Queer Places:
Club Carousel, 8 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019
Nan Blakstone or Nan Blackstone (born Naomi Ewald, born 1905 in San Antonio; † September 24, 1951)was an American singer and pianist best known for her performances on cabaret stages and nightclubs. The jazz critic Will Friedwald described the performer as an "ambiguous-humorous song" as a "female contemporary of such lilac, gender-crossing figures as Dwight Fiske and Ray Bourbon" and as the predecessor of singers such as Ruth Wallis or Ava Williams. [1]
Ruth Wallace and Nan Blackstone,
two straight singers, were both outspoken allies who wrote songs in support of gay people.
Naomi Ewald studied at Oklahoma University and attended music college in Chicago. For her performances, she adopted the stage name Nan Blackstone, which she soon shortened to Nan Blakstone, so as not to be confused with a magician known at the time. She performed at New York's Cabarets during the Prohibition period; In 1926 she appeared in the musical The Far Cry at the Liberty Theatre in New York. During her tours, such as her guest performance at the Strand Theater in Lexington ( Kentucky),she was announced as Queen of the Blues Songs – Broadway's Crooning Bluebird Singing the Latest Songs. On May 25, 1927, accompanied by herself on the piano, she recorded four tracks for Victor in Chicago, Maybe You'll Be the One to Care, That's How I Know I Love You, Counting the Days and So Tired. [2] Blakstone's next recording session took place on April 10, 1929 for RCA-Victor at church building studio in Camden, New Jersey, where she recorded four tracks for a Columbia Pictures music film, published under the title Snappy Co-eds. [4]In it she sang a medley of the songs I Ain't Taken Orders from No One, That's My Weakness Now, She's Funny That Way and More Than Anybody. She was accompanied by studio musicians Max Berger (trumpet), Louis Martin (saxophone), Billy Witkin (violin), Louis Spielman (piano), Dick Cherwin (double bass) and Harry Rosenberg (drums). In February 1930, she appeared in Ruth Selwyn's musical Nine-Fifteen Revue, which had little success; In it she sang George Gershwin's Toddlin' Along. [5] At the end of the year, she appeared in another Gaietiesmusical production, which ran at the Guild Theatre (now August Wilson Theatre) and had 158 performances. [6][7] In the early 1930s, he was engaged to the New York club Argonaut with Jean Malin; in June 1931 he recorded test recordings for Brunswick Records (Queen Isabell/Hit or Miss).
At the end of 1931 she was in London. In December, she recorded i'll Putcha Pitcha in the Papers and All for the Sake of Love (Oriole P-107), accompanied by Nat Gonella, Stanley Black (piano) and Bill Harty (drums). [8] From the end of January 1932 she had a successful engagement in the nightclub Monseigneur; During the year, more recordings were made for Oriole, the titles You are Too Beautiful and What Have We Got to Lose? (Oriole SP-492).
On her return to the United States, Blakstone appeared in the Revue Forward March by Lew Brown, Ray Henderson and David Freedman from October 1932; In early 1933, she had engagements at Club Abbey on West 54th Street. In 1934 she travelled with aquitania again to England. On May 11, 1933, she recorded You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me and I'll Putcha Pitcha in the Paper, accompanied by pianist Austin "Ginger" Croome-Johnson (Parlophone R.1536). She returned to the United States in early 1934. On April 6, she took her own piano accompaniment at the ARC Studios They were I Can't Find a Place to Do It and Modern Romeo, which appeared on the record label Liberty Music Shop (L-161). This year she performed in several New York nightclubs, such as the Caveau Basque, Casino Town Club (with Bruz Fletcher)and the Petit Palaisbefore moving to Los Angeles. In October 1935 she married Heine Brand, who also produced her next record session, which took place in early 1936; In the Decca studios she recorded six numbers during a guest performance at the Colony Club, Isabella – the Queen, Myrtle Isn't Anymore, I'm Not in the Way of My Family (I'm Just in the Family Way), I've Got It Again, Stardust and Cole Porter's I'm The Laziest Gal in Town. In his book Stardust Melodies, Will Friedwald described her version of Stardust as arguably the strangest interpretation of the song. [1] After returning to New York in 1936, she made a guest appearance at the Yacht Club on 52nd Street, but soon had to interrupt her career due to a facial injury caused by a traffic accident and undergo cosmetic surgery. She did not perform again until 1939, at the Little Eva Club on the west coast of the United States, in 1941 at the Moulin Rouge in New Orleans and at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis. In 1942, he recorded again (Merchant Seaman's Voyage into Courage) for the music agent Stanford Zucker. At the end of May 1942, she performed at the Onyx Club in New York. During this time she married her manager Ronald Aaron Gerard. She toured Canada, where she performed at Café Esquire in Montreal. In 1944, she briefly ran her own nightclub, The Carousel Club on West 52nd Street. In Early 1946, the Artie Fields Orchestra recorded the small label Gala, which was released as a 78-albumunder the title The World's Greatest Interpreter of Sophisticated Song, including the songs The Laziest Girl in Town, Rears its Ugly Head (by Mort Greene) and A Lady's a Lady No Matter What Cooks. The titles Horse with a Buggy Behind and Lady Godiva and the Peeping Tom (Gala 1019) followed in Detroit. In 1947, she was a student at Ruby Foo's Club in Montreal; In November, she recorded six titles at Universal Studios in Hollywood (Private Collection – Gems of Sophistication),including The Throttle Murder Mystery and Blakstone's Frustration (Can't Find a Place to Do It),followed by the albums Private Collection of Nan Blakstone and The Hush Hush Album, which was later re-released in part by Jubilee Records (Tongue with Cheek). [9] Last recordings were made at the end of 1947; In June 1949, Nan Blakstone suffered a stroke,from which she initially recovered. She died in 1951 as a result of intracerebral bleeding.
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