Ethel Waters Suppertime

[@carolcheny]

Ethel Waters was the most successful singer of her time because she's able to deliver unparalleled emotion. This is heart breaking.

[@mmjhcb]

My God what a performance! She was one of the greats and this showed that greatness in all its facets. Watch her with the equally great Julie Harris in "Member of the Wedding." None better. I haven't forgotten Ethel Waters. Once I'd seen her, how could I? How could anyone?

[@grahamcombs4752]

I'm here because the Wall Street Journal weekend edition of October 1, 2023 (today) featured an essay on this song first sung by Ethel Watters in 1933. All those years later, Ms. Waters performed this incredible and moving song as if for the first time and, yes, there are tears.

[@melstark7265]

I saw her on Ed Sullivan’s show when I was 5 years old. I never forgot her. For those of us who will never visit Broadway, the variety shows opened a whole world to us. I wish they would return for todays younger people.

[@neilschleifer6121]

This is a master class in how a singer connects to a lyric -- devastating! Her rendition of this song is a three-act play performed in just under 5 minutes.

[@millievanilla5242]

...and now I'm weeping. Bless you, Ethel Waters.

[@t.iorganistivey5190]

she is never forgotten I'm 15 and believe or not I love her music..

[@smolfloofypotato678]

I'm 12 going to be 13 in August and I LOVE music like this because of how it sounds and the message it brings plus it reminds me of certain times in my family's life

[@nickdryad]

Your job is to keep the old songs in the memories of you generation.

[@blackx9360]

🙋🏾‍♂️this warms my soul 🥰

[@blackx9360]

@@smolfloofypotato678 🙋🏾‍♂️😩 this makes me feel the feeling of love to know this.

[@cleoharvey]

Today's singers might think this overwrought, but all could take a lesson in acting from the Mother of Modern Pop Singing. It is a shame she is virtually forgotten or has not been given her historical due in terms of her undeniable and powerful impact on the way we sing today.

[@baritonebynight]

The legendary mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne sang this very piece at her farewell classical recital back in 2000 and referred to "The great Ethyl Waters", which is how I learned of Ms. Waters. Ms. Horne also recorded this in her final recording shortly after her retirement.

[@zzzut]

Ethel Waters was one of the greatest American performers of all times. You can watch things she did over 60 years ago and it is still amazing by our contemporary standards.

[@fcfcabral]

I remember seeing this as a 12 year old boy and was devastated--it still destroys me--great performance

[@clarencehenderson7634]

That was devastating. What an incredible performance!

[@inlovewithJLT]

I had never heard this song until yesterday when I was watching the PBS documentary "Broadway: The American Musical" while doing some housework. When this song was played I had to just stop what I was doing, sit, and listen; I was so moved.

[@doriefann-purry4750]

Birthday Remembrance of Ethel Waters October 31, 1896 - September 1, 1977 She was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. MAY SHE CONTINUE TO REST IN ETERNAL PEACE!

[@MarcosSouza-gb9hj]

You can't help crying when you hear this performance. She was one of a kind.

[@stix2507]

this is such a powerful, moving song and Ethel Waters was the perfect person to sing it.

[@mamatibborscassady9388]

she had voice of an angel

[@Davotheledge]

That was one of the most powerful, believable performances I've ever seen.

[@nickdellow6073]

Ethel Waters doesn't "act" the character - she becomes the character, body and soul. Her singing is honest, moving and beautiful. Even though this is an Irving Berlin song, it sounds more like Gershwin with its blues-inspired theme - in fact, a very similar blues-based theme appears in the slow movement of Gershwin's An American In Paris, published five years earlier (in 1928). And the pianist quotes Gershwin here and there too!

[@friendsfamilyaccount]

Oh, she is so amazing!! She is my FAVORITE of the early blues/jazz/pop singers. Nobody realizes how much she changed popular music! Lena Horne wasn't kidding when she said "Ethel Waters - she was the mother of us all."

[@cflo1023]

THey never did make-up on Ethel in latter years. They wanted her EXPRESSION and her true acting abilityto be evident. Here, she is older...health challenges, voice a little worn...but SHEER MAGIC. She was a treasure!

[@artistphx]

And she still is.

[@jmontarsi]

I was a kid when I first saw her in a Member of The Wedding, and then in Pinky. I had no knowledge of her early musical career until I was in my early 30s when I stumbled upon some of her records at a yard sale. WOW! Her acting ability from the comedic to the tragic comes through in those recordings, some of which set me to howling and others which still flood me with tears. I wish someone would do a retrospect of her work. The trouble is finding someone who rise to that level of performance!

[@kabashira]

I've never seen Miss Waters performing this song, but have always shed tears when listening to her on CD. Even more incredible to watch that powerfully expressive face of hers feeling every note and word and sharing it with her audience. She was one of the greatest greats.

[@travisjohnson5978]

This is why she's one of my TOP 5 favorites!! She performs with such feeling EVERY TIME!!

[@urielssword4498]

Age brings texture, nuance, inner wisdom and out of a performance like this, we receive Truth! This is a one of a kind performance, never to be repeated. Bravura moments! Her iconic "Trouble of the World" will never be repeated either. Great Love to Queen Waters.

[@Elensila2718]

Oh God, this makes me weep every time I see it. God Bless Ethel Waters!

[@MRZKIKI2010]

So moving. It literally brought tears to my eyes just listening to this heart wrenching song.

[@nastynate838]

KIARA PRICE indeed

[@DrewWasMe]

Master class from the original master. An original voice, gifted, but still sounding like it comes from a real flesh and blood person. Today's theater stage voices all have the same quality where everyone sounds like a Disney Studios vocal casting.

[@AlexPangmanofficial]

I am stunned. I had heard the recording of this from many years earlier, but to WATCH her perform this. Wow. Often I come to youtube to have a laugh. This might be the first time I came here and cried. Very brilliant performance.

[@calilovett2063]

Heartbreaking. Magnificent, magnificent performance.

[@photo161]

Here Irving Berlin, the first and greatest genius of American popular music has created a song that conveys a depth of compassion never again matched by any other songwriter.

[@DrSFG]

Phenomenal performance of a phenomenal song. Thank you Ms Waters, and thank you Mr Irving Berlin.

[@cajsheen2594]

Here again! Such a wonderful performance had to revisit. Watch the film ' Pinkie ' no singing in that, but her great understated acting and screen presence, she stole each scene she was in! XXX

[@fromthesidelines]

Ethel first performed this song in Irving Berlin's Broadway revue, "As Thousands Cheer", in October 1933. It touched on a subject that had never been mentioned in a musical production before- and never again.

[@stloupenbray]

Yes, it was about a lynching!

[@michaelhorton1350]

A towering performance. Deeply affecting.

[@haroldsmith5425]

No one remembers Ethel any more and thats very sad. we remember European composer from 300 years ago but we ignore our great singer bands and composers. i don't get it!!

[@murrayaronson3753]

Plenty of people remember Ethel Waters. As for European composers who are still remembered from 300 years, are you talking about Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and company? If you are, then the reason they're remembered is because they are great and their music endures for many people.

[@mamatibborscassady9388]

harold smith We (many) do remember her, with great love and joy of hertalent. From what I learned about her, she was very loving, religious, and respectful of all people.....if I remember right, she left the arena of performing,and last I had heard, she was working as a domestic, still loving and grounded.

[@mamatibborscassady9388]

harold smith If you have seen her 'old' movies, you will see she was verycompetent actress, specially "Member of the Wedding"...........not a musical.

[@zzzut]

+harold smith I do remember that great singer. As long as people will post videos such as this one, her memory will never die.

[@ahleutea]

In Japan, I also continue to talk about Ethel and "Supper Time" as well as Lady Day's "Strange Fruit."

[@33uptempo]

Thank you so much for posting this. My mother had told me about her original performance, and I had first seen it in early black/white television. She is magnificent, as is Irving Berlin for composing this. It was a bold move to present it on Broadway in 1933, and thank God they did.

[@stix2507]

she was a truly amazing performer. WOW..........no one could do this song justice like she did.

[@DC41ST]

One of the real treasures on youtube. Thank you thank you thank you.

[@MusicChild321]

Wow! Very few performances can render me speechless even fewer can bring me to tears. Amazing.

[@bailliewins77]

Such a lovely lady. I recently read her book "To Me It's Wonderful" - HIGHLY Recommend this book. What an amazing woman.

[@thisgirlshair]

Damn. Sometimes I don't even know how America is still standing after all the pain that has happened here. We have had so many wars here, undeclared.

[@nugeme]

Every nation/society/ group has had painful things. Why are we standing? God's grace and strength of a Constitution and the will of the people who make up the country. There are more good people than bad.

[@juliolazzagonzalez]

Ethel Waters (Chester, Pensilvania, 31 de octubre de 1896 - California, 1 de septiembre de 1977) fue una actriz y cantante estadounidense de blues, jazz, musicales y gospel. Como actriz fue nominada a un Óscar, siendo la segunda afroamericana en conseguirlo después de Hattie McDaniel. Sus canciones más famosas fueron "Am I blue?", "Stormy Weather", incluido en el Grammy Hall of Fame,1 y "Miss Otis Regrets". Es una de las más importantes cantantes afroamericanas de jazz y música popular .

[@michaelladerman2564]

As most other people here said, that was deeply moving and moved me to tears. I've loved her singing for a long time but had never seen this rendition before.

[@kyraocity]

'Supper Time': Irving Berlin's Searing Song of Mourning in the Wall Street Journal 4 days ago - Performed on Broadway by Ethel Waters 90 years ago, the song is an anti-lynching dirge whose lasting power lies in its understatement.

[@321illy]

Oh WOW!!! Just WOW! The emotions of this...soooo much!! Heartwrenching.

[@meeseification]

It was the most moving rendition I've seen. Thank you.

[@reallyhealee1514]

there are tears in my eyes... this is AMAZING

[@3StMary]

Incredible performance! We need to speak her name in remembrance!

[@Elensila2718]

I cry every time.

[@ahern29]

That was beautiful, I wish we could find such great entertainers in my generation.

[@daprincess478]

Found this song while looking up the history of my city, Macon, Georgia. A lynching here inspired this song.

[@monateegs]

Thank you so much for posting this incredible performance.

[@MWmMorgan]

She was amazing

[@peterpan998ful]

Brilliant!!!

[@RafaelPReyes]

In your cynical moments, you might think it as an effin' manipulative Broadway song. But even in your cynical moments, you gotta admit, what works works. This is one of the greatest works in the Broadway canon. Here in the Philippines, I can even relate this to the sorrow of women whose husbands have "disappeared", if you know what I mean. Which is to say, its greatness is universal - and not restricted to an African-American experience. It could also be simply about a woman whose man has left her, and be just as moving. Brava, Ethel Waters. Bravo, Irving Berlin. I just discovered this - and am so, so thankful.

[@cealchyth]

Except that the minor detail of the lynching makes it a pretty specific message.

[@coleygurl1231]

I somewhat understand the disappearing of Filipino men. But it’s an insult to change the meaning of this song to be about a woman whose man left her. This song has a very specific and more serious message.

[@MARSEILLEmarsae]

Sir you can love the song but to give it alternate meanings and say it isn’t restricted to African Americans when it speaks to OUR experience is a little dismissive and tone deaf. It’s moving and can move you, but it should never be separated from it’s true meaning because of the weight that carries.

[@auapplemac1976]

@@coleygurl1231 "Disappearing" means that the men were kidnapped and killed by the government or right-wing militant groups because of their political views. Here is was due to the color of their skin. Just as painful to their families.

[@CleoPhoenixRT]

Sometimes fully embracing the sole history and meaning behind a work of art can make you appreciate it more. Even if it is outside of your own nationality or race. Find a sense of empathy without discounting the experience to which that art is telling the story of. For example...all widows know this pain, but the artist intended for this song to give a voice to a demographic that was rarely empathized with by the masses, and was made as an outlet solely for that demographic to have a voice.

[@amorosa828]

I can't contain my tears!

[@cbhagman]

I had been thinking about this performance recently but hadn't seen it since it first aired. I was so pleased to find it was actually posted here. Thank you so much for doing that.

[@NewArtsParadigm]

Really amazing:) Thanks for posting. The song still speaks so strongly- and she is fabulous. I think I saw a clip where there was actually a hanging corpse/dummy behind the singer. Also pretty riveting.

[@BTURNER1961]

This was written in 1933 for a revue called As thousands Cheer, a topical revue that attempted to use the news and stories of the day as subjects of either bittersweet or satiric musical treatment. There was no plot per se, but the Revue ran 400 performances and got rave reviews. It made history with this song written by Irving Berlin and because it was the first time in history that a black performer got equal billing on the Marque with white co-stars. It tells us something about Waters, that any boycott efforts against her billing were utterly vanquished by her presence, her acting and her performance. On a side note this revue was the last time the great broadway legend Maralyn Miller performed on stage.

[@1927Norma]

Agreed that Ms. Waters was one of too many forgotten. She was the first black lady before Hattie McDaniel and Lena Horne to be in large music and motion pictures. Everyone of all races should read her autobio...she pulled no punches and was honest as a lost person and later a Christian but also her large struggle in life in a racist culture she grew up in. It is a humbling story and an honest story.

[@barbaraball5002]

"His Eye is on the Sparrow" is the title. I first saw her in "A Member of the Wedding," where her beautiful soul soared above a hard-lived life, similar to that in "Supper Time". I watched her Dick Cavett interview tonight. She blessed the earth.

[@lilyhogwart]

Stunning. Thank you for posting this.

[@lilyhogwart]

From an episode of Hollywood Palace, first aired March 8, 1969.

[@brucewalks]

there is a route 66 episode with her and some real musicians, roy the greatest eldridge, and coleman hawkins and jo jones and the guys find her old group for her. she was a great actress as we can see here. look for the route 66 show.

[@takakhan-z3w]

I love that moment when she rolls her eyes on the line, "when they ask me WHERE he's gone." She's actively processing the news of having just lost her husband to a lynch mob, and the idea of having to explain where he is to her children is so utterly heinous and awful that it's borderline ridiculous. It's such a small moment, but I think it's brilliant.

[@cajsheen2594]

Wonderful performance! XXX

[@BTURNER1961]

Going to add this. I submit only Ethel Waters could have kept this song in the revue in 1933. We cannot underestimate what a huge star Ethel was, before being cast in this. Women blues singers were incredibly popular in the 20's with racial crossover appeal. She was quite literally the highest paid black recording star between 1921-1926 under both Paramount and Columbia labels and the vaudeville stage and had received acclaim for her singing role in an integrated early color movie musical in 1929, performing 'Am I blue'. She needed every ouch of her fame and talent to protect her and Berlin from the protests, and outrage this number produced.

[@blackx9360]

🙋🏾‍♂️thank you for giving us all an informative piece of HERstory. I LOVE seeing her in Am I blue and I just her her singing style And voice.

[@papasoul6046]

Rest in Peace to Tammi Terrel... You were Motown's GREATEST!

[@odovicor]

Staggering! "Suppertime," says it all--when all the family collects.

[@skewlboypin]

the first time she performed this song on Broadway there was a white curtain behind her with the silohette of man hanging from a noose.

[@marthahenrickson_today1428]

Great actress!

[@pf1971]

WOW. emotionally. I felt that.

[@BorsosGabor2023]

Csodálatos előadás.

[@Monrocsol]

What an incredible performance.

[@vipermad358]

Ethel Waters was so great and it's amazing she sang this song on prime time TV! Wish the producers had not felt the need to dress her in a "homely" costume for this performance. Imagine what she was thinking during this song, considering all the things she had seen in her lifetime. A great artist!

[@topher2seattle]

So beautiful!

[@nmuphelps1]

COMPLETE TRUTH

[@catman916]

This is a very moving performance.

[@papasoul6046]

Rest in Peace to Lovely Ethel Waters AKA Birmingham Birtha.

[@randelle19]

Reading her autobiography right now, it's AMAZING

[@nickdryad]

Operatic brilliance.

[@debrahubbard5594]

you can still get books about her by ordering or your local library GREAT reading!

[@dwkii77]

"Like" isn't enough. There needs to be a "Love" button.

[@claudetteholloway1126]

My spiritual great- grandmother...

[@nugeme]

The greatest entertainer of the 20th century. A wonderful Christian woman.

[@sunnydayzie1202]

Written in 1933 for a mostly white Broadway show it certainly must have been jarring for audiences confronted with this at the time. It was of course sung by Ethel Waters in the show. It's amazing to see her singing this amazing piece of Broadway history that she herself introduced.

[@lokotasioux]

This was EXCELLENCE!

[@minasek123]

tout simplement incroyable:

[@joefope]

Powerful!!!

[@craiga.ballard8032]

Yeah... I like the vocal changes " it's dope"

[@rubenseam]

that must've been haunting

[@mariannehaworth9132]

heartbreaking and relevant.

[@odovicor]

I forgot to mention--I believed every word she sang.

[@titus-parmley31]

😮 wow..

[@isaiahowens5322]

Play video Supper time I should set the table 'Cause it's supper time Somehow I'm not able 'Cause that man o'mine Ain't comin' home no more Supper time Kids will soon be yellin' For their supper time How'll I keep from tellin' Them that man o'mine Ain't comin' home no more? How'll I keep explainin' when they ask me where he's gone? How'll I keep from cryin' when I bring their supper on? How can I remind them to pray at their humble board? How can I be thankful when they start to thank the Lord? Lord! Supper time I should set the table 'Cause it's supper time Somehow I'm not able 'Cause that man o'mine Ain't comin' home no more

[@jakela671]

incredible performance of a heart-wrenching song written by a Jewish composer, Irving Berlin.

[@marquesbell4178]

When I think of how many black women, mothers, daughters, girlfriends, and wives have lived through "Suppertime" from slavery up until the present day....It makes me cringe.

[@marcusjennings3555]

Wow ... I thought that Dream Girls ... "your going to love me" was powerful. This is worst than when Florida Evans got the news about James.

[@fernetea]

they should make a movie about this.

[@hzaydin]

Bu kadın sabaha kadar konuşsa dinlerim

[@mayena]

0:10-0:17 original premiere in 1933.

[@SublimeStuff]

wow!