Previous Vocal Group Record of the Week
(Week of 12/17/05 - 12/23/05)


LADIES OF R&B... PART SEVEN
SAVANNAH CHURCHILL (PART 2 OF 3)

"Too Blue To Cry"
by Savannah Churchill
on Manor 1014 B
released in 1945

"I Cried"
by Savannah Churchill
on Decca 29194
released in 1954



[Above photo provided by Paul Ressler.]

Above: Photo of Savannah Churchill. Magazine article from 1952 is provided at the bottom of this page.


Above: Label for Decca 29194 released in 1954. The flip sides of both of this week's selections were included in Part One (previous Record Of The Week).

Listen to this week's selections: [Audio restoration by Dave Saviet.]

A) Click on an option below to listen to Savannah Churchill using Streaming Windows Media Player.

Too Blue To Cry - Manor 1014 B - 1945
I Cried - Decca 29194 - 1954
"BOTH SONGS" NOT FUNCTIONAL!

B) Click on an option below to listen to Savannah Churchill using Downloading Windows Media Player.

Too Blue To Cry - Manor 1014 B - 1945 (file size=465KB)
I Cried - Decca 29194 - 1954 (file size=341KB)


SAVANNAH CHURCHILL [Magazine article from 1952]
SINGER HAS URGE TO EARN AND PASSION FOR SAVING

 
FROM a waitress at Lorette's restaurant in Harlem, Savannah Churchill moved across the street into Smalls Paradise and her first job as a singer. That was 1937, a year after she had dropped out of New York University following her marriage to a school sweetheart, Arthur Churchill.
 
When she auditioned for owner Ed Smalls, he eyed her critically and said, "Baby, you can't sing much but you ain't bad to look at. With experience you might improve, so I'll give you a job." The job paid $18 a week, but it was the start of a professional career that has carried her into such lush spots as Ciro's in Hollywood, the Thunderbird in Las Vegas and the Barbary Coast in San Francisco.
 
Last year she went to England and scored a triumph in London where she was featured at the Astor Colony Restaurant and also at the famed Palladium Theater. It was her first foreign engagement. "It lasted only eight weeks," she remembers, "but what an experience it was! I want to go back as soon as I can."
 
Born in New Orleans, her parents migrated to New York and settled in Brooklyn when Savannah was three. Home is now a three-story ten-room frame house in Brooklyn which is all her own. It is where she plans to retire when she quits singing. The town means much to her. "I love Brooklyn," she says. "I was reared there and know it like I know the palm of my hand. The place has a whole lot of sentimental value for me."
 
Savannah keeps a sharp lookout during her travels for choice parcels of real estate available at reasonable prices. She has a powerful urge to earn money and even greater passion to save it. "The money you make doesn't mean much if you don't save some of it," she says.
 
Her life is entwined with those of her two sons, one of whom plans to enter Southern University next year. She actually looks forward to the experience of becoming a grandmother. "I'll be very happy on the day one of my boys informs me I have become a grandmother."
 
Her first husband, an Ohio lawyer, was killed in an auto accident in 1938. Her second husband, Jessie Johnson, whom she married in May, 1952, is the head of Johnson's Chemical Company in Springfield, Ohio. They see each other at odd intervals, whenever Johnson can commute to Brooklyn. But he only does that on those rare weeks when Savannah is at home.

[Above article provided by Richard Koloda.]


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