Gee Gee James | |
|---|---|
| Born | Regina Theodora James circa 1903 |
| Died | 1971 Philadelphia [2] |
| Education | J. W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School [3] |
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) [1] |
| Signature | |
 | |
Regina Theodora James, better known as Gee Gee James [4] (born 1902 or 1903, [5] died 1971 [2] ), was an African American radio and theater actress and singer most notable in the 1930s and '40s. [6] [7] James was racially typecast as a domestic worker.
After high school, she sang with Claude Hopkins' band. [3]
She was a cast member in Will Morrissey's Hot Rhythm (1930), [3] along with George Wiltshire. [8] (note mention below)
She played Tillie on The O'Neills . [9]
Fay M. Jackson described her in 1935: [10]
Over the kilocycle waves, she is the light hearted Mignonette, one of the bright lights of radio’s original musical comedy, The Gibson Family [...] Off the air, she is the equally pert and lively Gee Gee James. First as a chorus girl, then as a soubrette, she followed her star. Radio fans first heard Gee Gee over a local station in Philadelphia and shortly thereafter she was signed for her first network commercial — The Gibson Family. Miss James is determined to become a headliner. A topnotch voice, pluck, persistence, and constitutional good humor combine to further her ambition.
An episode of The Gibson Family that aired on May 12, 1935 featured a wedding between James' character Mignonette, and Theophilus (played by another African American actor, Ernest Whitman; see Personal life below), with Hall Johnson's choir performing. [11]
She performed comedy with Eddie Green on Louis Armstrong's radio program in 1937. [5] [12] [13]
A 1938 profile highlighted her role as Tulip on Hilltop House , and described her as "one of the best known radio actresses on the air today. Gee Gee not only acts with the best, but sings equally as well." [14]
She played an eponymous role on Her Honor, Nancy James in 1939. [15]
She voiced performances on three episodes of The Jack Benny Program in 1940-41. [5]
She was in the original cast of the plays: [16]
A March 1939 news article stated she was the wife of George Wiltshire, and had a 6 year old daughter who used the name Gee Gee as well. [3]
Elva Diane Green, daughter of Eddie Green, stated that James was later married to Ernest Whitman. [6]
Eve Arden was an American film, radio, stage and television actress. She performed in leading and supporting roles for nearly six decades.
Émilie Chauchoin, professionally known as Claudette Colbert, was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures. Initially contracted to Paramount Pictures, Colbert became one of the few major actresses of the period who worked freelance, independent of the studio system.
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.
Fibber McGee and Molly (1935–1959) was a longtime husband-and-wife team radio comedy program.
Dorothy Lamour was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.
Iris Adrian Hostetter was an American stage and film actress.
Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington was an American stage and film actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. Washington was of African American descent. She was one of the first Black Americans to gain recognition for film and stage work in the 1920s and 1930s.
Beulah is an American sitcom that ran on CBS Radio from 1945 to 1954, and on ABC Television from 1950 to 1953. The show is notable for being the first sitcom to star an African-American actress, for being ABC TV's first hit situation comedy, and the first hit TV sitcom without a laugh track. The show was controversial for its caricatures of African Americans.
Barbara Bedford was an American actress who appeared in dozens of silent movies. Her career declined after the introduction of sound, but she continued to appear in small roles until 1945.
Winifred Elaine "Wynne" Gibson was an American actress of the 1930s.
Sarah Ann Padden was an English-born American theatre and film character actress. She performed on stage in the early 20th century. Her best-known single-act performance was in The Clod, a stage production in which she played an uneducated woman who lived on a farm during the American Civil War.
Theresa Mae Harris was an American television and film actress, singer and dancer.
Isabel Randolph was an American character actress in radio and film from the 1940s through the 1960s and in television from the early 1950s to the middle 1960s.
Phyllis Kennedy was an American film actress.
Ernest Whitman was an American stage and screen actor. He was also billed in some Broadway plays as Ernest R. Whitman.
Mary Treen was an American film and television actress. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in dozens of movies and television shows in a Hollywood career spanning four decades, from 1930 to 1981.
The Standard Theatre showcased Philadelphia's most talented African-American performers and jazz musicians in the early twentieth century. During its peak years (1915–1930), the Standard was one of Philadelphia's most famous and successful black theaters. Its exceptional success can be attributed to its owner, John T. Gibson, an African-American man who envisioned affordable entertainment for people of color.
Marian Irene Driscoll Jordan was an American actress and radio personality. She was most remembered for portraying the role of Molly McGee, the patient, common sense, honey-natured wife of Fibber McGee on the NBC radio series Fibber McGee and Molly from 1935 to 1959. She starred on this series opposite her real-life husband Jim Jordan.
Lillian "Billie" Yarbo was an American stage and screen actress, dancer, and singer.
In 1939, after being invited to see a play by the general manager of the Whites-Only Club Plantation in St Louis, Gee Gee was unpleasantly surprised to find when she got there that she would have to go in through the back door and through the kitchen. She said that she "did not see why she should not be allowed to go through the front door like all the other paying guests." She also said she "just can't quite get used to prejudice and jim Crowism." ...the Club Plantation was a hot spot in 1939 and was considered one of the outstanding spots In the nation and one of the most pleasing places for Black artists and entertainers to work, however Blacks were not allowed in to see the shows. Gee Gee was invited in because she was in vogue at the time as an actress, but they still would not let her arrive through the front door.
The Gibson Family, radio's first original musical comedy, will add a touch of realism to the broadcast over an NBC-WEAF network on Sunday at 10.00 p.m., when the famous Hall Johnson Negro Choir sings at the "wedding" of Theophilus and Mignonette, two Negro servants in the Gibson family. Theophilus and Mignonette, who have provided the comedy in the full hour broadcasts, are played by Ernest Whitman and Gee-Gee James, both well known Negro actors. Their "nuptials" will feature the broadcast, when Conrad Thibault and Lois Bennett will also be heard.
I met Tennessee Williams, who tried to persuade me that [...] of all the actresses only Gee Gee James, in a tiny part, was truly interesting.