Secrets of Black Philadelphia: North Philadelphia
Today, she's the most famous 88-year-old Logan resident that no one recognizes on the street. But from the 1930s into the 1970s, Willa Ward helped bring down the house at some of the biggest houses there were, including 500 shows at Radio City Music Hall during the height of her fame in the 1960s.
PERSON
The last of the singing
Ward women
Today, she's the most famous 88-year-old Logan resident that no one recognizes on the street. But from the 1930s into the 1970s, Willa Ward helped bring down the house at some of the biggest houses there were, including 500 shows at Radio City Music Hall during the height of her fame in the 1960s.
Ward and her superstar sister, Clara, toured with their mother for 20 years as the gospel trio Gertrude Ward and Daughters, then splintered when the demand to hear them sing was so extreme that each formed a group of her own. Together, they were the first gospel group to sell a million copies of a hit song — "Surely, God is Able" — and they became the toast of TV's early variety and talk shows, performing for Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore and Johnny Carson.
Although the Wards didn't invent the word "bling," they helped pioneer the concept of glitzy dazzle in the gospel-music biz. "We wore sequined gowns. They had a limousine made for us," Ward recalls. (It was purple.) "My mother loved the flash."
At one point, Clara and Liberace had a contest to see who could be more flamboyant. Clara won.
Clara Ward died young, after a stroke at age 48, but Willa was still performing as recently as a year ago at local venues ranging from senior centers to the Keswick Theatre. Now under doctor's orders not to sing, she still goes out on the town with a swanky quartet of accomplished musician friends who call themselves "the old girls" and frequent the Monday- night jazz sets at LaRose on Germantown Avenue.
You'll know she's in the house if a ringleted sprite of a certain age walks through the door and the musicians stand to acknowledge her. "When she comes in, they get up and applaud," said jazz drummer and fellow old girl Toni Rose, author of Ward's biography, "How I Got Over." (Myrtle Young and Dottie Smith are the two other gals in their swanky pack.)
PLACE
Harriet Tubman's new block
It wasn't so long ago that Harriet Tubman, the renowned abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, kept watch over 9th and Chestnut streets from a commemorative Mural Arts Program mural on the old I. Goldberg flagship store. Then the site was sold to a parking-garage developer, and in 2002 Tubman came tumbling down.
She quietly arose again in 2007, when artist Sam Donovan, who had created the original Tubman mural, returned to Philly and painted a second mural in her honor — this time on Germantown Avenue in the Fairhill neighborhood, near 6th and Diamond streets.
Joining her on the new mural are some noteworthy Underground Railroad conductors, patrons and passengers. Among them are Philly's Robert Purvis and Cheltenham's Lucretia Mott — both buried at the Historic Fair HillBurial Ground, across the street — and Jacob Blockson, a former slave who escaped to freedom and is an ancestor of African-American historian Charles L. Blockson (see below).
Mural Arts is running a Black History Month trolley tour on Feb. 21 that will visit Donovan's "Tribute to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad" and 39 other murals — all either dedicated to or painted by noteworthy African-Americans.
The two-hour tour leaves from Warmdaddy's restaurant at 10 a.m. and returns there for lunch. Tickets are $45, including the meal, and reservations are required. Call 215-685-0754 to reserve a seat.
Blockson's Obamarabilia
The celebrated black-history archivist Charles L. Blockson is officially retired. But that didn't stop him from gathering up every lawn sign, bumper sticker and magazine cover he could lay his hands on from Barack Obama's presidential campaign and inauguration. "As a collector, it's a conditioned response," he said.
Lucky us.
Thanks to Blockson's industry, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University already has two display cases brimming with ephemera from the historic 2008 election and the inauguration last month.
There are campaign buttons and campaign posters, including an "I Want You" broadside with Obama as Uncle Sam urging college students to register to vote in the state where they go to school. There's the infamous Obama fist-bump cover from the New Yorker. There's the 22-karat porcelain Obama Victory Plate, courtesy of Blockson's daughter, Noelle, and a book of Barack Obama paper dolls. Inexplicably there's the Obama pancake mix, labeled "Change You Can Taste."
The Blockson Collection is housed at Sullivan Hall at 1330 W. Berks St. on the Temple campus and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Blockson's Obamarabilia will be on display all month.