Heat Wave

Preeminent African American popular culture historian Bogle, noted for his groundbreaking Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films as well as an acclaimed biography of Dorothy Dandridge, has produced an exemplary biography of pioneering Broadway, film, recording, and television star Ethel Waters (1896–1977). As a singer Waters introduced such standards as "Am I Blue," "Stormy Weather," and "Heat Wave." She was the first African American to be billed above the title in a Broadway show. With a noteworthy later role in Carson McCullers's stage adaptation of The Member of the Wedding, her Oscar-nominated turn in Elia Kazan's Pinky, and frequent appearances on the Billy Graham crusades, her work spanned 20th-century entertainment from tent shows to television. Bogle does not shy away from a frank discussion of Waters's bisexuality and her legendary temper born of a lifetime of slights.