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Pearl Williams (September 10, 1914 – September 18, 1991) was an American entertainer.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2010) |
Pearl Williams (September 10, 1914 – September 18, 1991) was an American entertainer.
Born Pearl Wolfe, Williams started out as a secretary, but quickly turned to playing the piano by ear and became an accomplished player. In 1938 she went to an audition for a singer as accompaniment. She was hired on the spot and that same night went on stage at the Famous Door on 52nd Street with Louis Prima's band. But it took 14 years and a heckler to make her find her calling. One night, in 1952, a heckler was consistently telling her to get off and that her jokes were horrible, and she said to him, "Oh, fuck off!" The audience howled, and she quickly became a hit. [ citation needed ]
"What Patsy Abbott? [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] She’s not in our class; what are you crazy? Where she belong with us? She’s a nice girl."— Pearl Williams, The Cabaret nightclub, Miami Beach, 1961 [12]
In 1961, signed by Stanley Borden, the owner of After Hours Records, she recorded her first album, A trip around the world is not a cruise. Known for her bawdy humor and aggressive manner, she released nine best-selling "party" records during her career, including:
Williams is one of several female Jewish comedians (along with Belle Barth, Patsy Abbott, Rusty Warren and Totie Fields) who traced their "bawdy" performance style back to Sophie Tucker. The back cover of A Trip around The World is Not a Cruise repeats the anecdote that when they met, Tucker told Williams that "You're me at your age, only better." An echo of Tucker can be discerned when Williams says in her act, "I get broads come in here, they sit in front of me and they stare at me. Everything I do, they stare at me. Then they walk out saying, 'She's so dirrr-ty!' If they're so refined how come they understand what I'm saying?" [ citation needed ]
Williams performed for 18 years at the Place Pigalle in Miami, Florida, before retiring in 1984, commenting "I'm tired, I need a rest. After 46 years in show business, night after night, day after day, non-stop, I'm tired". She hung up her microphone for good in April of that year. She lived out her final years in North Miami Beach and Long Island.
On September 18, 1991, aged 77, she died in her sleep from heart disease.
In 2007, clips of Williams, along with those of Betty Walker, Belle Barth, Totie Fields, and Jean Carroll, were featured in the Off-Broadway production The J.A.P. Show: Jewish American Princesses of Comedy, which included live standup routines by four female Jewish comics juxtaposed with the stories of legendary performers from the 1950s and 1960s. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Williams' closest professional associates were Patsy Abbott (1921-2001), who started her career as a vocalist, and Belle Barth (1911-1971), who billed herself the 'Hildegard of the Underworld' and the 'doyenne of the dirty line'.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the bawdy humor of Belle Barth, Pearl Williams, and Patsy Abbott, a trio of working-class Jewish stand-up comics, enjoyed enormous popularity in the United States.
Ribaldry or blue comedy is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to indecency. Blue comedy is also referred to as "bawdiness" or being "bawdy". Like any humour, ribaldry may be read as conventional or subversive. Ribaldry typically depends on a shared background of sexual conventions and values, and its comedy generally depends on seeing those conventions broken.
Anne Meara Stiller was an American comedian and actress. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller. She was also featured on stage, on television, and in numerous films and later became a playwright. During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and she won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the television movie The Other Woman.
Sophie Tucker was an American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century. She was known by the nickname "the Last of the Red-Hot Mamas".
Joan Alexandra Molinsky, known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer, and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona that was heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians, delivered in her signature New York accent. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy. She received an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award, as well as nomination for a Tony Award.
Totie Fields was an American comedian.
Rusty Warren was an American comedian and singer, specializing in sex-related themes and such songs as "Bounce Your Boobies" and "Knockers Up!".
Judy Lynn Tenuta was an American comedian, actress, and comedy musician. She was known for her whimsical and brash persona of "The Love Goddess", mixing insult comedy, observational humor, self-promotion, and bawdy onstage antics. Throughout her career, Tenuta built a niche but devoted following, particularly among members of the LGBTQ community. Tenuta wrote two comedy books, and received two nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Sarah Blacher Cohen was an American writer, scholar, and playwright, and a professor at SUNY Albany for 30 years. Her area of specialty was Jewish American fiction. Her published books include Comic Relief: Humor in Contemporary American Literature, Saul Bellow's Enigmatic Laughter (1974), and Cynthia Ozick's Comic Art: From Levity to Liturgy. She edited From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage and Screen, Making a Scene: The Contemporary Drama of Jewish-American Women, and Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor. Her plays include The Ladies Locker Room, and Molly Picon's Return Engagement, a biographical play with music on the star of Yiddish theater. She collaborated with Joanne Koch, starting in 1989 on Sophie, Totie, and Belle, a musical on performers Sophie Tucker, Totie Fields, and Belle Barth. 'She and Joanne Koch also co-authored the plays Danny Kaye: Supreme Court Jester, Soul Sisters, Henrietta Szold: Woman of Valor, an adaptation of Saul Bellow stories entitled Saul Bellow's Stories Onstage: The Old System and a Silver Dish, and the multicultural musical Soul Sisters. Cohen and Koch co-edited an anthology of ten plays Shared Stages: Ten American Dramas of Blacks and Jews, including Driving Miss Daisy, Fires in the Mirror, and Soul Sisters. She collaborated with Isaac Bashevis Singer on the off-Broadway play Schlemiel the First. Cohen also gave talks and delivered papers, including "The Unkosher Comediennes: From Sophie Tucker to Joan Rivers." Her husband was Gary Cohen. She died of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease on November 10, 2008 age 72.
Cathy Ladman is an American stand-up comedian, television writer, and actress. She was featured in an installment of HBO's One Night Stand comedy series, was a guest on The Tonight Show on ten occasions, and a guest on The Late Late Show on six occasions (2007-2015).
Belle Barth was an American comedian who worked primarily during the 1950s and 1960s. She was known for her foul mouthed, bawdy, irreverent humor.
Jean Carroll was both an American actress and comedian during the 1950s and 1960s.
Betty Walker was a Jewish-American actress and comedian who performed primarily during the 1950s and 1960s.
Jacqueline Laura Hoffman is an American actress, singer, and comedian known for her one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues. She is a veteran of Chicago's famed The Second City comedy improv group.
Balabusta is a Yiddish expression describing a good homemaker. The transliteration according to YIVO Standard orthography is baleboste. The expression derives from the Hebrew term for "home owner" or "master of the house" – the Hebrew compound noun בַּעַל הַבַּיִת bá'al habáyit was borrowed in its masculine from and was pronounced according to the conventions of Ashkenazi Hebrew as balebos; in its feminine form, it is rendered as בעל-הביתטע balabusta. The term ultimately became more popular than the original Hebrew expression for a (female) home owner, בעלת הבית bá'alat habáyit.
Tiffany Ronelia Haddish is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Her breakthrough came in with a leading role in the comedy film Girls Trip (2017), which earned her several accolades and was included on The New Yorker's list of the best film performances of the 21st century. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2018, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment in both 2018 and 2019.
Stereotypes of Jews are generalized representations of Jews, often caricatured and of a prejudiced and antisemitic nature.
If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends is a musical about the life of comedian Belle Barth, written by Joanne Koch. The title derives from a catchphrase of Barth's.
American-Jewish comedy is, in part, a continuation of the traditional role of humor in Jewish culture among historical and contemporary American performers. It has appealed to both Jewish and wider mainstream audiences. At various times in American history, the field of comedy has been dominated by Jewish comedians.
Quinta Brunson is an American writer, producer, actress, and comedian. She is best known for creating, executive producing, co-writing, and starring in the ABC comedy series Abbott Elementary (2021–present). Brunson gained prominence for her self-produced Instagram series Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date. She went on to produce and act in content for BuzzFeed Video, and developed two streaming series with BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.
Williams' closest professional associates were Patsy Abbott (1921-2001), who started her career as a vocalist, and Belle Barth (1911-1971), who billed herself the 'Hildegard of the Underworld' and the 'doyenne of the dirty line'.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the bawdy humor of Belle Barth, Pearl Williams, and Patsy Abbott, a trio of working-class Jewish stand-up comics, enjoyed enormous popularity in the United States.
Matchbook cover. A Concert in Comedy - Twice Nightly. 1950's.