Carol King: Nègresse Blonde of French Radio

Carol King was born Charlotte Cheeks-Lewis on December 27th, 1907 in Detroit, Michigan to housewife Evelyn May Cheeks and musician Robert Burns Lewis. She was the second of five children. Due to the family's fairly light skin, the Lewis family frequently passed as white in US Census records.

Birth Certificate

By 1920, the family had relocated to New York City, where Charlotte completed her education in 1925. For the next few years, she studied to become a designer but abandoned to move into another career as an entertainer. 

Baltimore (1930)

By 1929, Charlotte taught herself to dance, sing and play the piano. That summer, she was a chorus girl in Leonard Harper's musical revue “Hot Chocolates”, which featured a musical score by Thomas “Fats” Waller and Harry Brooks. The revue opened at Broadway's Hudson Theater on June 20th and ran for 219 performances before closing on December 14th. The show ran for another four months, touring across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland before returning to Harlem's Lafayette Theater in late-April 1930.

Sails to Europe (June 1930)

In June 1930, 22-year old Charlotte announced suddenly that she was engaged to a British subject. Boarding the SS Rochambeau for France, the couple had plans to marry on the continent and settle in London. Unfortunately the marriage doesn't seem to have materialized. 

Nine months later, During the spring of 1931, she was touring Spain as singer with Harry Flemming's “Follies of 1931” revue. Returning to Paris in May, she appeared in various cabarets around the French capital such as the Marine Club, Artists Club, Johnny's Bar and Chez Les Clochards. She dyed her hair blonde and was billed as the “Nègresse Blonde”.

From 1932-1933, she toured the French Riviera, appearing in cabarets and restaurants around Cannes, Nîce and Juan-Les-Pins. 

Only known recording (1934)

In January 1934, under the pseudonym Carol King, she signed a two-year contract with Radio Poste-Parisien, one of France's most powerful radio stations that broadcast across Europe and North Africa. She arrived daily at the Poste-Parisien headquarters on 116 bis Avenue des Champs-Élysées to appear alongside Alain Roman's Jazz Orchestra on the 8:00pm slot. On January 30th, she recorded “La-Da-Da” accompanied by the Jazz du Poste-Parisien orchestra for French Pathé Records. The song came from the 1933-1934 Casino de Paris revue, “Vive Paris!”, which featured Afro-Americans acts such as Alberta Hunter and Kent & Maxya. 

Afro-American Newspaper (1934)

Carol appeared on the covers of various French magazines and American newspapers such as the Bulletin de la Radio and the Chicago Defender, which celebrated her success as France's Joséphine Baker of Radio. After her radio performances, she would sing at Suzy Solidor's La Vie Parisienne nightclub and the Les Enfants de la Chance restaurant. 

Appearing in French film (1936)

She later appeared in a minor role in an unknown 1936 French film according to a January 1936 article. 

From 1936-1939, she appeared in various nightclubs such as Chiquito 37, Caprice Viennois, Chapeau Rouge before headlining at the Coliseum Theatre for six months in 1938. In December 1938, she appeared at former boxer Al Panama Brown's new Kit Kat nightclub in Toulouse. 

Chiquito Bar (1937)

On April 1st, 1939, after nine years abroad boarded the SS Gerolstein in Antwerp and sailed home to New York, where she settled back at the Lewis household on Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn. According to the 1940 US Census, she was listed as an unemployed singer. 

On December 24th, 1941, she married 35-year old Swinton Seymour Lord and retired from the stage completely. 

Mrs. Charlotte Lord died on September 30th, 1980 in New York City, three years after the death of her husband. 

Hester Harvey (1896-1979)

Berlin (1928)

Hester Frederika Marguerite Watt was born February 22, 1896 in the Brown Mine neighborhood of Johannesburg, Transvaal Republic. According to later interviews, she claimed her father was German and her mother was a local native woman. It's possible her European father migrated to Johannesburg around 1886 during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush to seek his fortune. In pre-Apartheid South Africa, laws were very relaxed, allowing for interracial marriages to be permitted. 

As a young child, Hester would've witnessed the chaos of the Second Boer War and the British seizing control over the Transvaal from the Boers. By the time she had begun school in 1902, the war was over and South Africa was on its way to becoming unified, which it did in 1910 as the Union of South Africa. Despite the unification, the Transvaal continued to be extremely Dutch. Although German was spoken in the Watt household, English, Dutch and Afrikaans were spoken in public. Although she had slightly more freedom as a young Coloured woman compared to native women like her mother, her life was still restricted as a woman of color. 

Marriage certificate (1916)

By 1915, the Watt household relocated to the Fairland neighborhood in the nearby town of Roodepoort. It was here that 19-year old Hester had been introduced to 37-year old Swedish businessman, Bror Arvid Thunberg. Originally from Gothenburg, Bror had been traveling to South Africa since as early as 1900 accompanied by his younger brother Viktor. The circumstances of which the couple met is known, however on March 29th, 1915, the couple announced their engagement. The news had reached Swedish newspapers a month later. After a two year engagement, the couple married in Johannesburg on December 23rd, 1916. Hester's parents had given consent and her father was listed as a witness on the marriage certificate. Shortly after the wedding, the new Mrs. Thunberg accompanied her husband back to his homeland in Sweden. 

1930 Swedish Census

Suddenly, after settling into a villa in the wooded suburb of Storegården, located in the northern part of Gothenburg's Askim district, Hester was in Germany, performing under the pseudonym “Hester Harvey”. From July 1917 until January 1918, she was dancing and singing in cabarets around Berlin and Munich with great success. 

Her new career was cut short suddenly when she discovered she was pregnant. The Thunbergs returned to South Africa for the birth of their son, Yngve Andreas Thunberg in Johannesburg on November 11th, 1918 upon the end of World War I. As soon as she was able, Hester was back in Europe by May 1919, performing at Berlin's Reichs-Café. Soon she was with child again and on July 17th, 1920, Ingrid Linnea Thunberg was born in Gothenburg. 

Hester returned to work instantly, as she returned to Berlin the following month to film “Das Floß der Toten” (The Fleet of the Dead). Set in German South West Africa (now Namibia), Hester played a local native woman who triggers an uprising against the German authorities. The film was released in Germany on March 7th, 1921. She appeared in another film, “Söhne der Hölle” (Sons of Hell) which was released on October 18th, 1921. However little information is known about this film. Shortly after filming, she returned home to Sweden for the birth of her third child, Astrid Viola Thunberg on December 10th, 1921.

Die Rache der Mulattin (1923)

In May 1923, Hester returned to Berlin as the star of Leo Heller and Fritz Lemmen's one act play, “Die Rache der Mulattin” (The Revenge of the Mulatto). The production was staged at the illustrious Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, which was under the direction of the legendary Max Reinhardt. Hester and her co-star, Georg Burghardt received considerable applause from German audiences. 

The following year, she starred in Erik Charell's revue “An Alle…!” at the Großes Schauspielhaus. Opening October 18th, 1924, the revue was considered the first revue to be introduced to German stages. The show was composed of two acts and 21 sketches and featured the John Tiller Girls, Josefine Dora, Reeves & Reeves, Elvira Ronné and Diane Belli & Mars performing to the songs of Dr. Ralph Benatzky, Rudolph Nelson and Irving Berlin. The revue ran for six months, closing April 1925. 

Zurück zu Methusalem (1925)

In November 1925, she appeared in George Bernard Shaw's play “Zurück zu Methusalem” (Back to Methuselah) at the Theater in der Königgrätzer Straße. The cast was also composed of a young Marlene Dietrich as Eve. The play also appeared at the Theater Tribüne in January 1926.

In July 1926, Hester appeared in Hans H. Zerlett's operetta, “Die Leichte Isabell” (The Light Isabell) at the Schiller Theater. Directed by Robert Gilbert and starring Erika Nymgau and Greta Mosholm, the operetta was a huge success and after two months, moved over to the Theater am Nollandorfplatz in September. During this time, she also made a few appearances on German radio. 

From 1927-1930, Hester went on a tour of Germany and Austria, appearing in Hamburg, Dortmund, Bonn, Vienna and Graz. In-between touring, she frequently appeared in Berlin at the Haus Vaterland's Wild West Bar, singing and dancing before a set of chorus girls known as the Arizona Girls. Frequently the Arizona Girls accompanied her on her tour. In the background, a band composed of clarinetist Sidney Bechet and Afro-German drummer William MacAllen blasted the latest jazz numbers.

In mid-1931, Hester joined Professor William Curt Doorlay's “Brazilian Kaleidoscope Revue”. Professor Doorlay's revue had been touring across the world since the early 1920s and was extremely popular in Germany. Joining around the summer of 1931, Hester toured with the revue for nearly eight months, appearing around Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. The heavily pregnant Hester abandoned the revue promptly after the Swiss tour to give birth to her fourth child, Arvid Erling Thunberg on May 31, 1932. 

Dollar (1938 film)

After Arvid's birth, Hester's career in Germany slowed down to a halt. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler had been elected as the new Chancellor of Germany and racist laws were being quickly put in place, restricting Black entertainers from working in Germany. Instead, she became a popular singer at Stockholm's popular Gröna Lund amusement park and toured the folk parks across the country. 

Between 1937-1938, she appeared in two films, “John Ericsson - segraren vid Hampton Roads” and “Dollar” with Ingrid Bergman. Unfortunately she was casted in the minor role of maid in both films. After an appearance in Hamburg in March 1938, Hester disappeared from the stage for a while. 

1940 Swedish Census

By 1940, the Thunberg household had relocated to a villa at 13 kv Krokodilen 29 in the Örgryte neighborhood. Hester leaves her occupation blank in the 1940 Swedish Census. 

Pinguin Negerbar (1950)

Berlin (1949)

She reappears from 1949-1950, in Germany at the Pinguin Negerbar, the only Black nightclub in Berlin. There she appeared with many of her old colleagues from before the war, including William MacAllen and his Orchestra. After the club closed down in August 1950, she disappeared from the limelight again. 

On April 4th, 1954, 75-year old Bror Arvid Thunberg died and 58-year old Hester became a widow after 17 years of marriage. She lived quietly amongst her children and their families in Gothenburg until her death on November 19th, 1976.