Lillian "Billie" YarboJohnson, Lillian. "Strictly Jive". The Baltimore Afro-American. May 14, 1938. Page 10. (born Lillian Yarbough; March 17, 1905 – June 12, 1996) was an American stage and screen actress, dancer, and singer.
Early life Born Lillian Yarbough"Billy Yarbo a New Mugger". The Pittsburgh Courier. March 10, 1928. Page 15. in Washington, DC, she made her way to New York, as did both her mother and at least one sister. When they travelled and whether they did so together is unclear."Billy Yarbo Makes Film As Kin Passes". The Chicago Defender. March 22, 1941. Page 20.Rowe, Billy. "Rowe's Notebooks". The Pittsburgh Courier. March 20, 1943. Page 21.
Career Stage By her early 20s, Yarbo, credited prior to October 1928 as Yarbough,Multiple sources: "Musical Comedy: 'Bottomland'". The Billboard. August 13, 1927. Page 96. "Broadway Credits as Billie Yarbough". Playbill. "Broadway Credits as Billie Yarbo". Playbill. was a rising star both in Harlem night spots and on the Broadway stage.Hirschfield, Al (2004). Hirschfield's Harlem. New York: Glenn Young Books. p. 18. . See also: Donner, Vyvyan. "Bringing the Tidings to Broadway: A Press Agent Discusses Certain Angles of the Try-Out, and Incidentally Presents a Few Brickbats". The New York Times. Sec. 8, p. 2. Dismond, Geraldyn. "Social Snapshots". The Interstate Tattler. October 26, 1928. Page 4. Yates, Ted. "Better Break for Race in Pictures Forecast in '41; Stellar Roles Promised All; Harlem Lass Wins Plaudits". The Phoenix Index. January 11, 1941. Page 6. Writing in The New Yorker, reviewing the Miller and Lyles musical, Keep Shufflin''', a young Charles Brackett alerted readers: "There is a Miss Billie Yarbough, who must have been designed by Covarrubias and must be seen."Brackett, Charles. "Illicit Relations and Dark Dancers". The New Yorker. March 10, 1928. p. 33. Retrieved January 13, 2021. With a style sometimes likened to that of her contemporary, Josephine Baker,Field, Rowland. "Both Sides of the Curtain". The Brooklyn Times Union. March 4, 1928. Page 103. Yarbo was embraced by audiences and critics alike, beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until her 1936 screen debut.Pulaski, Jack (as "Ibee"). "Legitimate; With Music: 'Keep Shufflin'". Variety. March 7, 1928. Page 52.Multiple sources: "Sepia Chorines Make Hit in Philly House". The Baltimore Afro-American. September 3, 1932. Page 3. "Are They Married or Not". The Baltimore Afro-American. July 20, 1935. Page 8. "Harlem on Parade Ends 2-Week Run".The Chicago Defender. May 30, 1936. Page 10. As for her vocal stylings, just a few, fleeting, onscreen remnants exist. For example, she sings a few bars of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" in the film version of A Date with Judy. (See also relevant excerpt from The Family Next Door in External links). That said, Yarbo clearly did not lack for confidence, having once told trumpeter Buck Clayton, "To hell with Billie Holiday! Come down and listen to me, the real Billie."Clayton, Buck; Elliott, Nancy Miller. Buck Clayton's Jazz World. Wheatley, Oxon: Bayou Press, 1986. Page 81.
Screen Yarbo appeared in at least two films in 1936 and 1937 before her first onscreen credit in the following year in the Warren William vehicle, Wives Under Suspicion. Whilst that film was received somewhat indifferently by critics, reviews noted her performance as particularly praiseworthy. "'Wives Under Suspicion' Is Marked by Good Acting; Lillian Yarbo Excels". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. July 19, 1938. Page 4.Grange, Marion. "At the Motion Picture Theaters". The Ottawa Citizen. June 27, 1938. Page 15."'The Rage of Paris' and 'Under Suspicion'—Circle". The Indianapolis News. July 16, 1938. Page 2. For that and her equally acclaimed performance in Frank Capra's successful adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You"Capra Film Easily Best of Year". The Desert Sun. October 28, 1938. Page 8.Lusk, Norbert. "Capra Feature Acclaimed as 'Best of the Season'". The Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1938. Page 38. (which, by virtue of the film's panoramic, full-cast billboard, also inspired a new nickname),"'Twenty-four Sheet Lil'". Los Angeles Daily News. October 24, 1938. Page 8. Retrieved January 18, 2021.Poole, Edwin E.; Poole, Susan T. Collecting Movie Posters: An Illustrated Reference Guide to. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. 1997. . Yarbo was judged 1938's best Negro comedic actress by Pittsburgh Courier film critic Earl J. Morris.Morris, Earl J. "1938 Banner Year for Negro Movie Industry". The Pittsburgh Courier. January 21, 1939. Page 21. In 1939, she was awarded that same distinction by the short-lived Sepia Theatrical Writers Guild.ANP. "Colored Actors in Four of Year's Ten Best Pictures". The Pittsburgh Courier. January 21, 1939. Page 39.LaMar, Lawrence F. "News of the Theatres: First Annual Sepia Screen Poll". The Phoenix Index. December 30, 1939. Page 7. Indeed, even prior to 1938, the then-as-yet thoroughly anonymous Yarbo—as Claire Trevor's maid in Alfred Werker's much-rewritten Big Town Girl"'Big Town Girl'". Motion Picture Reviews. December 1937. p. 4.—caught the eye of one reviewer who noted that "a Negro lassie—inexcusably omitted from the cast list—renders yeoman service and considerable comedy as the countess' maid".Martin, Mildred. "'Big Town Girl' Proves Diverting Comedy". The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 4, 1937. Page 8. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
Awards and favorable notices notwithstanding, and despite director King Vidor's personal support for her as early as 1937Patton, Bernice. "The Sepia Side of Hollywood". The Pittsburgh Courier. April 10, 1937. Page 19. "Realizing her dramatic-comedy ability, director Vidor is moving heaven and earth to give the sepia Broadway lass that certain 'oomph' so essential to making good for keeps. Hear tell, he went up to the wardrobe department and selected a pretty French dress, slippers to match, and the last word in accessories for her new role." (following Yarbo's sophomore screen turn, appearing uncredited with Barbara Stanwyck in Vidor's Stella Dallas), she continued to be routinely cast in bit parts, primarily as a maid, cook or otherwise low-skilled worker, often uncredited, appearing in at least 50 films between 1936 and 1949.
In the fall of 1943, amid an already setback-laden half-decade,Smallwood, Bill. "The Delightful Side". The California Eagle. February 12, 1942. Page 5. a potentially career-altering opportunity—being cast in a straight dramatic role opposite Canada Lee in a screen adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son—failed to materialize when Orson Welles, who had directed Lee in the original Broadway production, proved unavailable.ANP. "Gossip of the Movie Lots". The Chicago Bee. October 17, 1943. Page 15. "Billy Yarbo is moaning about the shortage of work for sepians. She recalled past years when she played long runs with Rochester, Willie Best and in individual assignments."Calvin, Dolores. "Seein' Stars". The Chicago Bee. December 5, 1943. Page 17. Adding injury to insult, just weeks later, a near-fatal car crash put Yarbo out of commission for the first half of 1944.Smallwood, Bill. "The Delightful Side". The Los Angeles Tribune. February 14, 1944. Page 15. "Billie Yarbo is still on the critical list. She has a fractured skull, badly bruised ribs, a partially paralyzed right side and impaired eyesight! But she can still smile, being the person she is. Thumbs up, Billie."Gipson, J.T. "Candid Comments: Scannin' the News Tickertape; Snappy Comeback". The California Eagle. July 20, 1944. Page 12. She appeared in just one film that year, and over the next five averaged exactly two films a year, uncredited in all but one, ending her screen career much as it had begun.
Later years On November 13, 1948, roughly four months after finishing work on her final film and roughly 13 years after her last stage performance, Yarbo returned to live performance. Perhaps inspired by having made, roughly two months prior, "one of her rare visits to a night spot,"Gipson, J. T. "The Gipson Gossip". The California Eagle. September 16, 1948. Page 15. Retrieved January 19, 2021. Yarbo, backed by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy, performed at a benefit event staged at Club Congo (formerly Club Alabam)"Stars to Help Raise Funds to Send Kiddies to Camp". The California Eagle. February 19, 1948. Page 20. Retrieved January 19, 2021. by the Alpha Phi Alpha House Campaign Committee to help fund "much-needed housing and scholarship for 'forgotten' students"."Margaret Baskett Will Present Top Show at Alpha House Party". The California Eagle. November 11, 1948. Page 16. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
On May 19, 1949, The California Eagle's Gertrude Gipson reported that "C. P. Johnson on along with a six-piece combo, and Billy Yarbo, who has returned to dancing, will open at the Fairbanks in Alaska around the first".Gipson, Gertrude. "Candid Comments". The California Eagle. May 19, 1949. Page 16. Retrieved January 17, 2021. If this planned performance took place, it is Yarbo's last documented public performance.
About the same time Yarbo received some very nice notices for her last credited screen performance portraying "a giggling, singing, four-times-married little maid"Martin, Mildred. "'Night Unto Night' Opens on Boyd Screen". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 19, 1949. Paqe 18. Retrieved January 20, 2021.'Mae Tinee'. "Most Useless in This Film Is the Film Itself". The Chicago Tribune. May 17, 1949. page 17. Retrieved January 20, 2021. in Warner Bros.' long-shelved Night Unto Night (1949),'Brog'. "'Night Unto Night'". Variety. April 20, 1949. p. 11. Retrieved January 20, 2021. one more instance of Yarbo being one of the few reasons to watch—precisely as had been the case in her first credited role—in an otherwise "sleep-induc[ing]"Lindeman, Edith. "Sleep Inducer Is Showing at Colonial". The Richmond Times-Dispatch. June 8, 1949. Page 21. Retrieved January 20, 2021. picture: "Other characters include one who talks like someone out of a bad play, a couple of doctors, the heroine's sexy sister, and, fortunately, Lillian Yarbo as Josephine, the maid of all work, who provides the only bright spot in the generally murky atmosphere."
Personal life In 2006, NYU Professor of Media Studies Cathrine Kellison, speaking on the DVD commentary track of You Can't Take It With You (1938), briefly addressed Yarbo's known history: "Now Lillian Yarbo, here... she's... it's troubling how little information there is about her as a person. She was in probably 40, 50 films. Many of them, her name was not listed; she was uncredited." Kellison, who would die in 2009 with online newspaper archives still slim, did not live long enough to learn of Yarbo's illustrious pre-Hollywood heyday.
Yet taking into account the full scope of her career, it is curious that the close press coverage of YarboSmallwood, Bill. "Coastin'". The People's Voice. February 13, 1943. Page 26. "Billie Yarbo will step off the 20th Century Ltd. any morning now. The Super Chief's out from LA to see her ailing sis in NY. Her current turn before Columbia's cameras is being rushed so she may make the trip minus being harried or hurried. Billie's topnotch folks, and we love her." Retrieved January 31, 2021. halted in the fall of 1949. After over two decades, it could be surmised that this was requested by Yarbo herself. One reason why she might have desired less attention appeared in a 1928 interview which, despite its condescending tone, portrays Yarbo as someone who did not aspire to fame and who—somewhat akin to her celebrated not-quite-namesakeBainbridge, John. "The Braveness to Be Herself: In Private Affairs or in Public, Garbo Ignores the Opinions of Others". Life. February 7, 1955. Pages 112-113. Retrieved January 31, 2021.—genuinely valued her privacy."Billie Yarbo; She Didn't Want None". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. May 6, 1928. Page 69.