Pearl Williams

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Cover of Williams' album You'll never remember it, write it down!

Pearl Williams (September 10, 1914 – September 18, 1991) was an American entertainer.

Career[edit]

Born Pearl Wolfe, Williams started out as a secretary, but quickly turned to playing the piano by ear and became an accomplished player. In 1938 she went to an audition for a singer as accompaniment. She was hired on the spot and that same night went on stage at the Famous Door on 52nd Street with Louis Prima's band. But it took 14 years and a heckler to make her find her calling. One night, in 1952, a heckler was consistently telling her to get off and that her jokes were horrible, and she said to him, "Oh, fuck off!" The audience howled, and she quickly became a hit. [citation needed]

"What Patsy Abbott?[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] She’s not in our class; what are you crazy? Where she belong with us? She’s a nice girl."— Pearl Williams, The Cabaret nightclub, Miami Beach, 1961[12]

In 1961, signed by Stanley Borden, the owner of After Hours Records, she recorded her first album, A trip around the world is not a cruise. Known for her bawdy humor and aggressive manner, she released nine best-selling "party" records during her career, including:

  • All the Way
  • Bagels & Lox!
  • She's Doin' What Comes Naturally!
  • A Trip Around the World is Not a Cruise
  • You'll Never Remember it, Write it Down!
  • Battle of the Mothers! (with Belle Barth)
  • Party Snatches – the Best of . . . (featured)

Williams is one of several female Jewish comedians (along with Belle Barth, Patsy Abbott, Rusty Warren and Totie Fields) who traced their "bawdy" performance style back to Sophie Tucker. The back cover of A Trip around The World is Not a Cruise repeats the anecdote that when they met, Tucker told Williams that "You're me at your age, only better." An echo of Tucker can be discerned when Williams says in her act, "I get broads come in here, they sit in front of me and they stare at me. Everything I do, they stare at me. Then they walk out saying, 'She's so dirrr-ty!' If they're so refined how come they understand what I'm saying?" [citation needed]

Williams performed for 18 years at the Place Pigalle in Miami, Florida, before retiring in 1984, commenting "I'm tired, I need a rest. After 46 years in show business, night after night, day after day, non-stop, I'm tired". She hung up her microphone for good in April of that year. She lived out her final years in North Miami Beach and Long Island.

On September 18, 1991, aged 77, she died in her sleep from heart disease.

Posthumous[edit]

In 2007, clips of Williams, along with those of Betty Walker, Belle Barth, Totie Fields, and Jean Carroll, were featured in the Off-Broadway production The J.A.P. Show: Jewish American Princesses of Comedy, which included live standup routines by four female Jewish comics juxtaposed with the stories of legendary performers from the 1950s and 1960s.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

See also[edit]


Further reading[edit]

  • Bronski, Michael (August 15, 2003). "Funny girls talk dirty". Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  • Mock, Roberta (22 July 2020). "15. 'Shut Your Hole, Girlie. Mine's Making Money, Doll': Creative Practice-Research and the Problem of Professionalism". Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness: 221–241. doi:10.1515/9781474463584-020. ISBN 9781474463584. Retrieved 24 October 2023. Williams' closest professional associates were Patsy Abbott (1921-2001), who started her career as a vocalist, and Belle Barth (1911-1971), who billed herself the 'Hildegard of the Underworld' and the 'doyenne of the dirty line'.Open access icon
  • Del Negro, Giovanna P. (2011-10-15). Greenspoon, Leonard (ed.). "The Bad Girls of Jewish Comedy: Gender, Class, Assimilation, and Whiteness in Postwar America". Jews and Humor - Studies in Jewish Civilization. Retrieved 24 October 2023. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the bawdy humor of Belle Barth, Pearl Williams, and Patsy Abbott, a trio of working-class Jewish stand-up comics, enjoyed enormous popularity in the United States.Open access icon

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bronski, Michael (August 15, 2003). "Funny girls talk dirty". Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  2. ^ Kafrissen, Rokhl (May 6, 2020). "Red Hot Yiddishe Mamas". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  3. ^ Mock, Roberta (22 July 2020). "15. 'Shut Your Hole, Girlie. Mine's Making Money, Doll': Creative Practice-Research and the Problem of Professionalism". Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness: 221–241. doi:10.1515/9781474463584-020. ISBN 9781474463584. Retrieved 24 October 2023. Williams' closest professional associates were Patsy Abbott (1921-2001), who started her career as a vocalist, and Belle Barth (1911-1971), who billed herself the 'Hildegard of the Underworld' and the 'doyenne of the dirty line'.Open access icon
  4. ^ "Patsy Abbott". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  5. ^ Brandman, Mariana (1 September 2021). "The Trailblazing Women of Stand-Up Comedy". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  6. ^ "Borscht Capades". The Mickey Katz Story. mickeykatz.cdh.ucla.edu. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Abbott, Patsy". Freedman Catalogue lookup: artist. digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  8. ^ Gaw, Melanie (2021). Joan Rivers: Comedy and Identity on the Road to Fashion Police. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Theses and Dissertations. 2783. Retrieved 24 October 2023.Open access icon
  9. ^ Del Negro, Giovanna P. (2011-10-15). Greenspoon, Leonard (ed.). "The Bad Girls of Jewish Comedy: Gender, Class, Assimilation, and Whiteness in Postwar America". Jews and Humor - Studies in Jewish Civilization. Retrieved 24 October 2023. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the bawdy humor of Belle Barth, Pearl Williams, and Patsy Abbott, a trio of working-class Jewish stand-up comics, enjoyed enormous popularity in the United States.Open access icon
  10. ^ "Patsy Abbott". Apple Music. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  11. ^ Comfort, Stephanie (22 March 2014). "U. S. Miami Beach Florida Jewish Patsy Abbott 10889". flickr. Retrieved 24 October 2023. Matchbook cover. A Concert in Comedy - Twice Nightly. 1950's.
  12. ^ Josh Kun 'If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends' The Musical Comedy of Belle Barth and Pearl WilliamsOpen access icon
  13. ^ "The J.A.P. Show: Jewish American Princesses of Comedy". backstage.com.
  14. ^ "The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy - 2007 Off-Broadway". Broadway World .com.
  15. ^ "The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy". Theatermania. March 8, 2023.
  16. ^ "The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy". iobdb.com.
  17. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (April 23, 2007). "Jewish Women Joking, and Nodding to the Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  18. ^ The J.A.P. Show: Jewish American Princesses of Comedy website
  19. ^ Poll, Carol (August 30, 2011). "Review: 'Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity, Jewish Cultural Series, Volume Two'". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 24 October 2023.

External links[edit]

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