Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters

“Mr. Bogle continues to be our most noted black-cinema historian.”
—Spike Lee

“Donald Bogle [is a] pioneering safe-keeper of the history of blacks in film.”
—Vogue

From Donald Bogle, author of the bestselling Dorothy Dandridge and Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies, and Bucks, a groundbreaking history of African American portrayals in Hollywood, comes the long-awaited, definitive biography of one of America’s brightest and most troubled theatrical stars: actress and singer Ethel Waters. In Heat Wave, Bogle explores Waters’ relationships with other performing greats, including Lena Horne, Count Basie, Vincent Minnelli, and many others, and paints a vivid, deeply human portrait of this legendary performer—a must-read for any fan of jazz, blues, and classic American cinema.

From the author of the bestselling Dorothy Dandridge comes a dazzling look at one of America's brightest and most troubled theatrical stars.

Almost no other star of the twentieth century reimagined herself with such audacity and durable talent as did Ethel Waters. In this enlightening and engaging biography, Donald Bogle resurrects this astonishing woman from the annals of history, shedding new light on the tumultuous twists and turns of her seven-decade career, which began in Black vaudeville and reached new heights in the steamy nightclubs of 1920s Harlem.

Bogle traces Waters' life from her poverty-stricken childhood to her rise in show business; her career as one of the early blues and pop singers, with such hits as "Am I Blue?," "Stormy Weather," and "Heat Wave"; her success as an actress, appearing in such films and plays as The Member of the Wedding and Mamba's Daughters; and through her lonely, painful final years. He illuminates Waters' turbulent private life, including her complicated feelings toward her mother and various lovers; her heated and sometimes well-known feuds with such entertainers as Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne; and her tangled relationships with such legends as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Harold Clurman, Elia Kazan, Count Basie, Darryl F. Zanuck, Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann, Moss Hart, and John Ford.

In addition, Bogle explores the ongoing racial battles, growing paranoia, and midlife religious conversion of this bold, brash, wildly talented woman while examining the significance of her highly publicized life to audiences unaccustomed to the travails of a larger-than-life African American woman.

Wonderfully atmospheric, richly detailed, and drawn from an array of candid interviews, Heat Wave vividly brings to life a major cultural figure of the twentieth century—a charismatic, complex, and compelling woman, both tragic and triumphant.

“A lively and unflinching treatment of Waters’ fiery life.” - Providence Journal

“Bogle is masterful in describing how the Depression affected black performers and in painting insightful brief portraits of characters from Fletcher Henderson to Carl Van Vechten to Billy Graham. . . . Bogle thoughtfully plumbs the throughlines of race, religion, sexuality (including Waters’s affairs with men and women), and music that informed her art and life.” - Boston Globe

“Not since the heavenly dressing crew worked its miracle in Cabin in the Sky has anyone labored as hard to rehabilitate Waters’s image as Donald Bogle has in writing Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. Bogle . . . has researched Waters thoroughly and presents, fastidiously, the great many facts of her long life and career.” - New York Times

“Heat Wave aims to restore Waters’s stature as a pioneering African American entertainer and to elucidate the complex personality of a woman whose life was as turbulent as her career. Author of the groundbreaking Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Film, Bogle is well-qualified to provide the cultural and social context necessary to fully understand both Waters’ accomplishments and her shortcomings.” - Los Angeles Times

“The first Waters portrait on a grand scale . . . gives us Waters the personality as well as the performer. A longtime chronicler of black entertainers, Mr. Bogle has logged hundreds of hours of interviews over the years with those who worked with or simply knew Waters. These eye witnesses enhance the factual data with a real sense of who Waters was, though obviously they give her mixed reviews.” - Wall Street Journal

“A penetrating look at a woman of massive talent and determination.” - Booklist (starred review)

“In this powerful biography, Bogle recovers the rich fullness of singer Ethel Waters’s life...Bogle’s thorough and unflinchingly honest look at Waters’s brilliant and flawed life will undoubtedly be the definitive biography of this great woman” - Publishers Weekly