Television Pioneer and Musical Chameleon

When movie producers offered Black actors only stereotypical roles and long before the civil rights movement made organized protest common for Black Americans to voice their desire for equal rights, Hazel Scott, defied racial stereotypes, portraying a positive screen and stage image, thus improving the opportunities for other Blacks in the entertainment industry. Hazel Dorothy Scott was the first Black woman to have her own television show; The Hazel Scott Show, premiered on July 3, 1950. Needless to say that during this Jim Crow era that it was not received well in some parts of the U.S. She publicly opposed racial segregation, and the show was canceled in when she was accused of being a Communist sympathizer. The last broadcast was 29 September 1950. And it didn’t help that she was married to controversial Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

Hazel Scott, one of America's foremost pianists, was born in Trinidad, June 11th 1920 and raised in New York City from the age of four. She performed extensively on piano as a child. By 1929 Scott had acquired six scholarships to Julliard School of Music in New York City. Unfortunately she, at fourteen, was under age (the school admitted at the age of sixteen only). In the meantime she joined her mothers All-Woman Orchestra, playing piano and trumpet. By the time she was sixteen, in 1936, Hazel Scott was a radio star on the Mutual Broadcasting System and playing at the Roseland Dance Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra. In the late thirties, she appeared in the Broadway musical Singing Out the News and after that, Priorities of 1942. Her training in classical music was received at Juilliard School of Music in New York and her jazz technique, she says, she owes to Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson. She performed numerous times at the famed Carnegie Hall. Her motion picture career included the films Something To Shout About, I Dood It, Broadway Rhythm, The Heat's On, and Rhapsody in Blue.

Even for a celebrity of her caliber, Hazel Scott, like most Blacks during the 1950's, was no stranger to Jim Crow segregation. She, however, acted with dignity while promoting American patriotism and racial integration, and denouncing communism. She was known for her skill in combining jazz improvisations with a classical piece. She was a consummate performer and her nightclub performances were well patronized and acclaimed. Called a "musical chameleon" for her ability to shift from jazz to classical to blues, Scott continued to perform until her death. In 1978, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Hazel Scott continued to perform until her death in 1981.