Maxine Sullivan (by Kendal Blumenthal)

Artist unknown, Maxine Sullivan, ca. 1945, silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2013.46.29.93.

One of the items in the Frank Driggs Jazz Oral History collection that I researched was an MP3 recording of a radio broadcast hosted by broadcast journalist Mort Crim. The radio show features Crim discussing and interviewing influential figures of the mid-20th century, more specifically highlighting their career accomplishments, life struggles and other experiences, and their current activities and lifestyles following the peaks of their careers. Each segment is brief, but the interviews provide a sufficient amount of insight into the subject.

The interview I listened to focused on Maxine Sullivan, who was a jazz vocalist born in 1911 in Homestead, Pennsylvania that experienced a career in performing live music in New York. Crim states that Sullivan was widely popular and her most well-known recordings included “Molly Malone,” “Jackie Boy,” “Turtle Dove,” and “Georgia On My Mind.” Sullivan describes the pivotal change in her career during the mid-1930s when she moved from Pittsburgh to New York. She had only been performing at a small club in Pittsburgh, so she was encouraged by Gladys Mosier, a jazz pianist with Ina Ray Hutton’s band, to move to New York for better opportunities. In 1936, Mosier introduced Sullivan to Claude Thornhill, a pianist and arranger. Sullivan auditioned for the Onyx Club on 52nd Street and started regularly performing immediately thereafter. Sullivan explains that her fame grew immensely in 1937 with the help of Claude Thornhill’s arrangement of “Loch Lomond.” “Loch Lomond” is a traditional Scottish song that Thornhill arranged into a swing feel and dedicated it to Sullivan. Along with the growth of recognition and stardom came a great deal of controversy related to her recording of “Loch Lomond.” Sullivan explains to Crim that she performed the arrangement for the “Saturday Night Swing Club,” which was a radio program that originated from CBS, and station manager Leo Fitzpatrick turned the song off before it concluded. He insisted that the song was sacrilegious and banned it from being played on his station again.

Towards the end of the interview, Crim states that Sullivan retired in the 1960s, but returned to show business to perform jazz shows, record a new album, and start a new project called “The House That Jazz Built.” “The House That Jazz Built” was a community center dedicated to various jazz related activities, such as a museum, workshops, and performances.

I chose to study Maxine Sullivan’s interview because she is a figure in music history that relates to my personal research topic, which broadly examines African American women in jazz music. I sought for more information about women who made a living as jazz musicians, especially during a time period in which segregation and sexism were both inherently embedded in society. This interview of Maxine Sullivan displays the types of musicians that Frank Driggs was interested in and whose music and stories he sought to preserve. Sullivan is among a plethora of jazz musicians in the Driggs collection who were relatively successful and associated with famous musicians and bandleaders in the 20th century.

Bibliography:

Sullivan, Maxine, performer, and Driggs, Frank, compiler. “Maxine Sullivan [sound recording].” UMKC Nichols Library Marr Sound Archives, FD-CASS-253. http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu/search~S3?/tFrank+Driggs+Collection./tfrank+driggs+collection/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=tfrank+driggs+collection&234%2C%2C313, https://umkc.app.box.com/s/rcp7ry2iyvcuwxzcbwljckhblefazvlx/file/1321220603175.

Wilson, John S. “Maxine Sullivan: 50 Years A Singer And Still Growing.” The New York Times (December 1985). https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/15/arts/maxine-sullivan-50-years-a-singer-and-still-growing.html