Kenneth Lee Spencer

Kenneth Lee Spencer ( born April 25, 1913 in Los Angeles, California, † February 26, 1964 in New Orleans, Louisiana) was an American singer and later German ( bass).

Life

Training and beginnings

Kenneth Spencer was born the son of a steel worker and did an apprenticeship as a gardener. Against the will of his father, he studied music thanks to a scholarship. After completing his vocal studies at the Academy of Music in Rochester, he debuted in 1931; His repertoire ranged from Spiritual about opera and concert arias to art and folk song.

Until 1946 Kenneth Spencer joined as a singer in song recitals, in small film roles and in musicals. From 1946 he played with great success starring in the new production of the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern on Broadway in New York and sang the song Ol ' Man River. But despite his popularity he was repeatedly discriminated against than black and was allowed to enter as hotels only through the back entrance.

Spencer in Europe

After an appearance at the International Music Festival in Nice in 1949, Kenneth Spencer was also known in Europe to a wide audience. He sang for several years in the French broadcasting. Spencer enjoyed the stay in Europe, because there he saw the recognition as an equal human being. In Paris he met the white American journalist Josephine Clarke know. However, the two were married until she lived in Europe as a marriage between a white woman and a colored man was punishable at that time in more than half of the U.S. states. 1953 Spencer had a son.

1954 the family moved to Wuppertal, because the Spencers had friends there. In his new home, Kenneth Spencer achieved special popularity as he made ​​numerous appearances with bergischen choirs; In 1956 he obtained the German citizenship. He has given concerts in Germany, had engagements as an opera singer (eg in Nuremberg as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute ) and beyond the film (eg, as in Bismarck Our house in Cameroon, as a U.S. soldier in Joshua My brother Joshua ).

Plane crash

1964 Kenneth Spencer traveled without his family to the United States to support a concert tour with the Society for the Advancement of Colored. On a flight to New Orleans the aircraft over the Lake Pontchartrain crashed the mouth of the Mississippi, the river, which he had so often sung as Ol ' Man River. Only after weeks could the dead passengers, including Spencer, are recovered from the water.

Filmography

• Dominic Provost / Enno hunger Country: Ol ' Man River - Kenneth Spencer. Documentary about Kenneth Spencer