Zaidee Jackson

Early life

Zaidee Jackson was born in Augusta, Georgia in the winter of 1898 to C.J. and Alice Jackson, who were both sharecroppers in Berrien County, Georgia.

Sometime after moving to Europe, she began using 1900 as her birth year.

Zaidee had three older siblings, Ora Lee, Era and Sol Jackson. Sometime in late 1900, Alice left her husband and children, taking only Zaidee, and moved north to Boston, Massachusetts, where she met and married Fred Williams. Zaidee soon took her stepfather's last name. In 1902, Alice and Fred had their own child, Corinna.

In 1923, Zaidee married James Jackson, but the marriage was brief. Around that time, she met pianist Lawrence Brown, who had been working as an elevator operator and studying in Boston, and was soon touring England with Roland Hayes.

Early career

In 1924, Jackson was a part of the Andrew Bishop Players, touring throughout the Southern United States. In 1925, she joined Walter Sweatman's revue with bandleader Claude Hopkins in a tour of Canada. Eventually Claude left the revue to join the new show, La Revue Negre, in Paris. Jackson departed as well, obtaining a part in the cast of the half-white, half-black show Lulu Belle at New York's Belasco Theatre with actress Evelyn Preer. The show was a huge success, and Jackson was especially singled out for her dancing. Later in November, film director Oscar Micheaux hired the entire cast to appear in his film The Spider's Web, which is now lost.

In early 1927, she was playing with Adelaide Hall in Desires of 1927. During the summer, after a short tour, she appeared in Lyle and Miller's Rang Tang, this time featured as a singer. After the show, Lawrence Brown, who was touring Europe with Paul Robeson, convinced Jackson to come to Paris, leave behind the racism of the US and trade on the French fascination for "negro" culture. She arrived in Paris around November 1927.

French and British career (1927-1935)

Jackson arrived in France during the winter of 1927, following her friends Lawrence Brown and Paul Robeson. By February, she found employment at the Kit Kat Club in Paris for a few weeks before touring with a band around the French coast, including Deauville, Cannes, and Biarritz. Her performances sparked the interest of numerous members of the British elite such as Elsa Maxwell, the Duke of Kent, and especially the Countess of Carnarvon, who purchased Jackson's plane ticket to London in August.

She was immediately offered a spot singing on the BBC radio, which broadcast over Britain and Northern Europe. One of her radio shows was heard by Albin Limpus, British theatre director, who offered Jackson a role in his new stage production Deadlock at the Comedy Theatre. Before going on stage in the afternoon, she spent her mornings recording for the Parlophone recording company, recording nearly a dozen songs that year. After hours, she roamed the streets with Leslie Hutchison, another black singer working in London. The show was a mild success, but it led to more contracts with live-radio shows at Piccadilly Hotel and dancing at the Cafe Anglais.

Returning to Paris, January 1929, Jackson was swamped with offers to appear in numerous establishments, such as Chez Florence, Boeuf Sur Le Toit and Bal Negre, where she danced the biguine. Later, she briefly opened her own club on the Champs-Élysées, the Chez Zaidee. She purchased a nearby apartment, where she threw intimate cocktail parties before taking her guests to the Bal Negre. She was invited to many smart cafes, clubs, dances, and parties. She sang at Countee Cullen's small house party near the rue Pigalle, and at black dancer Louis Cole's birthday party at his large apartment near the Trocadero. Albin Limpus invited her back to England in October to appear at the Lewis Department store dance-hall in Manchester. She was soon given the opportunity of a short tour of England, who had already heard her on their radio transmissions. After appearing in London and Bristol, during the spring Jackson was in Blackpool opening in her own revue at the Blackpool Palace, Singer from Southland, which ran for a successful three months. Jackson was eager to establish herself more in mainland Europe, particularly France, and returned to Paris in June with a four-month contract for the exotic Russian cabaret, Sheherazade.

In the winter it was arranged for Jackson to appear in Berlin. She appeared at the famous Kabarett der Komiker. However, she was given mixed reviews for her singing, which some Germans felt was barely audible. After three months in Berlin, she opened back in Paris at the L'Ange Bleu Bar. Her appearance there was well received, and she departed again, this time to the Royal Hotel in Budapest, accompanied by Russian pianist, Suponitzkaya. Back in Paris for the Exposition Coloniale, she appeared in a new cabaret, La Jungle-Montmartre, performing her intimate songs with Reginald Foresythe beside her with his piano. However, eventually her companion Reggie was whisked away with another band for a tour of the US. As the Exposition closed that winter, George White offered her some of the music scores from his Broadway production, Scandals of 1931, probably with the intention of her joining the show. In 1932, she ran her own club, Sous le Maquis, and became a regular at Chez Zelli's, La Sheherazade and the Bosphore cabaret, singing and dancing eccentrically. During the Fall of that year, while performing a "Russian Act" at the Sheherazade, even planned for a tour into Moscow, which never came together.

In December 1932, she was offered a large role in a West-End show, Ballyhoo Revue, which opened at the Comedy Theatre and played through the spring of 1933. Her old friend, Albin Limpus, arranged for her to record several new numbers for the show, one of them being the comedy number, "Pink Elephants. Film director Andrew Buchanan took her on screen, appearing in two short films with the Ideal Cine-Magazine, I’ve Got the Wrong Man and Black Magic. Her success resounded back to her beloved France, where upon returning, Joe Zelli asked her to open at his new music-hall, Chez Les Nudistes, appearing nude in an extravagant revue, Au Dela... des Reins. Every evening, after appearing in her revue at Chez Les Nudistes, she rushed over to the Sheherazade to sing all night alongside an Romanian orchestra.

Romania (1934-1938)

The Depression finally arrived in France in 1934, causing the economy to fall apart and public demonstrations all across France. Jackson's appearances began to become sparse. Jackson left for Monte Carlo and Cannes to run several nightclubs, where she danced, sang and entertained, imitating Bricktop. After a few months, as business hadn't really recovered yet in the Montmartre, Zaidee departed for Bucharest, Romania, immersing herself into Romanian nightlife, performing at La Zissu Musichall, on the Calea Șerban Vodă, with Jean Moscopol and appearing frequently at the Maxim Zig-Zag, Barul Melody and Mon Jardin nightclub. Soon she was introduced to Barbu Neamțu, a wealthy Romanian mechanical engineer who was a great sportsman and Ford representative. Shortly after meeting, they travelled together to marry in his ancestral city of Craiova of 100,000 in the midst of a rich agricultural area, where she was the only Negro. Her in-laws, particularly Mother Neamțu, disapproved of her son marrying a black music hall star. They often stayed in their smart apartment in central Bucharest. Since her new husband was quite wealthy, the couple purchased and occasionally occupied their country estate near Craiova. Those were halcyon days. During the summer of 1935, Zaidee was accompanied by bandleader Benny Peyton into Switzerland, Hungary and Egypt before returning into Romania. During the winter of 1937, Octavian Goga had been appointed Prime Minister, and had issued a series of Anti-Semitic laws, stripping Romanian Jews of their citizen. In Bucharest, during the “Expoziție Naționale”, Anti-Semitic and even pro-Fascist-themed displays were on exhibit. But it was over by the spring of 1938, when Goga died of a stroke. Her marriage was marred by jealousy and racial prejudice of her husband's numerous family (and the neighbors) who felt that he had married beneath him. He was accused of renouncing his family for a Negro. The monarchy made it difficult for him to get work papers; The brief fascist regime of the 1940s was worse, demanding that one be an "Ethnic Romanian." However, during this period of unhappiness, she was able to arrange a brief American tour.

After ten years abroad, Jackson debarked in New York from the SS Queen Mary, appearing in numerous nightclubs that would permit her during the winter of 1937. Upon arrival, she was met by American journalists, such as those of the Pittsburgh Courier: "Zaidee Williams Jackson was singing sweet songs at Chez Florence in Montmartre when we met her. A slim bronze young woman, who had Paris by its ears. We wonder if anyone who has lived over there for ten years as she has can come back here to prejudice and hate and pick up where she left off. We don't doubt that she'll return where, she says ’her work is more appreciated... and more lucrative.’" Eventually she invited Barbu along from Romania to enjoy the sights America had to offer. During the course of the tour, Jackson also paid a quick visit to her family back in Connecticut. Then suddenly she was gone, she sailed back to Europe by August. She appeared “sharp & ready” at Jimmy Monroe’s Swing Club as well as in Harlem au Coliseum at the Paris-Coliseum alongside Myrtle Watkins, Three Dukes and the Willie Lewis Orchestra. After an appearance at Fred Payne's Bar, she returned home to Bucharest in February 1939, where she is listed as having joined the National Liberal Party.

World War II (1939-1945)

In late 1939, immediately after the Polish invasion, the Germans slowed down, quietly turning their attentions to Scandinavia, giving much of Europe the false sense of security known as the "Drole Guerre" (Phony War). In Paris, soldiers were on every corner, and young men stood in long lines to enlist. Most American entertainers fled back to the United States. However, Jackson was having success in Romania, despite the war just across the border. Unlike in Paris, the swastika flew beside the Romanian flag. King Carol made it no secret that he supported the Nazis. As the war continued, she kept busy, performing every night at the La Zissu cabaret. In the summer of 1940, King Carol soon handed over Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, causing uproar across Romania, especially as fleeing Bessarabian refugees crowded the streets of Bucharest. To get away from the occasionally crowded city, Jackson often departed to their countryside estate in Craiova, where Barbu spent much of his time running his business, probably more now since the Ford-Romania Company began providing military-grade vehicles for the Germans.

On 4 September the Iron Guard and General Ion Antonescu united to form a "National Legionary State" government, which forced the abdication of King Carol II in favor of his 19-year-old son Michael. The king and his Jewish mistress went into exile, and Romania leaned strongly toward the Axis. As part of the deal, the Iron Guard became the sole legal party in Romania. Romania supplied Germany with oil, grain, and industrial products. In power, the Iron Guard stiffened the already harsh anti-semitic legislation; enacted legislation directed against minority businessmen, tempered at times by the willingness of officials to take bribes; and wreaked vengeance upon its enemies.

On 8 October, German troops began crossing into Romania and soon numbered over 500,000. Numerous train stations in the country, such as Gara de Nord in Bucharest, served as transit points for troops departing for the Eastern front. Suddenly the Jewish population could get no work at all, and were later corralled and carted away in carloads; sometimes these cars had lime in them. Sometimes trains carrying the hapless Jews were halted in the remote countryside and the occupants dumped into the bare fields. Of course their properties were confiscated. Although Jackson herself encountered no real trouble, she found it expedient to stay away from public places. In 1943 Romania became a target of Allied aerial bombardment, such as the attack on the oil fields of Ploiești on August 1, 1943. Bucharest was subjected to intense bombing on 4 and 15 April 1944, and the Luftwaffe bombed the city on August 24 and 25 after the country switched sides. During this time, there were shortages of everything desirable to eat or wear. Of course officials with big salaries could get what they wanted. Formerly well-to-do people carried their dwindling stock of goods to the immense open-air market to sell, in order to keep alive. Until 1954, food was scarce and expensive. People stood for hours in queues and then often got nothing.

Communist Romania (1948-1956)

Jackson's troubles began after the Romanian Communist Party came to power in 1948. Around this, many popular establishments closed down after the Nationalization of all businesses in Romania. Much of Europe’s audiences were in desperate need of entertainment since the end of the war, and despite occasional censorship for ‘decadence’, Zaidee remained popular with the Romanian public.] throughout the 1950s, according to Dan Mihaescu, later scriptwriter for TV-Romania, overcoming the strain brought upon by the Communist government. "For a time, I could get no work at all," she said, "until 1950, and then only sporadically, and for a miserable pittance of 600 leis monthly." Nightly taxi cabs to and from, her jobs cost 30 leis daily, which meant spending two-thirds of her salary for transportation. Often she chose to walk two miles in the dead of night from her apartment to save money to eat since meals were no longer supplied to artists. The average worker got 500 leis monthly wage. At first they gave her laborer's pay, but later upped her wage to 1,500 leis monthly. Even after she began to get regular work, Zaidee encountered all sorts of prejudice and discrimination from musicians and managers. During this time, she wrote constantly to Lawrence Brown, who was again touring Europe with Paul Robeson at the time. She described the devastation the German bombs caused to Bucharest during the war and her struggle to find work now with the Communists in charge. She explained that a pair of the cheapest shoes cost 500 lei and a sorry cotton suit of clothes there or four times as much. The average worker got 500 lei monthly wage. At first they gave her a laborer's pay, but later upped her wage to 1,500 lei monthly.

In 1950, the Securitate (secret police) came in the dead of night, flashing torches in their faces, threatening. The government branded Barbu as "Bourgeois”, so they were always fearful, dreading search and questioning. Although engineers were in great demand, he could get very little work. One had to be "approved." Logically, however, his brother Sebastian got a government job. Then came the final crushing blow a few months later with the arrest of her husband as a "bourgeois spy". Their estate in Craiova was seized (ownership of private property was banned) and Barbu was held incommunicado locally for eighteen months and then sent to an Internment camp where he was ill-fed and given the most arduous physical tasks. There was never a charge or a trial. After four years he was released, broken and impoverished, early 1955. Zaidee was left jobless for six months, until the government relented and allowed her work more or less regularly. Even after getting regular work in 1951, Jackson encountered all sorts of prejudice and discrimination from musicians and managers. With her husband in prison, things were doubly tough. Around this time, Zaidee believed she could obtain more money by touring abroad in America, however she had difficulty in getting out of Romania, primarily by her marriage. Although an American woman marrying a foreigner supposedly retains her U. S. citizenship, in 1951 she was listed us a Romanian and as such could not get out. At first the U.S. Embassy was sympathetic but later became un cooperative due to the antagonism of a Hungarian woman secretary. Meanwhile, her sister, Corinna Williams-Thomas, was working indefatigably in her behalf, although writing to President Truman produced no results. Zaidee wrote to Paul Robeson and William Patterson, who were both known to be close with the Communists. Neither deigned to reply. Then, April 1955, Corinna Thomas wrote to President Eisenhower who promised prompt action. "When I was singing in Targu-Mures, October 1955, I met a Negro girl who was born in the country, from an African father and Hungarian mother. "When the parents died, the orphan girl was taken in by a hairdresser for whom she worked until she was 20. After that nobody would give her a Job. The government put her in a factory operating a lathe. Becoming ill, she was given a miserably inadequate pension, and now lives alone in abject poverty. As she told me her story her frail body shook with bitter sobs." The lowest class of Romanians were in control and all regarded themselves as superior to Negroes."

Later career

In January 1956,As the result of an appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union with the board of Immigration Appeals, the US State Department permitted Jackson to return to the United States. From Bucharest she flew to Amsterdam and changed planes directly for New York, where she was greeted with an American passport. She luckily missed the Red Scare movement, although there was still heavy prejudice against Communists (and those who had lived for several years in a Communist country). Jackson resumed her career on the American stage, 17 years since 1938. Her return to the American stage may have caused more strain on her already shaky marriage, caused the couple to eventually separate. Her time in America is not well documented since her return, except for an appearance in Boston in 1957 and a brief interview in Harlem during the summer of 1967, with Frank Driggs.

Zaidee Jackson died on December 15, 1970, near her sister's family in Connecticut.