2005-1-1
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA
Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the
story of someone important in the history of the United States.
Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America's most
popular singers.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery,
Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams
Coles. His father was a Christian minister.
When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family
north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he
was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had.
He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time
he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father's church.
VOICE TWO:
Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California
when he was a young man. In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, he formed a group
that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley
Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer
because Nat's piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the
group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his
name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang
some songs, but mostly played the piano.
VOICE TWO(cont):
By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be
known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one
of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records.
The first song he recorded for Capitol was "Straighten Up and Fly
Right." He wrote the song. The words were based on his father's
teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of
Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand
copies.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include
"Sweet Lorraine," "Nature Boy," "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of
Summer," "When I Fall in Love," and "Mona Lisa." In Nineteen-Fifty,
the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of
"Mona Lisa." That song made him famous as a singer.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally.
He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands
Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people.
Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal
action against those places but often failed.
Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house
in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white
Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby
protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his
family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems.
VOICE ONE:
Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His
show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed
to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American
companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However,
major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a
black performer. They were concerned that white people in the
southern part of the United States would not buy their products.
Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a
year.
Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint
Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He
also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole
Story.
In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known
orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings "When I Fall in
Love" with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra:
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he
married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In
Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three
children. They also adopted and raised two other children.
VOICE ONE:
Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of
cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only
forty-five years old.
He received many awards during his life. He also received many
more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for
lifetime achievement.
Nat's daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She
recorded many songs after her father died.
In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called
Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole's songs,
including the song "Unforgettable." Modern technology made it
possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the
same song.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Millions of Nat King Cole's recordings were sold while he was
alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to
the music of one of America's greatest performers of popular and
jazz music.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow
and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for
another People in America program on the Voice of America.