Song:Bali Ha'i
Album:South Pacific: Original Broadway Cast
Juanita Hall was a Broadway pioneer. She was the first black Tony award winner for playing Bloody Mary in the 1949 Broadway production of South Pacific. She also appeared in the 1958 film but her voice was inexplicably dubbed by Muriel Smith. Fans still rage about this today as there are videos of scenes from the film on Youtube with Juanita's voice dubbed in. She was born Nov. 6, 1901 in Keyport, NJ. Juanita trained at Juilliard and she was in the Hall Johnson Choir. She first appeared on Broadway in the choir. And she made her solo debut in 1935. Roles for blacks were tough to come by in those days. So Juanita started her own choir and they appeared in a few shows. By the late 40s, things were improving and Juanita was hired to play Bloody Mary in the 1949 production of South Pacific. She won a Tony award and she also appeared in Flower Drum Song. When the time came to turn South Pacific into a movie, Richard Rodgers was in charge of the music. Juanita played Bloody Mary in the film but her singing voice was dubbed by Muriel Smith. Muriel appeared in the London production of South Pacific and apparently Rodgers always preferred her voice to Juanita's. When asked about this choice, South Pacific director Joshua Logan deferred to Rodgers. It was his call. In those days, dubbing was common and I guess Rodgers thought it wasn't a big deal. But some fans are still upset about it. The original cast album of South Pacific was an early success when the record industry was just beginning to release 33 1/3 RPM albums. It's available as a budget CD with bonus tracks. Juanita released the album The Original Bloody Mary Sings The Blues with The Claude Hopkins All Stars featuring Coleman Hawkins among others. So that was a jazz album. After appearing in the 1961 film The Flower Drum Song, Juanita Hall retired and died on Feb. 28, 1968 at age 66. Here's a video of Bali H'ai by Juanita Hall.
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