In working on my play about Alberta I alternate between simply imagining what her life was like and doing research. The research can be a little frustrating because she kept a tight rein on her image and allowed few frank facts about her personal life to come to light. She had many reasons to be protective of her privacy.
Despite her fame she was always haunted by the general consensus that she was too dark and did not have 'classic' enough features. She was no Lena Horne or Fredi Washington. But when she sang "Darktown Strutters Ball" her emphasis was on the pride, the strutting, the musical joy of being dark and lovely.
She also kept her personal life quiet because she was a lesbian. She wasn't unique in that; many artists of the 1920s and 1930s were queer from Duke Ellington's most famous collaborator Billy Strayhorn, to famed poet Langston Hughes (although his estate maintains otherwise).
In order to gather whatever fragments of information that might be floating around I visited the Schomberg Library for Research in Black Culture (SFPL) as my way of celebrating Alberta's birthday. Her papers are housed there and offer a treasure trove of miscellaneous insights. My visit to the Library didn't turn up any torrid love letters or handwritten versions of her hit songs (I still have half of the collection to go through so maybe...). But most surprising and delightful was the discovery of how philanthropic Alberta Hunter was.
When she was at the height of her earning or when she was living on a nurses salary when she retired from singing...it didn't matter. She wrote checks big and small to every thing from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to a southern family living in poverty to the St. Lab re Indian School. She sent off boxes of clothing and household goods to needy families--their thank you letters are in the folders.
Sometimes she kept tallies of her donations on the backs of envelopes; neat lists that testified to her commitment to sharing the money she'd worked so hard to earn. One note was even a reminder to help a friend pay her car note.
Philanthropic studies usually show that the largest percentage of funds to non-profits come are small amounts from individual donors. It's that tradition that Alberta was faithful to. No matter the amount, sometimes $5 on occasion $500, she mad sure that her support was consistent. Some folks spoke about Alberta's facility with finances as if she was cheap or tight fisted. From her files it looked to me like a woman who'd come from nothing and was determined not to end up with nothing. And she wanted others to share in her good fortune.
I felt really proud of Alberta's commitment to philanthropy; it's one I always saw in my own family even though we were living on the economic edge. Now I want to figure out how to reveal that aspect of her personality so my Alberta on stage shows bother musical genius and her generosity. Now I need to write a check to support....
