Etta Moten Barnett: still on the case at 96 - African American actress

Ebony, Oct, 1997 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

Before Halle Berry and Dorothy Dandridge and even Lena Horne, there was Etta Moten, a Black actress defying all the odds as an African-American woman and a performer. The actress, who later married Claude A. Barnett, continues to defy the odds as she celebrates her 96the birthday.

"I've always said that the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth, and I'm not ready for either one," she says.

Born on November 5, 1901, in Texas, and married right out of high school, Moten was left to raise three young daughters in the 1920s and made an unconventional decision that was 50 years ahead of her time. Leaving her daughters with her parents, she went to college, graduating from the University of Kansas in 1931.

Her professors recognized her great talent and urged her to go to New York. "Broadway is where you belong, " they told her. And Broadway welcomed her, giving her critical acclaim for her roles in several plays, Fast & Furious, Sugar Hill, Zombie, and Lysistrata, with Rex Ingram and Leigh Whipper.

Hollywood fell in love with her, first using only the voice -- she dubbed the songs for Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies of the Big House in 1932 -- and finally casting her to appear in films.

Moten made her film debut in The Gold Diggers of 1933 with Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, singing the featured song, "My Forgotten Man," with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The next year she became the first Black woman to entertain at the White House, when she was invited to perform that song at a White House birthday party for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Moten sparkled in her next feature film, Flying Down to Rio, singing, "The Carioca." That movie was filmed in color, she says, which was unusual during the black - and - white film era. "I wore a hairdo with fruit on my head," she says, "and that was before Carmen Miranda."

In 1934 she again dubbed the singing voice for Ginger Rogers in 20 Million Sweethearts.

Following her film triumphs, Braodway beckoned again, and Moten responded with critically acclaimed performances in her signature role as "Bess" in George Gershwin's folk opera, Porgy and Bess. For three years she appeared in that show, one year on Broadway and two years touring the United States and Canada.

When she talks of George Gershwin, it's from memory, not history. The legend is that Gershwin wrote the role of "Bess" and the song, "Summertime," for Moten. The stress of singing the role, which was written for a soprano, eventually caused damage to her contralto voice that had to be repaired surgically. "I sang it too long, and it's really the reason I don't sing now," she said. Following her role as "Bess" she was ordered to rest her voice for four months. During this time she accompanied her husband, Claude A. Barnett, founder-director of the Associated Negro Press, on her first trip to Africa. That was 50 years ago, 1947, and was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the continent, its people, traditions and art.

She married Barnett in 1934, while she was performing in Zombie, a musical about Haiti. "I told him that I really wasn't interested in marriage." she says, adding they were engaged "before I left town." The couple traveled extensively throughout Africa, attending she says, "all of the independence celebrations." Her husband died in 1967.

A great friend of Kwame Nkrumah and other founding fathers of the new Africa, Moten has seen Africa come full circle in 50 years, from colonialism to independence. She is concerned about the state of the continent today. "I'm saddened by some of the attitudes and changes I see in Africa."

But she and her late husband never gave up on Africa. She finds it ironic that South Africa seems to be thriving. "The worst place of all 50 years go seems to be doing best of all today." She is very proud of Nelson Mandela, who she says did not succumb to bitterness.

When Barnett and her late husband first started traveling in Africa, their friends laughed and told them, "You go right ahead; I haven't lost a thing in Africa -- but we found plenty." She definitely has the last laugh with her collection of beautiful African artifacts and her memories of the great moments in the African Renaissance.

"The thing that gives me the most pleasure about my career is that I was able to inspire people," she says. "Having influenced somebody like that means a great deal to me."

Among career triumphs she remembers are performances with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, with the New York Philharmonic and concert tours in the nation's colleges and universities.

She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1979 and has received numerous awards during her long career. As a civic leader and patron of the arts, she has served as a member of many cultural and educational institutions.