Sheila Guyse

Last time out we were discussing the career of Billy Eckstine, and speculating that he could have had a second career in film or television except for the accident of his race.

This post concerns a much more obscure artist, but one who faced many of the same hurdles. Sheila Guyse was a singing actress who first came to some notice in the black cinema of the 1940s, appearing in such titles as Sepia Cinderella and Miracle in Harlem. (You can see her in Boy! What a Girl! via this link, but she does not sing in this film.)

Guyse was in the original cast of Lost in the Stars on Broadway in 1949-50, and appears on the cast album.

Being an African American singing actress at the time was almost a guarantee of little work, and so she had few credits for a number of years, and apparently some personal problems. After winning an Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts contest, she was signed to an M-G-M records contract and in 1958 made this LP with Leroy Holmes. There was some publicity at the time that told her story, including a Jet magazine cover story, included in the download (cover below).

Guyse is still with us, and there are a few effusive articles on the web that liken her to Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge. No doubt that she was a good singer and a very good looking woman, but she was not on that level. As a singer, she doesn't always hit the notes squarely and tends to rush the beat. But she is enjoyable, and this LP is certainly highly collectible.

A note about Boy! What a Girl!: the plot of this Room Service gloss revolves around three different men falling for the well-known vaudeville comic Tim Moore in drag. (The film's strength was not its believability.) While this was at the end of Moore's stage career, he would go on to considerable fame as Kingfish in the televised version of Amos 'n' Andy - a role originated on radio by the white Freeman Gosden.

This post is in response to a request by my friend Jeronimo, who provided the link to Boy! What a Girl!