California
& the Birth of the Blues:
“St. Louis Blues” |
 Although
she’d make the papers singing the blues, Ruby
Elzy was happier in California than she’d been
in a long time. Partly responsible for her happiness
could have been Jack Carr, a fellow actor-singer with
whom she appeared in Porgy and Bess. The couple
married in 1940. His picture here is from a scene in
the Paramount film Safari.
Also in 1940,
Ruby sang “Summertime” from Porgy and
Bess as a guest star on the CBS radio series Meet
Mr. Music. Ohio State graduate and future prize-winning
playwright Jerome Lawrence wrote the program.
In 1941 Ruby
made her fifth and final screen appearance in Paramount’s
Birth of the Blues, starring Bing Crosby and
Mary Martin. The film was acclaimed as one of Crosby’s
best, and Elzy’s rendition of W.C. Handy’s
“St. Louis Blues” is one of its highlights.
Critics lauded Ruby Elzy’s performance:
“Ruby
Elzy…sings ‘St. Louis Blues’ like
an angel from heaven.”
“Ruby
Elzy’s splendid singing…lifts the sequence
far above the rest of a routine musical comedy.”
“In
this cast is Ruby Elzy, Negro singer, whose rendition
of ‘St. Louis Blues’ will be remembered
as long as the song will live.”
 But
the critics weren’t the only ones to praise Ruby
for her performance. In November Ruby appeared on a
nationwide broadcast from Hollywood to promote Birth
of the Blues, and Bing Crosby introduced her as
a “truly great artist.” Following
the film’s success, Crosby signed Ruby to the
agency headed by his brother to represent her for future
film work.
Concurrent
Noteworthy Event
December
7, 1941
• The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and the United
States enters
WWII.
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