Two Sides of Juanita Hall

Juanita Hall is the third in our series featuring the original stars of South Pacific, following Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza.

This being a 10-inch record blog (or so it says above), my intent was to present only the recording depicted below, Juanita Hall and Choir in Stephen Foster Songs. But when I listened to it, I discovered that she appears on only one song - and I am not even positive that the singer is her. The style is very different from her other recordings. So I decided to also present the later 12-inch LP shown above, even though it has been reissued on CD.

Let's start with the older item first. As far as I can tell, these recordings were made for the old Varsity label in December 1939, and at least some of them were issued on 78s under the name of the Plantation Singers. As you might guess from the name of the group, the repertoire and the LP cover, these records are products of a very different time. They may make you cringe, but they are well done musically.

When the Foster songs were recorded, Hall was leading a Works Progress Administration choir, according to this biographical sketch. (The WPA was a Depression-era government effort that funded many arts programs.) She went on to develop a nighclub act, and then achieved a level of fame after being cast as Bloody Mary in South Pacific. At that time, record entrepreneur Joe Davis, who had taken over the Varsity catalogue, reissued the Foster songs on LP as being by Juanita Hall and Choir.

In the 1958 film version of South Pacific, Hall again appeared as Bloody Mary (although, strangely, her singing was dubbed by Muriel Smith). After the movie came out, Hall made a blues LP for Counterpoint, accompanied by a number of famous jazz musicians. The results are quite good, if a little studied. She is very much at home in the idiom - it's remarkable that she could be so accomplished in so many different styles.