following Yarbo's sophomore screen turn, appearing uncredited with Barbara Stanwyck in Vidor's Stella Dallas), she continued to be routinely cast in bit parts, primarily as a maid, cook or otherwise low-skilled worker, often uncredited, appearing in at least 50 films between 1936 and 1949.

In the fall of 1943, amid an already setback-laden half-decade, a potentially career-altering opportunity—being cast in a straight dramatic role opposite Canada Lee in what might well have become the definitive screen adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son—failed to materialize when Orson Welles, who had directed Lee in the original Broadway production, proved unavailable. Adding injury to insult, just weeks later, a near-fatal car crash put Yarbo out of commission for the first half of 1944. She appeared in just one film that year, and over the next five—ending her screen career much as it had begun—averaged exactly two films a year, uncredited in all but one.

Later career

On November 13, 1948, roughly four months after finishing work on what would prove to be her final film (and roughly 13 years since last having performed onstage), Yarbo made her return to live performance. Perhaps inspired by having made, roughly two months prior, "one of her rare visits to a night spot," Yarbo, backed by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy, performed at a benefit event staged at Club Congo (formerly Club Alabam) by the Alpha Phi Alpha House Campaign Committee to "provide a much-needed housing [sic] and scholarship for 'forgotten' students."

On May 19, 1949, The California Eagle's Gertrude Gipson reported that "C. P. Johnson on along with a six-piece combo, and Billy Yarbo, who has returned to dancing, will open at the Fairbanks in Alaska around the first." Whether or not this actually came to pass is unclear, but if so, it would appear to be Yarbo's last documented public performance.

Similarly unclear is the matter of whether, during that same period, Yarbo had occasion to see some very nice notices greeting her penultimate screen performance (and final credited one), portraying "a giggling, singing, four-times-married little maid" in Warner Bros.' long-shelved Night Unto Night (1949), one more instance of Yarbo being one of the few reasons to watch—precisely as had been the case in her first credited role—in an otherwise "sleep-induc[ing]" picture:

Other characters include one who talks like someone out of a bad play, a couple of doctors, the heroine's sexy sister, and, fortunately,
Lillian Yarbo as Josephine, the maid of all work, who provides the only bright spot in the generally murky atmosphere.

Personal life

As late as 2006, within the space of 15 seconds, NYU Professor of Media Studies Cathrine Kellison, speaking on the DVD commentary track of You Can't Take It With You (1938), produced the sum total of that track's Yarbo-related content, stating, "Now Lillian Yarbo, here... she's... it's troubling how little information there is about her as a person. She was in probably 40, 50 films. Many of them, her name was not listed; she was uncredited." Regrettably, Kellison, who would die in 2009 (with the era of online newspaper archives still in its relative infancy), did not live long enough to learn of Yarbo's illustrious pre-Hollywood heyday.

Yet even taking into account the full scope of her career, the question remains of why, among even the African-American critics and columnists who had always covered Yarbo in such detail and with such evident affection, that coverage comes to a complete halt in the fall of 1949, her name never again mentioned. Indeed, given that two-decade-plus track record, one could reasonably ask whether this otherwise inexplicable onset of collective amnesia was not, in fact, a conscious and deliberate act undertaken on Yarbo's behalf, at her request.

As to why she might have desired such an outcome, one clue can be found in an article published more than two decades earlier, "Billie Yarbo: She Didn't Want None," which, despite its condescending tone (making Yarbo out to be "superstitious" and semiliterate, quoted in crudely rendered 'darkie' dialect considerably more exaggerated than any she had ever been obliged to employ onscreen), portrays Yarbo as someone who did not aspire to megastardom and who—somewhat akin to her celebrated not-quite-namesake—genuinely valued her privacy.

Having finally secured that privacy (and having adroitly handled her finances in the meantime), Yarbo appears to have spent much, if not all, of the remainder of her life in relative comfort in Seattle, Washington, where she died on June 12, 1996.[citation needed]

Stage work

Partial listing of stage work (as Billie Yarbo, except where otherwise noted):

Opening date Closing date Title Role Theatre Notes
Jun 27, 1927 Jul 13, 1927 Bottomland Chorus (as Billie Yarbough) Princess Theatre
Feb 27, 1928 May 26, 1928 Keep Shufflin' Yarbo (as Billie Yarbough) Daly's 63rd Street Theatre Eye-catching caricature in The New York Times, plus brief but enthusiastic mentions in The New Yorker, Variety.
Jul 09, 1928 Jul 15, 1928 Follies of Paris N/A Lafayette Theatre
Oct 08, 1928 Dec 15, 1928 Just a Minute Mandy Ambassador Theatre
Mar 10, 1930 Mar 16, 1930 Fast Life N/A The Alhambra
May 26, 1930 N/A Happy Feet N/A The Alhambra
Oct 22, 1930 Dec 13, 1930 Blackbirds of 1930 Performer, "(That) Lindy Hop" (as Billy Yarbo) Royale Theatre
Mar 16, 1931 Apr 05, 1931 Dave Peyton and His Regal Theatre Orchestra N/A Gibson Theatre, Philadelphia Local coverage featured one of the very few pre-Hollywood photos of Yarbo, published in The Philadelphia Tribune (see first entry in Further reading).
Sep 15, 1932 Jan 25, 1933 Flying Colors Performer, "Louisiana Hayride"; Performer, "Butlers" Imperial Theatre
Oct 07, 1933
Oct 21, 1933
Oct 13, 1933
Oct 27, 1933
Jimmy Lunceford and his Band N/A Lincoln Theatre, Philadelphia
May 10, 1936 May 23, 1936 Harlem on Parade N/A Follies Theatre, Los Angeles

Filmography

Notes

  1. ^ There is a "Yarbough, George; fireman," listed in the District of Columbia Directories for 1904 through 1906. Moreover, given Yarbo's seemingly genuine aversion to publicity (thus the very real possibility that even "Yarbough" itself might be her ever so slight variation on the actual birth name), the presence of "Yarebough, Lillian D." in the 1905 directory cannot be discounted.
  2. ^ Tone notwithstanding, that portrait is lent considerable credence by the fact that the person Yarbo cites to exemplify fame's dire consequences, at least as regards "colored people," is her fellow erstwhile Washingtonian (and, quite likely, one-time role model), the then-recently deceased Florence Mills, whose tragic, famously premature passing had been the subject of nationwide headlines roughly four months prior to Yarbo earning her first batch of glowing Broadway blurbs.

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