Question about An Evening with Diana Ross [[album)

[Jaap]

When listening to the speech Diana Ross gives just before singing "Do You Know Where You're Going To?" about the artists that had come before her, I recognize all the names she mentions, except the very first one.

<< I knew there was a lot of other artists that had gone before me, all of them trusting themselves, trusting. People like [?????????], Jimmy Baldwin and Leontyne Price, Lena Horn, Sammy Davis and Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, Eartha Kitt, Pearlie Mae Bailey, on and on I can go, the Count, the Duke, Satchmo, Billie Holiday. All of them writing, painting, acting, singing, dancing, reaching for the stars, saying “I am and I am going to be!” >>

Anyone knows who she's talking about [[and please forgive my ignorance if I should have recognized the name)?

Here's the segment:


Thanks,
Jaap

[reese]

She said "Well, my idols were Jimmy Baldwin..."

[Roberta75]

I think shes referring to James Baldwin the famous writer.

Fondly,

Roberta

[Jaap]

She said "Well, my idols were Jimmy Baldwin..."

Actually, it does sound like that, but that really sounds weirds and breaks with the style of the rest of the speech. It seems to've been added later...

[Jaap]

Actually, it does sound like that, but that really sounds weirds and breaks with the style of the rest of the speech. It seems to've been added later...

Thanks. I realize she means James Baldwin when she says Jimmy. It's about what she says just before that, at 0:09.

[reese]

Actually, it does sound like that, but that really sounds weirds and breaks with the style of the rest of the speech. It seems to've been added later...

That might be the way Lorraine Hansberry wrote it. Some of the quotes in this section were taken from her play "To Be Young Gifted, and Black."

[captainjames]

yeah the first name mane mention is Jimmy Baldwin or James Baldwin. I actually remember meeting James Baldwin as a young kid at a neighbor's home in the 60's.

[PeaceNHarmony]

yeah the first name mane mention is Jimmy Baldwin or James Baldwin. I actually remember meeting James Baldwin as a young kid at a neighbor's home in the 60's.

Oh my! What an honor. Were you aware of Baldwin's importance?

[Jaap]

That might be the way Lorraine Hansberry wrote it. Some of the quotes in this section were taken from her play "To Be Young Gifted, and Black."

Thanks for pointing this out, I never realized that. Quite remarkable that Hansberry is not credited anywhere!

[reese]

Thanks for pointing this out, I never realized that. Quite remarkable that Hansberry is not credited anywhere!

It was odd that a credit didn't make it to the album. It probably fell under the "special material" banner but I would think they had to pay Hansberry's estate for the use of her text.

When the show was turned into Diana's 1977 NBC tv special, the ads mentioned that there were quotations from Hansberry and the end credits of the show itself mentioned Hansberry and "To Be Young, Gifted, & Black."

[gman]

another live LP with a stunning song line up and a few crappy musical arrangements. The Supremes medley is actually the best live medley in the entire catalogue! The Motown medley suffers from the live "express train" syndrome on the non Supremes songs.

[Jaap]

It was odd that a credit didn't make it to the album. It probably fell under the "special material" banner but I would think they had to pay Hansberry's estate for the use of her text.

When the show was turned into Diana's 1977 NBC tv special, the ads mentioned that there were quotations from Hansberry and the end credits of the show itself mentioned Hansberry and "To Be Young, Gifted, & Black."

You're so right! Good to see that. I couldn't find a proper citation in the original Playbill program or on the album. But yes, it's there on the end credits of the television special.