Broadway Blackface & Harlem Sex Tourism (The Bisexuals, Part 1)
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Who was Libby Holman and how did her early life shape her career?
This fall, You Must Remember This is going on tour. I will be traveling to repertory cinemas and historic movie houses around the country, showing films like Written on the Wind, The Misfits, Lifeboat, plus a number of deeper cuts, all discussed on the bisexuals. The new season of You Must Remember This, which debuts September 15th. I'll be going to Brooklyn, Houston, Boston, Chicago, Kearney, Nebraska, Savannah, Georgia, and hopefully a city near you. To see all of the locations and dates and to find links where you can buy tickets, go to you must remember this podcast.com slash events. That's you must remember this podcast.com slash events. Plus, we have new bisexuals merch, including shirts, hats, and a custom formulated unisex.
Fragrance inspired by Jungle Gardenia, the now obsolete perfume that was Libby Holman's signature scent. It all goes on sale or pre-order September 15th at you must remember this podcast.com slash shop. That's you must remember this podcast.com slash shop.
A kiss is just a kid a pro
Welcome to a new season of You Must Remember This, the podcast dedicated to exploring the secret andor forgotten histories of Hollywood's first century. I'm your host Karina Longworth.
The most famous of the torch singers, the musical comedy star who introduced such hits as Body and Soul, Something to Remember You By, Mona Lowe. And my favorite of your memorable firsts, I think, Libby, is the fact that you were the first one to wear a strapless evening dress. Couldn't believe it when I saw that on stage. First time. Yes, I oh you should have seen the contraption under it though. People would come back and they didn't say you sang well. They'd say how'd you keep the dress up? Yeah. Oh, isn't that I made it up. I said no straps. I said, What do you mean no straps? Oh you mean that that really had not been seen before? And look how far we've gone, Living. What you started. What a can of tomatoes.
This season is built around the story of a woman who I have been fascinated with for a while. Libby Holman has been credited with everything from popularizing strapless dresses to becoming the first New York actress to paint her nails red. A singer who became a sensation on Broadway in the late 1920s and 30s, her more significant claim to fame comes from popularizing a number of jazz and blues songs that would later become standards of the great American Songbook. A Jewish girl from Cincinnati, Libby's deep voice and olive complexion led many to believe that she was secretly black and was passing as white. She was not, but she allowed this impression to flourish and even encouraged it, apparently out of equal parts careerism and guileless love for black culture.
Like many white young New Yorkers of her generation, in the nineteen twenties and early thirties, Libby's social life was centered around Harlem, where she and her friends felt free to explore all manner of taboo desire. Інклюні бісексуаліті. In November 1931, 27-year-old Libby shocked her largely queer friend group by marrying Zachary Smith Reynolds, the 20-year-old youngest heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune. Immature, volatile, and prone to self-destruction. Reynolds was threatened by his new wife's theatrical fame and her evident intimacy with her female friends. In the spring of nineteen thirty-two, he coaxed her to move with him to his family estate outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
There, on the morning of July 6, 1932, after a long boozy party, Smith Reynolds died of a gunshot wound to the head. Libby was indicted for his murder. The bisexuals will begin by describing Libby's rise in the New York theater scene of the nineteen twenties and her social life at that time, which was both racially mixed and sexually fluid. And involved a number of the most talented female performers of the era, including Josephine Baker and Talula Bankhead. We will talk about Libby's ethically thorny relationship to black music, as well as the prejudice she faced as a Yankee Jewess in the South, and how this led to a witch hunt which permanently scarred Libby's reputation and career.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who was Libby Holman and how did her early life shape her career?
0:00–9:47
2
How did Libby’s racial ambiguity and “coon‑shouting” voice affect her Broadway rise?
9:47–17:26
3
What role did Harlem’s nightlife play in Libby’s bisexual explorations?
17:26–25:59
4
Why was the “Moan and Low” number considered blackface and why did it spark controversy?
25:59–35:20
5
How did Libby’s friendship with Tallulah Bankhead and Josephine Baker influence her fame?
35:20–45:07
6
What happened in the murder of Smith Reynolds and how was Libby implicated?
45:07–54:01
7
How did the death of Jeanne Eagles impact Libby’s later life and career?
54:01–1:04:57
8
What legacy did Libby Holman leave behind after her 1971 suicide?
1:04:57–1:16:19