Ida James

Photo of Ida James

  • Birth Name

    Ida May James

  • Born

    June 1, 1920
    Southbridge, Massachusetts

  • Died

    September 1986 (age 66)
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • Orchestras

    Erskine Hawkins
     Earl Hines

Best re­mem­bered for her baby-​talk singing voice, mod­ern au­di­ences seem fas­ci­nated by Ida James, much more so than her con­tem­po­raries. James was at most a minor celebrity. She rarely recorded, never had a hit song, and didn’t have a pres­ence on radio. Though black jour­nal­ists of the time praised her achieve­ments, she re­mained a second-​tier en­ter­tainer within her own com­mu­nity, and she failed to catch on with white au­di­ences who often saw her as a nov­elty act due to her chirp­ing voice which lim­ited her ef­fec­tive­ness on a range of ma­te­r­ial.

James grew up in Prov­i­dence, Rhode Is­land, and made her pro­fes­sional start as part of the The Horn and Hardart Chil­dren’s Hour on Philadel­phia radio sta­tion WCAU in the 1930s. She joined Earl “Fatha” Hines in Chicago in late Jan­u­ary 1937, re­main­ing with his band through at least May 1938 be­fore be­com­ing part of Er­sk­ine Hawkins’ or­ches­tra, where she stayed into sum­mer 1942.

After leav­ing Hawkins to go solo, James spent time on the West Coast, where she played clubs around the Los An­ge­les area and per­formed in the The New Meet the Peo­ple revue. She made two soundies, “Who’s Been Eat­ing My Por­ridge?” and “Is You Is, or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” with the King Cole Trio for RCM be­fore head­ing to New York in June 1944 to begin an en­gage­ment at the Cafe So­ci­ety. While there she made two more soundies, “His Rockin’ Horse Ran Away” and “Can’t See for Lookin’,” both for Film­craft in late 1944.

In early 1945, James ap­peared on Broad­way twice, in the Olsen and John­son revue Laffing Room Only and in the all-​black mu­si­cal Mem­phis Bound. Nei­ther show lasted long. In late 1945, she headed to the South Pa­cific with her own USO unit.

Back in the states by mid-​1946, James hit the the­ater and night club cir­cuit be­fore land­ing a long res­i­dence at the Sa­van­nah Club in New York’s Green­wich Vil­lage from late-​1947 to mid-​1948. She recorded two songs on Decca with the Ellis Larkins Trio in 1945 and signed with the Manor label in late De­cem­ber 1947, mak­ing four sides just be­fore the record­ing ban of 1948 was due to begin. She also ap­peared on the Ad­ven­tures in Jazz tele­vi­sion pro­gram in 1949.

James made only a few film ap­pear­ances, the first in the 1939 all-​black hor­ror film The Devil’s Daugh­ter, widely con­sid­ered one of the worst films ever made, and later in Re­pub­lic’s 1944 second-​tier mu­si­cal Tro­cadero, where she per­formed her sig­na­ture tune “Shoo Shoo Baby.” In 1947, she starred as Cab Cal­loway’s man­ager in the Cal­loway ve­hi­cle Hi De Ho.

In Jan­u­ary 1950, James opened on Broad­way in an­other short-​lived pro­duc­tion, the so­cial jus­tice drama How Long Till Sum­mer? As the 1950s rolled around, she turned to­wards rhythm and blues, record­ing two sides on Co­lum­bia in 1951 and sign­ing with the new Nick­elodeon label in 1953. She con­tin­ued per­form­ing through the mid-​1950s but by that time had drifted into ob­scu­rity and even­tu­ally left show busi­ness.

Sources

  1. Simon, George T. The Big Bands. 4th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1981.
  2. The Online Discographical Project. Accessed 13 Aug. 2016.
  3. “Ida James.” IMDb. Accessed 13 Aug. 2016.
  4. “Earl Hines & Old Dixieland Gang in Jam Session.” Down Beat Feb. 1937: 6.
  5. Young, Wilbur. “This 'n' That.” The Afro-American [Baltimore, Maryland] 20 Mar. 1937: 12.
  6. Rudy, Herman M. “Hines & Henderson in Fine Carving Match.” Down Beat Oct. 1937: 39.
  7. Advertisement. “Earl 'Father' Hines.” The Fargo Spectrum [Fargo, North Dakota] 13 May 1938: 7.
  8. Matthews, Ralph. “Looking at the Stars.” Washington Afro-American 15 Apr. 1939: 10.
  9. “Vaudeville Reviews: Orpheum, Los Angeles.” Billboard 3 Jan. 1942: 25.
  10. “Vaudeville Reviews: Orpheum, Minneapolis.” Billboard 24 Jan. 1942: 22.
  11. “On the Air: Erskine Hawkins.” Billboard 28 Mar. 1942: 14.
  12. “Record Reviews: Erskine Hawkins.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1942: 8.
  13. “Hawkins Please.” The Afro-American [Baltimore, Maryland] 18 Jul. 1942: 10.
  14. “On the Records: Erskine Hawkins.” Billboard 8 Aug. 1942: 68.
  15. “In Short.” Billboard 26 Jun. 1943: 16.
  16. “Out-of-Town Opening.” Billboard 14 Aug. 1943: 19.
  17. Holly, Hal. “Los Angeles Band Briefs.” Billboard 15 Aug. 1943: 6.
  18. Holly, Hal. “Los Angeles Band Briefs.” Billboard 1 Dec. 1943: 6.
  19. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 22 Apr. 1944: 65.
  20. “In Short.” Billboard 27 May 1944: 23.
  21. “In Short.” Billboard 24 Jun. 1944: 22.
  22. “Follow-Up Reviews.” Billboard 1 Jul. 1944: 27.
  23. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 11 Nov. 1944: 64.
  24. “Out-of-Town Opening.” Billboard 18 Nov. 1944: 29.
  25. “Broadway Openings.” Billboard 6 Jan. 1945: 31.
  26. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 27 Jan. 1945: 65.
  27. “Out-of-Town Opening.” Billboard 12 May 1945: 33.
  28. “Broadway Openings.” Billboard 2 Jun. 1945: 34.
  29. “Ida James to South Pacific.” The Afro-American [Baltimore, Maryland] 24 Nov. 1945: 8.
  30. “Advanced Record Releases.” Billboard 1 Jun. 1946: 29.
  31. “Gate Sights Sock 50G.” Billboard 6 Jul. 1946: 43.
  32. “Night Club Reviews: Zanzibar, New York.” Billboard 1 Mar. 1947: 38.
  33. “Diskeries Enter 4th Wk. Rush on Pre-Ban Talent.” Billboard 20 Dec. 1947: 18.
  34. “Street, Strip, Loop Hit, But Not Philly's Harlem.” Down Beat 24 Mar. 1948: 13.
  35. “Clarence Robinson Returns Negro Shows to Village.” Billboard 25 Sep. 1948: 41.
  36. “Night Club Reviews: The Savannah Club, New York.” Billboard 2 Oct. 1948: 26.
  37. “Night Club Reviews: The Savannah Club, New York.” Billboard 26 Mar. 1949: 48.
  38. “Music as Written.” Billboard 28 May 1949: 37.
  39. “Out-of-Town Opening.” Billboard 24 Dec. 1949: 47.
  40. “Broadway Openings.” Billboard 7 Jan. 1950: 39.
  41. “Rhythm and Blues Notes.” Billboard 3 Feb. 1951: 28.
  42. “Nickelodeon Disk Sales Start June 2.” Billboard 23 May 1953: 171.
  43. “Rhythm and Blues Notes.” Billboard 26 Sep. 1953: 53.
  44. “Music as Written.” Billboard 19 Nov. 1955: 14.
  45. “Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1925,&rquo; database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLGY-SMH9 : 1 September 2021), Ida May James, 1920.