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May, 13 2008 11:20:15 PM
Who Was Jester Hairston
Jester
Hairston, who gave up studies at Massachusetts Agriculture College in
the 1920s before going on to a career than spanned movies, television,
radio, composing, arranging and choral conducting, died Jan. 18 in Los
Angeles. He was 98.
Best known in recent years for playing
Rollie Forbes on the NBC sitcom "Amen" in the 1980s, Hairston's earlier
acting roles including long-running parts on the radio and television
versions of "Amos 'n' Andy" as well as bit parts in Tarzan films.
Although
many of his early acting jobs portrayed less than flattering images of
blacks, Hairston never apologized for playing racial stereotypes. "We
had a hard time then fighting for dignity," he said years later. "We
had no power. We had to take it, and because we took it the young
people today have opportunities."
Opportunities also expanded
for Hairston during his acting career. His films credits included "The
Alamo," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "In the Heat of the Night," "Lady
Sings the Blues," "The Last Tycoon" and "Lilies of the Valley," for
which he composed the song "Amen."
That song, which he dubbed
for Sidney Poitier in the movie, reflected Hairston's lifelong
dedication to preserving old Negro spirituals. He was a sought-after
choral director who organized Hollywood's first integrated choir and
composed more than 300 spirituals.
Even in his 90s, Hairston
continued to conduct choirs, crisscrossing the world as a goodwill
ambassador for the U.S. State Department.
The grandson of a
slave, he was born in Belews Creek, N.C., but grew up in the Homestead
section of Pittsburgh, where generations of his family worked in the
steel mills. Through a scholarship from his Baptist church, he enrolled
at Mass Aggie in 1920 to study Landscape Architecture.
At MAC,
he briefly quarterbacked the freshman football team and also sang in
the glee club as well as several area choirs. He dropped out for
several years when his money ran out, returning to school after a woman
impressed by his singing offered to finance his education in music. He
enrolled at Tufts University and graduated in 1929.
Making his
way to New York, he met Hall Johnson, a popular conductor of Negro
spirituals who hired Hairston as his assistant. It was Johnson who
taught Hairston to respect the Negro spiritual. Shedding his Boston
accent, Hairston dedicated himself to preserving the music of the
slaves and memorializing the conditions that gave birth to it.
Later
in his life, when working with students at college workshops, Hairston
would tell them, "You can't sing legato when the master's beatin' you
across your back."
When Warner Brothers bought the Johnson
show "Green Pastures" in 1935, the conductor and Hairston began their
film careers. Hairston's big break came in 1936, when Russian-born
composer and conductor Dmitri Tiomkin asked him to conduct the choir in
the film "Lost Horizon," which won an Oscar for best score. That began
a 20-year collaboration with Tiomkin, who inspired him to form the
first integrated choir used in films, including "Red River," "She Wore
a Yellow Ribbon" and "Land of the Pharaohs."
Although he never
completed his studies at MAC, Hairston maintained strong ties with the
University. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary doctorate. Twenty years
later at age 91, he returned to campus again to receive the
Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Music and Dance.
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