Beige Don't Age, But Grey Face Does : Herb Jeffries Part 2

A plane crash, a scar across the face, and a spine injury so bad doctors push reconstruction surgery. 

We trace how Jeffries finds Autobiography of a Yogi, seeks out Paramahansa Yogananda at the Mount Washington ashram, and commits to months of yoga that he credits with a shocking recovery. From there, the timeline opens up into Paris nightclubs, celebrity circles, hit records, and the media machine that keeps trying to label him. We talk through the Life magazine profile that praises him for “choosing his race,” and why that framing is both historically revealing and deeply uncomfortable to read now.

Then we get into the controversy that won’t sit still: Jeffries’ racial ambiguity, the claims that he had no verifiable African ancestry, and the Jet magazine confrontation over him listing “white” on marriage certificates. We’re not delivering a neat verdict. We’re asking what representation meant in mid-century entertainment, what passing and identity policing look like when you’re famous, and whether impact can coexist with a story that keeps shifting under pressure.

Listen, then come argue with us: subscribe, leave a review, and drop a comment with your take on Herb Jeffries’ legacy.

Transcript

Welcome And Sick Day Banter

Marissa 0:17

Hello and welcome to Dead and Kind of Famous, where we dig into the life stories of dead folks who enjoyed a touch or two of fame in their time.

Courtney 0:26

And now reside permanently in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Marissa 0:30

I'm Marissa Rivera, and I know nothing about this episode, but I do know that I am getting sick. I can feel my immune system failing me. I can hear it. I can hear. I literally was like, maybe like 20 minutes ago. I'm like, oh my body's kind of achy. And I literally I put the headphones on and I was like, oh no, I sound terrible. Oh no, I'm getting sick. I'm sniffly too. Oh God. It's starting, you're you guys are actively listening to me descend into illness.

Courtney 1:08

So sorry to the illness cells eating the good ones or however sickness works in science. Um and I'm Courtney Blomkos, and I know way too much about this episode, but apparently not about how illness works at all. I didn't know what I was gonna say there, and then that was actually worked out perfectly.

Marissa 1:33

It came to you, served it to you on a platter.

Courtney 1:39

All right. Well, we're back with uh part two of Mr. Herb Jeffries. So if you didn't so excited. Yeah, if you did if you didn't listen to part one, you know, what are you that's just a psychotic thing to do? Go back and do that. Go back and um yeah, go back. What is this? Who starts a part two? That's crazy. All right, so when we last left Herb, his plane had crashed. That's right. Yep. His plane had crashed, and sadly he did not make it. Um, and that is the end of this episode. But nah, just kidding. Just kidding. Oh, just I was like, wait a second. We heard an old Herb talking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marissa 2:19

Yeah, I was like, I was like, we watched an interview.

Courtney 2:23

It was his ghost as an old man. But what if that's how your ghost worked if you became just you were old, no matter what, even if you know, you died when you were 20 years old.

Marissa 2:36

You're either a creepy Victorian child of blue or there's no in between. Yeah, you I've never there's no middle-aged ghost.

Courtney 2:44

Yeah, or no sexy ghost, you know. That's true.

Marissa 2:48

Um, I will say this though, when you were like, oh, he died, I was like, oh, I this is how much I trust Courtney. I was like, oh, he did. Oh no, like I just automatically believed you.

Courtney 2:58

Yeah, and the whole episode's just gonna be about the places he's haunted and whatnot.

Marissa 3:02

No, he survived. All the sightings, no, yeah, he survived. Yay, survived.

Courtney 3:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Herb. I don't know how you survive a plane crash. That's insane. But he survived and so did his pilot. So nobody died, but the plane was like, you know, there was not much of a plane left at all. Um Herb broke his collarbone and his elbow, he shattered his wrist, and the broken plexiglass of the windshield left a deep long scar across his face, like kind of right along the cheekbone, um, that he figured would put an end to his movie career for good.

Marissa 3:38

As Herb says, the only thing that was killed, and thank God that it was, was my ego. Because I had quite a bit of it in those days. So I think the boss said, I better knock some of that out of this kid because I got some plans for him to go on and do other things. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know what I'd do if I got a giant scar across my face. I mean, I'd, you know, I'd just completely change it'll change my casting, I think. Obviously.

Courtney 4:12

Well, yeah, it's gotta it's right. I think I mean the thing is with him, it's like he's he's kind of in and out of showing up on camera anyway. And I think for men, and like I don't know, being a cowboy kind of an actor.

Marissa 4:26

Yeah, I feel like I honestly I was like, I feel like he would just play the villain instead, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe, maybe like a like a hard and wise and sheriff. I don't know. You know what I mean? Like it would add a layer.

Back Injury And Surgery Fears

Courtney 4:39

I think you can speak to this more, but I mean, no matter what, your your casting's gonna change. It's not like it just stays exactly the same. Like, you know, it does not. But um, the worst and most distressing injury was Herb's back.

Marissa 4:54

Which oh boy, I feel you. I feel you with that. Oh my god, nothing is worse than a back injury.

Courtney 5:00

Nothing and a plane crash, back injury. Oh, like his back was damaged, it was greatly damaged, though. Thankfully, not so much that it paralyzed him in any way. So he was very, very, very lucky. Um doctors told him that spinal reconstruction surgery was the only way to resolve the issue. But he's so scary.

Marissa 5:21

That's so scary. Yeah, like having somebody uh I don't know. I I mean, I have um a bulged C6 and a herniated C7, and I have been fighting for my life for two and a half years to try to avoid surgery because they go in through your neck, Courtney. Because you get an epidural, right? I I do. I get an epidural like every four to six weeks.

Courtney 5:47

Which is uh is it the is it as long as the one they give you for pregnancy that you have? Yes, yes, if you guys don't know how what an epidural needle looks like, look it up. Look it up. It's insane. And go hug every person in your life who has to get one for any reason. But also they're wonderful at the same time. Like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marissa 6:07

I feel so much better after that. Yeah, and to be honest, much easier than giving birth because they put you out. They put you out. Like they like it's like a twilight-y kind of a thing.

Courtney 6:17

Oh, okay, okay, nice.

Marissa 6:19

Yeah, I think they used to do that when people gave birth, which is weird. You just wake up and you've you have a human now to take care of.

Courtney 6:29

I think that I'm right. I'm speaking out of turn, but I think that that's right. Yeah. That used to be a thing. That's crazy. Like in the 50s. Yeah. They're like, we don't want you to know what happened here.

Marissa 6:40

Yeah, I was like, my grandmother had six kids, and I asked her, I was like, how did you have six kids? And she was like, Well, back then, you would just go into the hospital and then you'd wake up and be a mom. Yeah, and the doctor just tells you to smoke through your whole pregnancy.

Courtney 6:54

So you've gained too much weight.

Marissa 6:56

Like things, things were a little different back then. Yeah, fun times. Um yet women's health care has not improved much.

Courtney 7:06

No, no, no. But yeah, in general, I don't want to complain about an epidural. I appreciated it very much. Um but doctors told Herb that spinal reconstruction surgery was the only way to resolve the issue. But he was in severe pain while waiting for the surgery. So yeah, during this time while he was in traction, which I had to that's a term that gets thrown around so much, and I realized I didn't really know what it meant. And it's it's yeah, you're just like fully laid out, like stretched out.

Marissa 7:40

You're stretched out, and then there's like depending on where your injury is, there's different things that are pulling on different parts of your body to get your spine to stretch out as much as possible and like relieve the pressure off of your discs. Yeah. Which, like, for a while, traction feels like really good. You're like, oh yeah, but then like too much stretching hurts too.

Courtney 8:02

It's like you you can't win. You can't win. Yeah, it's like a medieval torture device at a certain point, I'm sure.

Marissa 8:08

But have you ever watched that, like, watch that happen? And if you have back pain, you know this. When you watch clips of that medieval stretching board, and you think, I bet that feels good for like a uh until it feels bad. I I bet it feels so good. I think that every time I'm like, oh, I wish, I wish I had one of those. Just take it just that far. Just take it, just take it two notches and leave me be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds good.

Traction And A Yoga Book Appears

Courtney 8:35

That sounds good. Just keep keep that thing. Just, you know, put limits on it. But while he was in traction, he was given a copy of an autobiography of a yogi by Paramanhansa Yogananda. And if I screwed that, I think I actually said that right, but if I screwed that up, I'm sorry. And this book, it's a very famous book. If you have not seen it, it's you know, the picture of of this man um on the cover, and he's kind of staring off to the side in the distance. It's it's one of those books that you could probably find kind of everywhere. Like I feel like you could find I don't know, it's just kind of everywhere.

Marissa 9:14

Especially here in Los Angeles. Yes. I'm gonna I'm gonna just I just want to Google image the book. Okay, yes. Because I want to see if I'm like, oh, oh yes.

Courtney 9:24

You know it. I have seen this. Yes, it's kind of everywhere. It is. I feel like that's the kind of book you'd find, like, not to say it's not worth it. It's just so, it's so out there that I feel like if you're like digging through book crates, like in a, you know, anywhere, just whatever. It's like, or in one of those like little free libraries. It's one of those books, it's everywhere. And the book was enough to make him believe that there might be an alternate path to time out, time out.

Marissa 9:53

Let's hold on. What do you mean, like a free all libraries are free? Oh, you mean like one of the street neighborhood libraries? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. I'm like, I'm like, hold on a second, you pay for your books, no girl.

Courtney 10:07

No. That would be like, wait a minute, I thought this was a public institution. Where am I going? Um, no, it's uh those little, you know, the little cubbies people put out on the street or whatever. Yes, yes, yes. I'm you know what I mean.

Marissa 10:20

So I do now I do. Now I do, thank you. Please continue. And also, also, I just want to apologize to everyone about my sniffles. Um, that will be. It's okay. That Courtney will try her best to edit out.

Courtney 10:35

I'm not gonna, you already said what was going on. You know, that's the best we can do.

Marissa 10:40

You know what you got yourself into. Yeah.

Courtney 10:43

We haven't been here, we have not been healed by paramahansa, paramahansa yogananda.

Marissa 10:51

We have not okay. So he found this book. Yeah. We definitely have not. And um an alternate path to healing. This is interesting.

Mount Washington Ashram Memories

Courtney 11:03

Yes, yes. So before committing to the surgery, and when he was well enough to do so, he visited Paramahansa Yogananda at his ashram, the one in Mount Washington that is now the self-realization fellowship center and meditation garden. Oh my god, oh my god, we've been there together so many times. And listeners, you don't know this, but Mirza and I and Jesse, and we all used to go up there and and walk around the gardens because it is the most beautiful, quiet, serene place. It's up on the like on the hill. Mount Washington's like big opening.

Marissa 11:38

I believe it's in Los Angeles and it's free to go to.

Courtney 11:41

It's beautiful, it is wonderful. And they have like a little gift shop kind of thing in the front, like but where you can, that book is definitely sold and other things. But that's where I've seen it. Yeah, probably. Um, but it, you know, I uh the the gardens themselves are just it's the most beautiful place. It's like there's like chairs made of stone and stuff that you're just like it's everything's like organic and it's it's just an amazing place.

Marissa 12:06

So I feel like I go there every time my life falls apart. Definitely.

Courtney 12:12

I'm I've I got so homesick for California, like when I realized that that was a place I was like, oh my god, I didn't go there enough. Like in the last like two years I was there or whatever. Like, dang. Cause I used to live like on the other side, like Mount Washington is kind of like, what do they call it? Like the hills of the east or something like that. I feel like it's like it because it's it's nice. It is, it is the hills of the east. It's like, and there's nice houses up there and whatever. And I used to walk up there and just like dream of being a wealthy person. Um because I lived at the bottom. Literally, I lived on the other side of the track.

Marissa 12:56

Literally, the other side of the train track. Yeah, there was the train. On the bottom of the rich people hill.

Courtney 13:01

Right next, right next to Figaroa, where it's like gets real grubby. But like I I went up there all the time, especially when I could just walk to it. So it is lovely. If you can go there, I highly recommend it. Please visit. So for sure. It was founded, the whole place was founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1925, and he was alive and well when Herb went to consult him about healing him. When Herb asked him to be healed, now you have to be Yogananda. I hate you so much.

Marissa 13:43

I hate you. Okay, I'm gonna do my best yogi voice. And this is like, this is my best like LA yoga instructor, part-time yoga instructor, but but acting like it's the only thing that they do and care about. Okay. Okay. I'm very sorry. I can't heal you. I give all of my gifts back to God, but I will teach you how to heal yourself if you wish. Which is the most guru thing to say. Oh wow, give a man a fish. Yeah, if you that was a give a man a fish.

Yoga Healing And Mindset Talk

Courtney 14:28

Yeah. Give me your money and I will teach you how. So Herb went through eight months of physical and spiritual yoga practice with Yogananda. And at the end of it all, doctors declared his spine miraculously healed, and he did not end up needing to have the surgery at all. Well, goddamn, I gotta, I gotta go visit the walk up the hill, Marissa. I gotta go march up quickly. Give them a list. Give them a list. Say, I've got, I've got this disc, I've got a cold, help me out. Um, so he re Help me. Help me, help me, help myself. I heard what you did for her, but um, he remained a devout practitioner of Yogananda's teachings for the rest of his life. And that's my friends.

Marissa 15:28

I would too. If I was in a plane crash, survived, and it miraculously healed through yoga. I will say this, I will say this. You do enough. When I first got my injury, you know, and he was like, you need to get into surgery. And at that time I had just healed from my knee surgery, and I was like, I literally, I just was like started crying and shaking, and I was like, I cannot have another surgery right now.

Courtney 15:53

Have we talked about that surgery on this?

Marissa 15:56

My knee my knee surgery? Yeah. I probably sure it was horrendous. Just know I had knee reconstruction, it was months of I had to re-host. It was like a year. Yeah. It was like it was like a year. It wasn't fully no, it was two years. But the first year was awful. But with my back or my neck, I was like, I literally, I could not. And like the thought of them going through the front and possibly ruining my vocal cords and me not being able to speak. Oh my god. I know. I was like, uh, I can't. So I did physical therapy for a year. It was like twice a week. But if I was like dedicating every single day to yoga, which yoga, you know, I will say that is physical therap. That's physical therapy. I mean, you know, depending on what you do, but I'm sure starting out it's definitely physical therapy. So I I I'm not surprised. Yeah. Yeah. And and I will say and and science can back me up. I don't know what I don't know where. Put it in the show notes, Courtney. But I already told you I don't know about science. Science, I don't know her. Um, a lot of uh healing has to do with mindset, which is why um countries that have uh free health care or government provided health care um have a much higher success rate uh for cancer diagnosis than than the United States. Because it's not daunting from the onset that you're it's like it's not like I'm either gonna die of this illness or die of this debt of that weighing upon me. And so, like, with with that gone, I can see, I can see it. I mean, obviously, he's living proof. I could see it.

Marriage And Moving To Paris

Courtney 17:54

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I could see it working. Yeah, so that is why, though, we're all like, what where's the ohm symbol on the grave come from? That's why. That's why. So at this point, Herb was relatively newly married to his first wife, a former Rose Bowl princess named Oh yes, named Betty Allensworth. Oh, Betty.

Marissa 18:17

Do you think that name will ever come back? Yeah, I do. It's cute. Yeah, it's cute. I like it. I feel like it's a good name for a cat. Betty Bettina.

Courtney 18:27

Bettina. Bettina will come first. Um but Betty was white, as were all of the wives that would come after.

Marissa 18:37

Oh my god. Yeah. All of the wives. Jesus. Yeah. How many wives did he have? Five.

Paris Nightclubs And Elite Guests

Life Magazine And Choosing Race

Courtney 18:46

Why would you get married five times? That's crazy. That this was that time. This was when a lot of that was happening. This is like the time of Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor, you know, just like where it's like, oh, celebrities just do that. I don't know. Yeah. That's crazy. It is. It just doesn't, yeah. It's a it's it was that time. So Betty was white, all of his wives were white. Some sources say that he and Betty married in Tijuana because of their interracial marriage. But I have read in more than one place that Herb not sometimes, but always listed himself as white on his marriage certificates. And we'll revisit that later. It is coming up again. But in any case, he and Betty had a young child, his daughter Fern, obviously named after his his mother. His mother was Fern. Yep. So Herb had the idea to move the family to Paris and start a life there. If you'll recall, in our last episode, Herb had become quite taken with France and what he perceived to be its lack of racism. Right. So it seemed a perfect spot to be with his family, free from judgment, and also to make a mark in a city that would not put any limitations on his reach and success. So he opened two nightclubs there. Wow. And he hosted every night, catering to a high-end and elite crowd, including Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, Ali Khan, King Farooq of Egypt, and Rock Hudson. So we're talking like kings of the world plus the Hollywood elite. You know? Swanky. Very swanky. So during this time, Life magazine did a spread on him that detailed his plight as a three-eighths Negro man, which was whoa. Yeah, which was one way Herb described himself. And his popularity in America surged again because of this article. This article uh Yeah, so this article written by Richard L. Williams in 1951 was called He Wouldn't Cross the Line. Herb Jeffries Cheerfully Pays the Price of Choosing His Race, which is interesting.

Marissa 21:15

That is that is a word to describe this series of events.

Courtney 21:24

Right. But it's also, I find it interesting because it's like choosing his race. Yeah. Yes. So anyway, this article lavished Jeffries with praise for never trying to pass as anything but black when he easily could have. So that's really what they mean by choosing, but it just, you know, takes on a pain when you have more context. So in the article, Herb recalls a career crossroads moment of note where he chose not to cross the line, so to speak. The first was when a white cowboy star named Buck Jones had tried to get Herb to totally lose. Lose his name and identity, learn to speak Spanish by moving to South America, and then come back and reinvent himself as Buck's Latin cowboy sidekick. Wow.

Marissa 22:11

Interesting. Yeah. Um, how change your entire life and your identity. Come back and play second fiddle to me. How about it, bud? Like, fuck off.

Courtney 22:21

Also change your you you already, you know, like just pick a different minority.

Marissa 22:27

Yeah. Pick instead of blackface, let's do brown face.

Courtney 22:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do that. Um, so Herb did not do this.

Marissa 22:35

As he says, I was almost tempted because by then I'd learned how things are stacked against you as a Negro. But besides the fact that we'd probably have been found out, I suddenly asked myself, just what the hell I had to run away from or be ashamed of. So I turned Buck down.

Courtney 22:58

So he also the all these quotes, by the way, are from this article. Um He also spoke.

Marissa 23:04

Well, he had nothing to be ashamed of. He wasn't black. He couldn't be ashamed of being black because he wasn't black. Oh my gosh. I it's yeah.

Courtney 23:16

So he also spoke of the time that a foreign movie producer had approached him to act alongside Gene Tierney or Hedy Lamar, you know, huge, huge, huge stars of the time for a new film. Herb told him that the issue with that would be that he is African American.

Marissa 23:35

And the guy's response was Why do you want to be a Negro? You could be anything. And Herb's response was. If I thought the Jewish people needed it more, I'd be a Jew. Oh my God. The white savior complex. I know that's really.

Courtney 24:15

It's really bad. I just want to go on record and say I do not like that quote at all. Um yeah, I think that knowing now that he did not have any verifiable African ancestors makes this, yes, like you said, re of white savior. Um, you know, and how do I know that he didn't have verifiable black ancestry? I should really touch on this now because I I actually want to bring this up. There are so many, if you start looking this man up, you're gonna be like, what are you talking about? Like, I don't see anything that says that he wasn't black. Like, if you don't really look for it, you know, it'll be like, oh, like people c it was a little bit of a controversy or people didn't always know how where to place him. But the reason that I know is because I'm going with the the expert, the collegiate, you know, experts paper about all of this.

Marissa 25:10

Um, Paul Spickard, as we've discussed before, and he says in his article that at the end of his long life, inquiring reporters revealed finally that his adherence to blackness was a choice. Jeffries did not, in fact, have any verifiable African ancestry.

Palatable Blackness And Media Racism

Courtney 25:34

So that line right there is really the lens with which I am looking at his entire life. So again, you can look up stuff and be like, I don't see anything. Um, you'll see what I'm talking about, you'll see what he looks like, right? But it's yeah. So I also don't think I would like Herb's quote though, even if he did have verifiable African ancestry. Yeah. Um it was super gross to say, I'll tell you what. Cause it just yeah, it implies that you're better than all you're it implies that you're better. It just it's gross. So I don't love that.

Marissa 26:10

But the Life magazine article It it it it just goes to show show you just you might be so well intentioned, but racism, microaggressions, and macroaggressions and aggression aggressions are baked in yeah, and oh my god, intelligent, unbelligerent. Oh my god. I I that's that's that's all that's implying right. That's implying that black people are not intelligent, aren't good, or and are belligerent and are b belligerent, which is racist. Yes, so it's this is crazy.

Courtney 26:53

That is a crazy quote. Crazy. But the Life magazine article was also pretty gung-ho about her being a very palatable member of the black entertainer community at the time. Richard L. Williams wrote that Herb was unbelligerent.

Marissa 27:10

Oh Richard L. Williams. That's just another journalist. Yeah, he's a journalist for life. Okay. Unbelliggerent. No militant chip on the shoulder, radical, unlike Paul Robeson. Okay. Jesus. And any- it's such a that's such a white fucking thing to do, to be like, you know, this guy, who's not even black, by the way, this is how you do black. You know, this is how you do black.

Courtney 27:46

That's what I like. Yeah. Like uh like nobody cares what you like. And for anyone who doesn't know, Paul Robeson was a pioneering black actor, singer, and activist, famous for playing Othello alongside Uda Hagen, like, you know, acting royalty Uda Hagen on Broadway and Joe in Showboat. He's very famously played that role. Um, he was also blacklisted at one point for support of the Soviet Union and was a global activist for civil rights, anti-colonialism, and labor justice. So Robeson definitely had some controversial viewpoints when compared to other civil rights activists, and sometimes they didn't really know where to place him, mostly because of his support of the Soviet Union and communism and stuff. But it just feels like the article is sort of praising Herb for not making a fuss, which seems, yes, like you said, I mean, like we've been saying inherently racist.

Marissa 28:42

So inherently racist. Fuck that. Also, uh, you know, and it still happens to this day that people of color can't just be actors. We can't just do like if you're a famous A-list, even B list actor, and you're a person of color, there is this implicit expectation that you are also an activist. Right. I can't I can't just be an actor. I have to be an actor and also be very loud and firm about my opinions about the injustices that happen to my people and to women, not just in this industry. It's like I can't, I can't just go, I just can't go to my job, clock in, do my job, clock out. It sucks. Yeah.

Courtney 29:38

And I feel like also like you probably you can't not that you not that you are this at all, but like what if you just want to be what if you just want to be an actor who's like a big stupid idiot? What if you just wanna do it? I would love to do that. Big dumb dumb. What? Men get to do that all the time. Buffoon. What if you just wanted to do that? Because and just be silly. Look at Will Farrell. Will Farrell! Yes, that he his his entire career, but yeah. Yeah, but now Yeah. Now when he's like made it, yeah, for sure. Exactly. When you can't just go be like a silly and and I love Will Farrell. Oh no, totally. We love stupid obviously. Yes. And that's why I'm saying, that's why I'm saying, like, I actually know that you I know that you're so much more than that, but if you wanted to be that, I'd be like, yeah, because you are good at being stupid. So good at being dumb. Obviously.

Marissa 30:34

I'm both dumber than you would expect and smarter than you think. So never estimate me.

Back To America And Music Success

Courtney 30:41

Don't under or overestimate. Don't estimate at all. That's perfect. Okay. So um, but anyway, the article made him look pretty good back in the States, and his wife, Betty, had been begging her to move them all back long before it came out because she didn't speak French, she didn't try to learn French, and she missed her family. So with the buzz from the article, it seemed like a good time to do it. And at this point in time, he started to do more TV roles and TV singing spots as well, and he continued to make hit songs and records. His album, Magenta Moons, was the number one album of 1951. Wow. Yeah. And I'm gonna play for you a clip now of him singing a popular record of his at the time called Basin Street Blues.

Herb Jeffries 31:51

Just how much it really means.

Courtney 32:08

So again, his voice has a beautiful voice. He really does. He has a very beautiful voice, so um in case you forgot. But despite his relative popularity, many still feel that his racial ambiguity limited his popularity. In a piece written by legendary jazz radio host Bob Perkins, he says.

Marissa 32:33

Ironically, film adoration did not carry over to Jeffrey's singing career. He was never quite popular with the blacks in this arena because many were not sure he was black. His fair skin, wavy black hair, and good looks also confused white audiences who were not sure of his ethnicity. He's too hot to be white. This ambivalence seemed to dog Jeffries throughout his career, despite the fact that he possessed one of the most beautiful baritone voices in popular music.

Jet Magazine Confrontation On The Dock

Courtney 33:16

Yeah. But as the life article demonstrates, Herb was getting recognition from the white community, and black magazines like Ebony and Jet sister publications were usually quite taken by him as well. All of them very flowery towards him. But that would soon change when Herb and his wife Betty divorced and he remarried another white woman, Tempest Storm, in 1959. I'm not gonna lie, that sounds like a porn star. Yes, that's what I said. And if you're feeling that's exactly what I said, you read my mind. I said if you're feeling like the name sounds like what you would Google, like 1950s porn star, and then that name pops up, right? Like you would not be far off because Tempest Storm was a famous burlesque performer at the time.

Marissa 34:02

There we go. Yep, but that wasn't what caused porn.

Courtney 34:09

Classy. Classy live porn. Cocktail attire porn. Little black dress and a boa porn. Yeah, that's right. That's right. See. But that wasn't what caused a commotion. It was more that their marriage certificate demonstrated what appeared to be a bubbling racial identity crisis. And Jet magazine took notice. This was Herb's second marriage. Yep, they they know they they followed up. They saw some journalists did some journaling. Yep, yep. They were on task. So this was Herb's second marriage, and he would go on to have three more, as we have said. Um, and though I can't entirely confirm it, it seems that Herb not sometimes but always listed himself as white on the certificate, like I said. I'm not sure if he actually did that with his first wife or not, but he definitely did it with Tempest. And a reporter with Jet actually found him and Tempest on a dock about to board their honeymoon cruise when he just got in his face and accused Jeffries of being a black man trying to pose as being white.

Marissa 35:23

Jeffries responded, No, absolutely not. I'm not passing. I never have, I never will. For all these years I've been wavering about the color question on the blanks. Suddenly I decided to fill in the blank the way I look and feel. Look at my blue eyes, my brown hair, look at my color. What color do you see? My mother was 100% white. My father is Portuguese, Spanish, American Indian, and Negro. How in the hell can I identify myself as one race or another? I recognize no race and no color. Only American. We're all so mixed up racially that the blanks don't mean anything. They're useless, you hear? I'm sick and tired of the blanks.

Courtney 36:23

So there's a lot, there's a lot there. Um Herb describes his father's ancestry like this here, but other times he claimed that his birth father had some Ethiopian heritage, like his stepfather, right? He also said at times that being a Sicilian, his father must have had some North African heritage. Um, he didn't have all the answers of his father's actual heritage, but people were endlessly curious about his ethnicity, and he was always finding new ways to explain himself. So these answers are really never the same. But I can kind of see where sometimes where they're coming from in a way, but they're not, they're not, they're not the same. It does seem like an identity crisis that is exacerbated by the heat of the spotlight. And the thing is, he really probably didn't have all the answers because he knew so little about his birth father and yet seemed forced to talk about him and who he was all the time, just to explain himself and where he stood in the world. And clearly he seemed to struggle with the binary nature of identifying one way and one way only and maintaining the level of black pride that he was once lauded for. Later on, he was quoted as saying.

Marissa 37:38

The word black means avoid. So I have never seen a black man. The word white means lack of pigment, so I have never seen a white man either. There's only one race, the human race. He sounds like a politician. I'm not gonna lie.

Courtney 37:57

I know, I know. He's getting to this place where he's like, I am tired of of walking this tightrope, leave me alone. I'm a human, I'm an American, shut up. Like, I and get off my lawn, stop putting this microphone in my face. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Marissa 38:13

I get it.

Later Films TV And Singing Longevity

Courtney 38:13

I kind of do too. I kind of do too. I think that all this waffling, I don't feel like there's any like ulterior motive. I think he is there's a there's a lot of people pleasing in the life article because I think he's leaning into the angle that the reporter had. I mean, that's being a little forgiving, honestly, but I feel like that reporter clearly had those opinions and then he's kind of leaning into it. But anyway, but Herb kept moving and grooving and entertaining despite the identity albatross that was always hanging on to him. In the late 50s and 60s, he circled back to acting and appeared in multiple TV shows, including Hawaii 5-0 and I dream of Genie. And when it came to yeah, and when it came to his film endeavors, just as it was with his westerns, he did more than act. In the 1957 film Calypso Joe, Herb played the titular role and also wrote and performed the music for the film. Wow, that's really impressive. It is really impressive. He's a very talented man. He is. So fast forwarding to 1967, he produced and directed Mundo de Bravados, which starred his wife Tempest, whom he would divorce shortly after the film was finished. They weren't gonna work together well. It just wasn't gonna yeah. So that's a that's a can't now everyone can do that. So into the 70s, he also acted in Chrome and Hot Leather and Portrait of a Hitman, which are filmed.

Marissa 39:44

Chrome and Hot Leather sounds like a porn. It does. That's also I feel like this is like that.

Courtney 39:50

This is like that new. But also the 70s. Yeah, I feel like it's the 70s. He's got a scar across his face. He's like chrome and hot leather and portrait of a hitman.

Marissa 40:00

Portrait of a hitman. It feels right, yeah.

Courtney 40:02

Feels right. He continued to sing review shows well into his old age, and his voice is seemingly unaffected. Here's a clip of him singing a review show in 1983 when he would have been 70 years old. I okay. I had to like do the math a lot because I'm like, yeah, he's not 70, but he was.

Marissa 40:19

So um Wow, he looks good. You know what? You can tell he's not fully white because he still looks good at 70.

Courtney 40:28

Italian uh blood is also good crack free.

Marissa 40:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um he's at least beige, you know? And beige don't age.

Courtney 40:38

That's right. That's how that's that's your uh that's your line. That's me. That's your line. All right.

Herb Jeffries 40:55

Don't you believe all the house I do believe? I've been killed nature through jump for joy.

Courtney 41:06

So, I mean, he still sounds pretty dang good, and he's 70.

Marissa 41:12

I mean, um think about how different Miley Cyrus sounds between her albums. Yeah. And that's just a couple years.

Five Marriages And Late In Life Kids

Courtney 41:22

That's just a couple years. Yeah. That's true. He also continued to marry, divorce, and procreate. Fern was not the only child. Okay. Okay. Facts facts about his kids and wives are a bit spotty, but it seems he had two kids with his first wife, Betty, another daughter with Tempest, and then he went on to marry Regina Rose Rotion and have a child. And then again, he also had a child with Sarah Lee Shippen when he was close to 80.

Marissa 41:53

Whoa. So Sarah must have been in her 30s, maybe early 40s, and that is super fucking gross.

Courtney 42:05

I mean, it's also just crazy. It's just crazy to become a parent at 80. That's a that's a crazy, that's crazy. It's crazy. Um, totally insane. So, in total, he had three daughters and two sons. He did not have any children with his final wife, Savannah Jeffries. So, this is answering another question on the grave. Savannah was not one of his children, it was his wife. Um, yes, who was 46 years his junior when he married her in 1998. There was a full middle-aged person between them. A full person having a midlife crisis, just standing right between them. But as expressed in his documentary, Herb was crazy about her.

Marissa 42:52

So let me find this claim. Again, this documentary is called A Colored Life. The Herb Jeffrey Story. They knew what they were doing. They could have said a colorful life, but no.

Courtney 43:12

They knew what they're doing. They're trying to, they're trying to what? What's it? That's the that's the subtext there.

Herb Jeffries 43:20

Um she's the best friend I ever had in my life. And I adore her. We have what I've experienced uh with my present marriage, my beloved wife, uh age discrimination. I'm 46 years older than my wife. But I don't think of being older, I think of vintage. What if I gave you a 20 vintage bottle of wine and a 95 vintage bottle of wine? Which one would you take?

Courtney 43:55

It is such a politician, you're right.

Marissa 44:00

He is so good at spin. And I'm here thinking, damn, you're right. I would. You would.

Idlewild Life And Walk Of Fame

Courtney 44:06

I would take that older vintage. I would take that older vintage, sir. Yep. But Herb and Savannah lived in Idlewild, California for his remaining days. A beautiful place. Yes.

Marissa 44:19

If you've never been and you get the opportunity to go, you should. It's gorgeous.

Legacy Debate And Listener Perspectives

Courtney 44:24

Start taking notes. You got you've got a road trip ahead of you with this episode. Um, but that's where he spent his remaining days, and uh a local cafe called Cafe Aroma realized who their regular customer was. And they set up her a Herb Jeffries room in the cafe that is full of memorabilia dedicated to his life and career, which is very Oh my gosh, that's so sweet. Herb continued to sing and perform at his leisure until the end, and he was alive to witness his star getting added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame when he was in his 90s. I think he was actually 90 in 2004. Yeah, he would have been 90, maybe 91. At the age of 100, he passed away from heart failure in 2014. And before looking at his life as a whole, I was fully prepared to walk into this feeling like I was dealing with a problematic person of the past, and that's it. Like that's that's that's it, that's the whole story. But that's not really how I feel as I look at everything. I think Herb was an enormously talented man who had the pleasure and privilege of performing with his musical idols while enduring the same racial abuses as those idols. And I think it's a price he was willing to pay because he wanted that so badly, and it was really the only way to do it at the time. I think But he had the privilege of choice, he had the privilege of choice, it definitely was a choice. I mean, even in this piece by um Paul Spickard, he says, you know, from the very beginning, he's like he elected to be black. So, but he he was willing to pay that price because he was like, I want this. I these are the people I want to perform with. And there's some level of respect that I have for that, actually. Um I agree. Yeah, I think he made films that gave black actors and audiences the representation that they had been craving. And are there some question marks within that process? Absolutely. There are there are several, yes. But man, not perfect, not perfect, not perfect. I'm not saying he is definitely not, but overall, I see more good than bad actually, and that's not something I was expecting. I'm feeling surprised um to feel this way, and as Paul Spickard says at the close of his article, in fact, is truth, narrow adherence to provable facts about his ancestry.

Marissa 46:59

The big issue? At age 19, Jeffries began living the life of a black American man and continued to do so for the next eight decades, and he willingly took the grief and abuse that came with his chosen identity. Herb Jeffries was, to the end, a jazz singer, an actor, a husband several times over, and a black American man.

Courtney 47:30

I don't know. I don't know. I would be very I would be very interested to hear the perspective of a black American person. Yes. Um I would be very interested to hear it because you know, and and what's but what's weird is that I don't know, I still think he has a lot of adoration these days and a lot of like the people who do know about him that are black and who know about these movies, they they he has a lot of respect from them, it seems like what I couldn't find anything where people wrote something being very angry about him or anything like that. I couldn't find it, like it wasn't there, which I thought it would be, you know? Yeah. So um, so I don't know what that is, and it might be again, like I said, where like it's not so out there that he uh what his like true ancestry was and whatever. I don't know. But I'd I'd very much want to hear that perspective. I don't know if I agree exactly with that last sentence. I think that's a controversial sentence in and of itself. I it sure felt icky to read it out loud. I will say that. Did not feel great. I think it's it doesn't, but at the same time, I'm like I've never heard of anything like this, I guess, is what it is. Um what about that one woman eight decades? Oh yeah, R Rachel Dolezal or whatever the hell her name was. I thought about her a lot reading this.

Marissa 48:58

Yeah, but she didn't contribute anything.

Courtney 49:01

I mean, she was yeah, there's some similarities there, really, because she was teaching, I think. She was like a college professor for, if I recall correctly, she was a college professor teaching like black history and whatever. Like if if I think the fact that she was in that position made it, especially in this age, right, just really icky. I I think what I like, I just feel like the time period context of it um does do something because, like I said, I think like to do all the things he did, there was not really another way. He kind of had to elect to be black, right? He wanted to perform with that.

Marissa 49:41

If he wanted to perform exactly, if he wanted to perform and would do the music that he wanted to do and the music that he was brought up to love. And also that they wanted him for. And yeah, they were like, Yeah, just say that you're you're mulatto. You know, they were like just they wanted him there, like it's it's so I think because he did, he had a beautiful voice.

Courtney 50:01

He was like a he was very good. So I just think that this is I I don't know if he would I don't think he would have made the same choices if the times weren't that way. I don't think he would have. Do you know what I mean?

Marissa 50:12

He wouldn't have had to. Like the choice wouldn't have been presented.

Courtney 50:16

Right. So I think that that's what makes him really different from Rachel Jolzall. Nobody is like telling her like you can't Yeah, you can't teach. You can't do this unless you Yeah, no. Right. So I I think that that's that's a big factor there. Um, but it did it, this has made me this has made me think. It has made me think a lot. Um, and it wasn't the full angle that I was expecting. Um, I do see a lot of like, like I said, I I kind of see it as people pleasing, like a lot of his responses that we find the worst. I mean, that doesn't entirely explain the the Western, you know, side of his career, of like kind of centering himself so much in that side of it, which is you know, arguably the worst events.

Marissa 51:06

Yeah. Um but at the same time, those movies gave opportunities and and like it was a good idea.

Courtney 51:15

It was a good idea, like in theory. Well, that not him being you know what I mean, to make black westerns was a good idea. Yeah, yeah, great idea. Yeah, like not not really for him to be the star, but he wasn't really like planning on being the star, but I think he would just became like the one where it was like he would be the most entertaining. Um and so then that you know gets into that that gray face area, as we have discussed. Do you feel like that was accurate to say gray face? Because I didn't intend to say that, but I feel it really strongly.

Marissa 51:45

No, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think so. I like I feel like he was invited into those spaces and welcomed into those spaces, and he said what he had to say. Yeah. Did I do I think that he then went beyond that? Yes, I do. Do I think he had good intentions? Also, yes, I do. I don't think this is like an evil person. He's slick as hell.

Courtney 52:15

He's very slick. He's very good at very good at talking his way around things, and maybe that's why this isn't something that's so apparent to people. Because he was so good at like explaining himself.

Marissa 52:25

But yeah, but also like something that like white people don't experience, you know, which people of color experience all the time. It's uh it's always like the where where are you from? Where are you from originally, who's your mommy, who's your daddy, you know, and it's like you always get asked about your past, always. And it's like for white people, it's like, oh, this is where I grew up, and like that's good enough. It's it's like, oh, like, you know, it's and and to be asked, and I get asked all the time because I also am racially ambiguous. Yeah. Um I am. And uh it is like always it's an exhausting talking point, and I could see like how and why his kind of quote unquote story would change, you know, depending on the times, the chapter of his life he was in. Like and also, yeah, the times. I think he lived a really long life.

Courtney 53:40

He lived uh 100 years a Centaurian.

Marissa 53:45

He is um he was, yes, he lived through very, you know, yeah, different times. So to expect a person to remain the same throughout their 100 years of life is insane.

Courtney 53:59

And also when it wasn't required the way that it was when he started out. Do you know what I mean? Then it's like you're you feel like you have to stick to the story, which I think is like a lot of what's going on. You know, it's like he did what he had to do to like do what he wanted to do.

Marissa 54:13

And at the end of the day, he doesn't know where what half of really he doesn't know half of his ancestry.

Courtney 54:21

No, so I I think that's that's probably like a big part of where it's like, okay, well, you know, I don't know. I don't know who I am, I just know what I want to do. Um I think that that's that's a big that's a big part of it too. But I was gonna say, I always feel really bad when I, as a white person, will ask somebody like where are you from when I am intending to be like, where did you grow up? Where did you grow up? And then you could then you could maybe say, Courtney, where did you grow up? That's true. That's a better way to say it. But it's like, but it's just the way it's it's it's the way the question's asked to me, and I always respond that way. So you know what I mean? It's like it shouldn't have to be a different question, it just ends up being something that is, you know.

Marissa 55:04

It means something completely different. Right. Where the where are you from that I get is very different from the where are you from that you get. I have to I have to explain my entire lineage to people who meet me for the first time. Always.

Courtney 55:18

Yeah. No, but I do, it's like I do, I feel bad because it's like people start saying that, like, well, I mean, I'm I'm I'm Mexican, but I uh I grew up in like you know, Scranton or whatever. And I'm like, Yeah, that's what I wanted to know, man. Like we're like we're in LA, like or whatever. Like, I everyone, no one's from here. That's what I mean. Like especially there.

Marissa 55:38

What's your weird hometown that you that you ran away from? That's what I want to know. That's that's every I have everybody's curious about that, right?

Courtney 55:47

But yeah, it's true. It's like there's a lot of stepping in it, I think, where because it's cause there's different intentions, and I know that like that's come up for other people where they're like curious about different cultures and then they want to know out of a place of curiosity and not out of a place of malice, but it's still something where it's like, well, nobody's asking you that.

Marissa 56:07

And right, and you know the internet exists, you know what I mean? Like, do your own research on not my time. I will I'm very curious to know what the audience thinks. Please let us know. I want to read your comments. I want, I get in here, get into the discussion.

Farewell And How To Support

Courtney 56:24

Yeah, please contribute to this conversation, especially like you know, it because I I don't think like I this is not like a oh, I'm coming out of this with a hard perspective. It's more just like I really expected to be like this motherfucker. And that's not how I feel, you know. Yeah, I was I was I was prepared to hate the man, and I don't for sure. Yeah. So I think that that's really what it is, where it's like, I can't, I'm I'm trying to just be all of this is like you you try to just really get in the the space of somebody's life story and what they did to to do what they did, I don't know, like and try to understand it. So it's and I think there's the risk of like when you spend too long looking into somebody's life story that you're like too deep in it, and it's like, oh, now I'm now I'm being too sympathetic, which I think I can be guilty of sometimes for sure. So I, you know, tell me, call me out if that's what you think I'm doing. Um, but yeah, like I'm not really sympathetic to somebody who's like, yeah, I'm just gonna pretend to be a different ethnicity. So um, but yeah, in this case, weirdly I am, and that feels gross to say out loud, but uh yeah, uh after all the context, you know, you get it. But that sentence, uh, standing alone, please don't cut this that out of this episode and be like, this is what she thinks. It's not, it's just a weird story, and I've literally never heard anything like it. So yeah, tell us what you think. We're curious to know. We're curious to know. Well, thanks guys. We'll see you, we'll see you next time with another um another weird one. Maybe I will pick someone easy, I don't know. We'll see.

Marissa 58:03

I don't feel like there is an easy person in that place. Everyone because to get to get buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, first of all, expensive. Expensive. Secondly, like it's kind of like there's some there's always gonna be some ties to the I would say 99.9% of the time, there's gonna be some ties to the entertainment industry. And every single person's career, every single person's career, whether you know their career or you don't know their career, everyone's career in life is so wildly different. Everyone has very different stories, maybe some similarities here and there, but everyone has a different story. So I'm excited to I'm excited to know what weird one you cook up next, Courtney.

Courtney 59:03

We we will see. It's full of delightful little weirders, but I think it'd be fun to find someone who's a little normal, and maybe we will, where you're like, oh, that's just like that guy that's a r that I see all the time in LA. That guy. Like, I know that guy. You know what I mean? Right. We'll see. But anyway, thank you guys, and also if you have ideas about anybody and you that you know that's there, please uh please let us know. Yeah, I'll dig into it. I will. All right. We'll catch you guys next time. Bye. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for listening. Your support and enthusiasm for the show are the reason we keep doing it. So thanks for the kind words. They really mean the world. If you liked the show or have ideas for episodes we could or should do, please drop us a comment in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. And if you haven't yet, please follow the show and tell every Cinephile and TAFO Phile, fun fact that's a person who loves graveyards, about your new favorite niche podcast. And if you want to see transcripts, photos, and sources for our episodes, check out our Substack Dead and Kind of Famous. Dead and Kind of Famous is written, produced, and edited by Courtney Blomquist. It is hosted by Marissa Rivera and Courtney Blomquist. And special thanks to Jesse Russell, my husband, for allowing me to yammer on about the episodes before I can spill it all to Marissa. He tends to have some good insights and ideas, so thanks. Until next time, you might not be famous, but you've got a story to tell and you're not dead yet.