Kenneth Spencer

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Kenneth Spencer around 1960

Kenneth Lee Spencer (born April 25, 1911 in Los Angeles , California , † February 25, 1964 in New Orleans , Louisiana ) was an American- German opera singer ( bass ) and actor. There are different details about his date of birth.

Life

Training and beginnings

Kenneth Spencer was born the son of a steel worker and initially trained as a gardener. Against his father's wishes, he studied music thanks to a scholarship. After completing his four-year vocal studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester , he made his debut in 1931; his repertoire ranged from spiritual to opera and concert arias to art and folk songs .

Spencer appeared as a singer in recitals, in musicals and from 1943 in film roles. The final artistic breakthrough came in 1946, when he played the lead role of ship worker "Joe" in the new production of the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern on Broadway in New York and sang the song Ol 'Man River .

Despite his popularity, he was repeatedly discriminated against as black in the USA and, for example, was only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance. Through his appearances, Spencer supported organizations that campaigned for an improvement in the legal and social situation of the Afro-American population, for example in 1941 for the benefit of the "Harlem Committee of the Community Service Society" and in 1946, already as an established artist, at an event of the National Negro Congress .

Spencer in Europe

After an appearance at the International Music Festival in Nice in 1949, Kenneth Spencer became known to a wide audience in Europe. He sang for several years on French radio . Spencer enjoyed his stay in Europe because there he was recognized as an equal person. In Paris he met the white American journalist Josephine Clarke. However, the two did not get married until they lived in Europe, as marriage between a white woman and a colored man was a criminal offense in more than half of the US states. In 1953 Spencer had a son.

In 1951 Spencer was not allowed to perform songs by Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert at a concert in Tel Aviv , as the use of the German language at cultural events in Israel was forbidden.

In 1954 the family moved to Wuppertal because the Spencers had friends there. Kenneth Spencer achieved particular popularity in his new home, as he performed numerous appearances with Bergisch choirs; In 1956 he acquired German citizenship. He gave concerts in Germany, had engagements as an opera singer (e.g. in Nuremberg as Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute ) and also in film (e.g. as Bismarck in Our House in Cameroon , as the US soldier Josua in Mein Bruder Josua ).

Plane crash

In 1964, Kenneth Spencer traveled to the United States without his family to support the Society for the Advancement of Colored People with a concert tour . He also appeared on a television show in Mexico City . On the return flight, the Douglas DC-8 of Eastern Air Lines crashed on Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 after a stopover in New Orleans shortly after take-off on February 25, 1964 at 02:06 a.m. local time over Lake Pontchartrain in the estuary of the Mississippi from. All 58 occupants of the machine, including Spencer and the French suffragette Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux , were killed. Only after weeks could the dead passengers, including Spencer, be rescued from the water.

Filmography

  • Dominikus Propst / Enno Hungerland: Ol 'Man River - Kenneth Spencer . Documentary about Kenneth Spencer

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ reference date; April 25, 1911 - Kenneth Spencer is born. WDR , April 25, 2011, accessed October 28, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Munzinger Online / People - International Biographical Archive. Munzinger Archive , accessed on October 28, 2018 .
  3. ^ Page 4. In: The New York Age , digitized at newspapers.com. May 3, 1941, accessed October 28, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Noel Straus: KENNETH SPENCER SINGS CLASSICS; Youthful Bass Reveals Voice of Unusual Quality in Recital at Town Hall. The New York Times , April 22, 1946, accessed October 28, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Kenneth Spencer. In: Der Spiegel 4/1951. Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Heinrich Vogel: Ol'Man River on the Wupper. Remscheider General-Anzeiger , April 2, 2015, accessed on October 11, 2018 .
  7. ^ Accident data set. National Transportation Safety Board , accessed October 28, 2018 .
  8. ↑ 58 ON JET KILLED IN CRASH IN LAKE AT NEW ORLEANS. The New York Times , February 26, 1964, accessed November 1, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Spencer, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spencer, Kenneth Lee (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-German opera singer (bass) and actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1964
Place of death New Orleans , Louisiana