Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hi, I'm Lauren Laverne. Welcome to this archive edition of Desert Island Discs. The programme was broadcast in October 1958. The castaway was the American singer Harry Belafonte, and the presenter was Roy Plomley. What you're about to hear was recorded off-air, so the sound isn't of broadcast quality. You can find the list of tracks chosen on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website. The music has been shortened for rights reasons. We hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:31

This is the B B C Home Service.

Speaker 20:44

Desert Island then.

Presenter0:54

Uh

Speaker 20:54

A well known person is asked a question.

Presenter0:55

If you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you, assuming of course that you also had a gramophone?

Presenter1:04

As usual, the week's castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

Presenter1:08

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter1:10

On our Desert Island this week is an American singer who's currently one of the most popular artists in the world. He's a star not only of the concert hall, Cabaret and Records, but also of films. You'll remember him in Carmen Jones and Island in the Sun. I'm happy to welcome ashore as our castaway, Harry Belafonte.

Presenter1:25

Well, Harry, an island in the sun should be a familiar location to you, but this particular island, I'm afraid, is quite deserted. You'll be alone.

Presenter1:33

How did the idea of that loneliness strike you?

Presenter1:36

Well, I don't think that it's something that I would want to have uh for too long a period. But with the with the hectic pressures of uh uh my popular life as an artist, uh

Harry Belafonte1:44

The market

Presenter1:45

I would look a bit forward to being cast away on a desert island to be quiet for a few weeks. Just for a few weeks. Just for a few weeks. After that? Maybe a few days. I don't know what I'm saying. How much do you play the grammophone? In the last few years, you've made very many successful records yourself. Apart from that, do you have a big collection? Oh, yes, an enormous collection of recordings and tapes as well.

Harry Belafonte2:03

Definitely none of that.

Presenter2:07

Much of the work that I do, uh

Harry Belafonte2:07

Much of the

Presenter2:09

And the research of songs and material uh is done by listening to recordings from all over the world by other artists and predominantly in the folk field. Yes. I have an enormous collection. Well, from that enormous collection you can have just eight, I'm afraid, as your only link with home.

Presenter2:25

How have you gone about choosing them?

Presenter2:27

Well, I kind of examined him on two levels. Um one is the uh the the fantasy that a man would have uh being cast away on a desert island all alone.

Presenter2:36

Every other is based on

Presenter2:38

Ah, the things that he would miss most of all. Mm. Being away from home. All right. Let's get down to cases. What's your first drink?

Presenter2:45

The very first recording is uh

Presenter2:47

By Lena Hahn

Presenter2:49

Well, it's called Baby Won't You Please Come Home. That's a very apt title. Why do you choose, Miss Horn?

Presenter2:55

First of all, she's very beautiful, very talented, and I know Lena, and uh she's uh just very gracious and very sweet. Let's hear her.

Presenter3:11

Baby, won't you please come home?

Speaker 23:15

Yeah.

Presenter3:15

Cause your baby's all alone

Presenter3:19

I have tried in vain.

Harry Belafonte3:22

Never no more to call your name When you left you broke my heart

Presenter3:30

All right.

Presenter3:31

But that should never keep us apart.

Presenter3:35

Love Lelina Horn singing Baby won't you please come home?

Presenter3:39

What's your next choice, Harry? My next choice is also by another girl singer, an American, by the name of Jerry Seven. Very soft, very soothing voice, and very pleasant to be with.

Presenter3:49

Um

Presenter3:49

37 singing

Presenter3:51

You forgot your gloves.

Presenter3:53

You forgot your gloves when you kissed me and said goodnight. So I've brought them, you see, but don't thank me, it's quite all right. You forgot your gloves and I hope you appreciate. I'm not honest at all. It's just a stall for one more day.

Presenter4:19

The voice of Jenny Summer.

Harry Belafonte4:21

Yeah.

Presenter4:23

Harry, although you spent quite a lot of your childhood in Jamaica in the in the West Indies, you are an American by birth, aren't you?

Presenter4:28

Yes, I was born in New York City, but uh both my parents are from the West Indies. So you're okay. You're a British doc.

Harry Belafonte4:32

Senor.

Presenter4:34

We can almost claim him.

Harry Belafonte4:34

We can all

Presenter4:36

Were either of your parents musical?

Presenter4:38

Uh

Presenter4:39

No more than I think average parents, you know, they're churchgoers and uh sang hymns all the time and uh but not uh predominantly music.

Presenter4:46

What was it your ambition to be when you were a little boy?

Presenter4:50

Well, of all little boys, I had many, many ambitions, but I think the most burning of all was to be a jockey.

Presenter4:55

What went wrong with that apart from the fact that you go to over six foot? Well, that's what happened. I'm now six foot two and that I

Presenter5:02

There are very few horses that can carry me. What did you do when you left school?

Presenter5:06

I went in at school uh

Presenter5:08

In the West Indies I went to America and went to school there and out of school in America I went into the United States Navy and I was there for two years. Yeah, and uh it was during the Second World War.

Presenter5:18

And uh after coming out of the Navy I uh then embarked on

Presenter5:22

Further studies, but this time in the theatre. What gave you the bug to get into the theatre?

Presenter5:28

I think it was because I found that um

Presenter5:30

It was a medium that fascinated me. I loved the idea of make-believe in a way.

Presenter5:35

But mainly it gave me an opportunity for expression, self-expression. And uh it fulfilled all of my creative desires.

Presenter5:41

Where did you study? Well, I studied many places, but I got my start in the place called the American Eagle Theater, mm-hmm in New York. Yeah.

Presenter5:48

What did you play?

Presenter5:50

Well, we did all kinds of plays. Uh the very first one that I ever did was Sean O'Casey's June and the Paycard, uh which was their summer stock.

Harry Belafonte5:55

Mm-hmm.

Presenter5:58

And then after that we did all of the masters. We did Shakespeare and then we did

Harry Belafonte5:58

And then um

Presenter6:04

A little bit of Arthur Miller.

Presenter6:06

And uh

Presenter6:07

George Bernard's show and gawky.

Presenter6:10

We see many fine Negro actors in the theater and in the films. We don't hear much about Negro playwrights.

Speaker 26:11

Minutes

Presenter6:17

I think that in all the fields we are

Presenter6:19

Probably.

Presenter6:21

One of the weakest as far as legal representation is concerned, at least in America, is in the field of uh playwriting. Although uh there have been some authors like Langston Hughes who's very popular who has written for the theater and things produced.

Presenter6:35

But uh there's not a great abundance of them because prior to this the opportunities were not many.

Presenter6:40

And now though we find that we're finding more and more writers coming to the fore.

Harry Belafonte6:40

Now the

Presenter6:44

And uh that we'll be getting one more television plays and

Presenter6:47

scenarios and as well as plays by Negro Writers find.

Presenter6:51

Well having got you started in the theater, I think this is a point where we might break off and have record number three.

Presenter6:57

Well, um, I'm a great, great jazz enthusiast and uh

Harry Belafonte7:00

Done.

Presenter7:01

I think I love that almost more than any other single kind of music. And uh being cast away on a desert island, I'd be very lonely and feeling very blue.

Presenter7:08

I think the thing that would fit that move best of all would be the modern jazz quartet playing bluzology.

Presenter7:41

Well Harry After left the American Negro Theatre was the next act.

Presenter7:45

The very next step then was that um the American Theater served as a kind of um workshop center. But then I found the necessity for academic study in the theater and I went to a

Speaker 27:51

Found in it.

Speaker 27:54

And I went.

Presenter7:55

school in New York called the New School of Social Research and the drama division of that school called the Dramatic Workshop.

Speaker 27:55

Yeah.

Harry Belafonte7:56

Yeah.

Presenter8:01

Is that Lee Strasberg? No, Lee Strasberg is now the actor's studio. But this preceded the actor's studio, and Lee Strasberg taught at the drama workshop before he developed his own school.

Speaker 28:05

Yeah.

Presenter8:12

And I stayed in the workshop for a good number of years.

Presenter8:16

And um

Presenter8:17

Then he may need to be an actor.

Presenter8:19

And then what happened was that uh we started to do musical productions in the school as well, original review type things. And I performed in one in school.

Presenter8:29

Not really with any ambition to be a singer.

Presenter8:32

And uh after getting out of school and finding it very difficult to get work in the theater, oddly enough, uh someone who'd seen me in the production at school

Presenter8:41

Uh, by the name of Monty Kaye, who owned a jazz nightclub in New York at that time called the Royal Ruse.

Presenter8:47

Uh I met him while I was visiting the roost one night listening to the jazz musicians there.

Presenter8:53

And he asked me what was I doing? I told him things were very difficult. And then he recommended that I try singing.

Presenter8:58

And I said, well, I wasn't cut out to be a singer. And he said, uh, well, just for laughs. Well, I just came in one night.

Presenter9:04

Well, for laughs I went in and uh I laughed myself out into a career. What were you singing pops in those? Yes, I was singing purely pop music and uh

Presenter9:13

uh, doing financially very well with it and moving along, but I found it

Presenter9:17

Very dissatisfying.

Presenter9:20

I found that I couldn't find great dimension in the music. The sources are very limiting. There's always the same subject matter, you know. Darling, I love you, but you don't love me. Will you love me tomorrow? If if I love you yesterday, I don't know.

Harry Belafonte9:31

Uh

Presenter9:33

And uh and then you you did'em all at different tempos, which was just about the only change. And uh there are many artists who do it and do it quite well. But for myself personally I found it

Presenter9:42

Not fulfilling at all.

Presenter9:44

And uh I felt that if I'd gone any further as a pop singer,

Presenter9:48

That the

Presenter9:50

I'd become so entrenched in it that I'd never be able to leave, and that while I still had my youth and the capacity to break away,

Presenter9:56

I broke away from it and opened a restaurant down in Greenwich Village. Uh, it was really in the art colony of of New York.

Presenter10:04

And uh everybody used to come in and say, Oh, poor boy here.

Presenter10:08

No, he didn't quite make it. Now he's here in a restaurant having I I did the cooking in the restaurant.

Presenter10:13

And uh

Presenter10:15

The restaurant lasted for eight months, and I always say that we spend too much time discussing the mistakes in the life of George Bernard Shaw instead of dealing with the customers.

Harry Belafonte10:22

Yeah.

Presenter10:25

But um I then came back into the business singing, this time folk music.

Presenter10:29

And uh much of the influence for me doing that was out of this restaurant because so many folk artists would come in and take over a corner of the restaurant and start singing and I saw great beauty and great strength in folk music. Yes. And you sing songs folk songs from all over the world? All over the world.

Presenter10:45

Well now we've really got you established in your present career. I think it's another place to break off and hear some more music wasn't up before. Well in talking about folk music you know uh someone who's been an enormous influence in my life and uh

Presenter10:56

I know her very well and I feel very dearly about her and she's a great artist, Miss Mahalia Jackson.

Presenter11:02

Who's our greatest spiritual singer in America and uh she's going to sing uh Didn't It Rain? which is probably what I'd need more than anything else on a desert island.

Speaker 211:07

Yeah.

Speaker 311:07

In the drain.

Presenter11:30

I got a key, you can't get out of it.

Speaker 211:32

Yeah.

Presenter11:32

Tyler.

Presenter11:34

Just ridden, hi, just living, hierarchy, just living, hierarchy, just written.

Harry Belafonte11:41

I had a

Speaker 211:41

Yeah.

Harry Belafonte11:41

Yeah.

Presenter11:42

Then that rang.

Presenter11:44

Well Harry getting back to your career you very quickly met an enormous success with your folk singing. That took you to Hollywood then

Presenter11:50

Yes, as a matter of fact I was working at the Blue Angel, a nightclub in New York at the time and um the

Presenter11:55

The talent scouts for Metro Golden Mayor came in one night and saw me perform and asked me if I'd do a screen test for a picture called Bright Road. And I did the screen test and I got the part.

Presenter12:04

And then you did that wonderful film, Carmen Jones? Yes. Oh, well, right after that, I did my first. From that, I went to my first musical play in Broadway, which was with Hermione Gingo. Oh, bless her.

Harry Belafonte12:14

No.

Presenter12:15

Billy DeWolf. Yes. There's a musical review called John Marie Anderson's Almanac. And out of that, uh, I was taken up by Otto Preminger to do.

Harry Belafonte12:19

And how does that

Presenter12:23

Harmon Jones. Mm-hmm.

Presenter12:25

Have you done many Broadway medical desktops? I've done two. One was Tom Rand Volmanak and the other was called Three for Tonight with Marjen Gower Champion. And Charles Lawton helped stage that show.

Presenter12:37

After that picture we did have the last one, uh which is released here called Island and the Sun. Yes. Well now you have your own film production company. You can choose your own stories. Yes.

Presenter12:46

Well what is your chance? I'd like to say that, you know, the reason for the company uh

Harry Belafonte12:46

Yeah.

Speaker 212:47

Yeah.

Speaker 212:49

Yeah.

Presenter12:50

It is specifically that. It gives you an opportunity for greater artistic choice, or more personal artistic choice. And and uh, so far I've uh finished one picture for MGM, which is to be distributed by MGM, and it's called End of the World. I did that with Miss Inga Stevens and Mr. Mel Ferrer. And we're the only three characters left in the world after uh Holocaust.

Presenter13:11

And the second film is one called I Dogains Tomorrow, which is a thriller.

Presenter13:16

And uh

Presenter13:18

Then there's another which we're doing called The Life of Alexander Pushkin.

Presenter13:21

This is uh the story of Pushkin the great Russian artist. How many of those you read?

Presenter13:26

Ah, we've only made one so far and uh we're starting the next one on the first of November.

Presenter13:31

This is your first visit to Britain, isn't it? Yes, my very third.

Presenter13:35

Have you brought your family? Yes, my wife is here, and my son is here. Actually, I sh this is my first visit, yes, because the last time I was here, I was just here for eight days, and it was all work out at L Street.

Presenter13:45

And uh that was about uh oh almost two years ago. Oh, that was on Island II. That's right. You finished it here. Yes, but I came in and got out so fast that all I saw was the fog. Have you had a chance to look around it?

Harry Belafonte13:48

So that was our night in the second.

Harry Belafonte13:50

Yeah.

Presenter13:55

Oh yes, and uh

Presenter13:57

And also, you know, to perform for the people of Britain has been an enormous, enormous experience.

Presenter14:03

Really has totally overwhelmed me, really.

Harry Belafonte14:04

Yeah.

Presenter14:06

Well, that's nice to hear. Let's have record number five.

Presenter14:10

Another music I find terribly exciting, and uh almost as exciting as jazz, and I guess it would be as exciting to me if I knew more about it and its detail I'd grown up with it, and that's flamenco music.

Presenter14:20

An artist whom I've seen perform, I think, is really one of the great performers in the world, uh, Karl Mina Meyer.

Presenter14:26

Doing flamenco

Presenter14:27

And uh she's doing a sevigliana.

Presenter15:01

Kamen Amaya with her company in Seviana and what next?

Presenter15:05

What's next type thing is something that's uh been very near and very dear to me for a long time.

Presenter15:09

Classical feeling. Higher fit.

Presenter15:11

From the bronze violin concerto. Yes. I'm afraid you can't have the whole work, Harry. Which part of it?

Presenter15:16

To find out the third movement.

Presenter16:15

Yeah.

Presenter16:21

All we shall have time for is the Brahms violin concerto.

Presenter16:24

Harriet, an essential part of this program is to find out just how good a castaway you'd be on this island. How well could you look after yourself? A are you good with your hands? Could you build somewhere to live?

Harry Belafonte16:31

Yeah.

Presenter16:33

Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I think that the only thing I'd take out of my luggage was my copy of Robinson Caruso. And you wouldn't have any luggage, I'm afraid. You'll have to remember it, hmm?

Harry Belafonte16:38

He wouldn't have that.

Presenter16:41

Oh, well I I'll have to read up remember. But I think I'd do pretty well. Mm-hmm. I don't have to ask you if you can cook because you kept Greenwich Village.

Harry Belafonte16:44

Mm-hmm. I don't have

Presenter16:47

Uh gastronomically happy for eight months.

Presenter16:50

Can you can you finish?

Presenter16:52

Yes. As a matter of fact, uh I do a lot of line issues.

Presenter16:56

Any other skills or hobbies might be useful?

Presenter16:59

Yes, I think that um I I I like the good green earth. I the good brown earth and I like uh good green vegetables, so I guess I can do a bit of farming. Fine. Well, we don't have to worry about you on this island at all. Let's have record number seven. Record number seven?

Presenter17:11

I think about this point I'd begin to wish I was back in America, back in New York City, and back listening to jazz, and a contemporary in America, a young fellow by the name of Joe Williams, who sings with Count Basie.

Speaker 317:19

Yeah.

Presenter17:21

And if I was with him, I'd want to hear him sing Smack Dad in the middle.

Speaker 317:26

Make me a town in any clime Where people like a rock and time And stay awake both day and night Everybody's feeling good and right then

Speaker 317:47

Yeah.

Speaker 317:49

Let me rock and roll as that is a riot of my

Presenter17:55

And now we come to your last one.

Presenter17:57

What have we got here? Well, while I'd be on this desert island, I know I'd think of my family and I'd think of my children. And uh...

Presenter18:03

I think of times when I've sung to them.

Presenter18:06

And uh

Presenter18:07

I think this part I think of Scarlet Ribbons.

Presenter18:10

You're on this, that's fine, let's hear it.

Presenter18:19

I peeked in to say goodnight.

Presenter18:26

When I heard my child in prayer

Presenter18:32

And for me.

Presenter18:35

On Scarlet Ribbon.

Presenter18:38

Call it ribbon for my hair.

Presenter18:44

Well there we are, there's your eight-rig hotel. You've still got one more choice to make. Every castaway is allowed to take just one luxury on the island.

Presenter18:51

What have you chosen to take?

Presenter18:53

Well, something that I just saw on my visit to Italy, uh, in the city of Florence, I think I'd like to take Michelangelo's statue of David.

Presenter19:02

All right. We'll arrange it. We might have difficulty arranging it, but we'll arrange it. It'll be there. All right. Well, Harry, this is your first visit here. We hope you felt at home and enjoyed it enough to want to come back and see us very often in the future. Thank you very much, Roy. And thank you for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Disc. My pleasure. Goodbye, everyone.

Harry Belafonte19:14

Very

Presenter19:19

Bye everyone.

Speaker 219:32

The guest in today's recorded programme was Harry Belafonte, the interviewer Roy Plumley and the producer Monica Chapman. This programme was previously broadcast last October. Next Saturday at 1.40 the castaway will be Alicia Markova and on Monday at 1.10 the castaway will be Elena Gazner.