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To Me It's Wonderful
Her career in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. It focused on her career and the struggles she faced within it.
162 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 27, 2015
Couldn't put the book down! I had read her other book, His Eye is on the Sparrow, and was blown away by the change in her life - and language. Highly recommend to people who like true story combined with humor and depth.
January 3, 2021
1972
When Waters was 76 and had been singing for Bill Graham's crusades for fifteen years [1957], these two women [from the organization?] interviewed her [visited her many times] to write this book.
The first part was a bit boring for me because I had just finished reading her My Eye memoirs about the earlier part of her career and this first part repeated a whole lot of that. The rest of the book is quite heavy on the evangelizing side yet includes a great many instructive or hilarious or otherwise good incidents and experiences.
I like the way she stresses the work of the wives of Bill Graham and the other higher-ups in that organization. She made sure to befriend them, and vice versa, and that was to everyone's advantage. And it is totally valid to emphasize the key enabling role played by these wives, who so seldom get recognized for it.
One thing totally unclear in this whole story is how the financial side of things worked. Since Waters pretty much stopped working for the entertainment industry, she had no income other than any she may have received from the organization, which she never at any time mentions. She does say many times that the crusades staff always made her plane and hotel reservations for her, so I assume that means also paying for them.
It's amusing how she always claims to not be materialistic, not be wanting to acquire expensive possessions and show them off, yet also admits to caring a lot to appear dressed in the right way for events and for appearances. Loving description of the dressmaker in Chicago who has designed for her before, and does again when she is to attend the White House wedding of Julie Nixon. Waters is thrilled with the new dress and other things to go with it.
Waters stresses that she does not know herself well, and I guess that might be literally true. The degree of emotional damage she sustained as a child, and throughout her life as a performer, would be more than enough to block self-reflection. She had to concentrate on *surviving*, really and truly. I give credit to Graham's organization for making Waters' final decades relatively carefree, however they did it. So many entertainers in similar situations ended their lives destitute and uncared for.
When Waters was 76 and had been singing for Bill Graham's crusades for fifteen years [1957], these two women [from the organization?] interviewed her [visited her many times] to write this book.
The first part was a bit boring for me because I had just finished reading her My Eye memoirs about the earlier part of her career and this first part repeated a whole lot of that. The rest of the book is quite heavy on the evangelizing side yet includes a great many instructive or hilarious or otherwise good incidents and experiences.
I like the way she stresses the work of the wives of Bill Graham and the other higher-ups in that organization. She made sure to befriend them, and vice versa, and that was to everyone's advantage. And it is totally valid to emphasize the key enabling role played by these wives, who so seldom get recognized for it.
One thing totally unclear in this whole story is how the financial side of things worked. Since Waters pretty much stopped working for the entertainment industry, she had no income other than any she may have received from the organization, which she never at any time mentions. She does say many times that the crusades staff always made her plane and hotel reservations for her, so I assume that means also paying for them.
It's amusing how she always claims to not be materialistic, not be wanting to acquire expensive possessions and show them off, yet also admits to caring a lot to appear dressed in the right way for events and for appearances. Loving description of the dressmaker in Chicago who has designed for her before, and does again when she is to attend the White House wedding of Julie Nixon. Waters is thrilled with the new dress and other things to go with it.
Waters stresses that she does not know herself well, and I guess that might be literally true. The degree of emotional damage she sustained as a child, and throughout her life as a performer, would be more than enough to block self-reflection. She had to concentrate on *surviving*, really and truly. I give credit to Graham's organization for making Waters' final decades relatively carefree, however they did it. So many entertainers in similar situations ended their lives destitute and uncared for.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews