Talk:Ivie Anderson

Birth date / Death date

The American National Biography says: born 10th July 1905; died 27th or 28th December 1949... this is totally different. --APPER 18:15, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Appreciation

I added this small section form the LP sleeve notes to the 1972 Ellington collection 'In a Mellotone' which I happen to have. Not sure if this exists anywhere on the WWW so AGF please my fellow editors. SmokeyTheCat 17:04, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Critique

The Wikipedia article on Ivie Anderson is predominantly credible since most but not all the information in the article is accurate. It gives a general summary of Anderson’s life without much detail and includes important events that occurred. The Wikipedia article is not as precise and informative as the compared article, “Anderson, Ivie,” published by Barry Kernfeld, a jazz scholar and musician on American National Biography. In addition, the Wikipedia article does not include specific references or footnotes as to where exactly the information can be found. On the other hand, Kernfeld offers exactly where statements in his article can be found. Initially, before Ivie Anderson’s career is explained, Kernfeld provides an in depth description of Anderson’s family background as well as her childhood. He starts off with her birthplace Gilroy, California which is incorrectly stated as Louisiana in the Wikipedia article. He also points out that Anderson’s mother’s name was unknown but was able to find the name of her father, Jobe Smith. In addition, Kernfeld explains briefly how Anderson grew to be involved around the music industry starting from when she studied voice at St. Mary’s Convent until age thirteen and pursuing opportunities that would allow her to practice singing in glee club and choral society. Her singing interest grew with her as she entered Nunnie H. Burroughs Institution in Washington D.C. and eventually studied voice under Sara Ritt. Most if not all the information about Anderson’s family and childhood was excluded from the Wikipedia article. Kernfeld also includes a whole section on the start of Anderson’s singing career, describing how she first performed in Los Angeles, California around 1921 and eventually becoming part of the touring African-American musical revue Shuffle Along. He also states Anderson’s participations in other groups and performances such as the Cotton Club in New York City in 1925 and accompanying Clay’s group to sing in Australia in 1928 but later touring America as a solo singer. This information, however, was not included in the Wikipedia article but includes only the later events in Anderson’s life. Kernfeld’s overall description of Anderson’s life from childhood to her official singing career is organized in chronological order. Meanwhile the Wikipedia article includes brief information about her birth and immediately follows with a description of Anderson’s best known works. Kernfeld states that she spent twenty weeks with Earl Hines’s band in 1930 until she finally settled in Ellington’s band around 1931, lasting for the next twenty years that she stayed in the music business. Although it may seem that Anderson did not have stable career, when she joined Ellington’s band, her singing career was at its peak. Several of her performances with the band became widely well known and even became part of short films such as Bundle of Blues (1933) and movies such as A Day at the Races (1937). Kernfeld also gives a more organized explanation on Anderson’s departure from Ellington’s band in 1942 when she developed asthma and was not able to sing. Further information about her personal affairs such as her marriage with Marque Neal and second marriage to Walter Collins were both excluded from the Wikipedia article. Kernfeld explains that she started Ivie’s Chicken Shack when she married Marque Neal but later sold the business when their divorce took place and remarried. Although such events took place, Kernfeld states that the dates of her marriages and divorce were unknown. Kernfeld includes an extraordinary fact that Anderson’s earliest obituary was dated as 27 December 1949 but many sources stated it as 28 December 1949. This creates an interesting mystery to the biography as well as a more detailed response compared to the Wikipedia article that only stated the age of Anderson’s death. However, the Wikipedia article gives the exact location of where Anderson was interred which is the Angelus- Rosedale Cemetery. Finally, both Kernfeld and the Wikipedia article give a somewhat similar take on what is named the “Appreciation” section in the Wikipedia article. Kernfeld makes a clear connection between Anderson and a vocalist, Alice Babs who was also a singer in Ellington’s band. He explains why Anderson can be considered “Ellington’s most versatile singer” (Kernfeld) and the similarities that Babs and her shared. It is also mentioned that Ellington wrote Music Is My Mistress (1973) with Anderson in mind which provokes a though about her relationship with Ellington as well as the impact she might have had on him when she was alive. The Wikipedia article can be greatly improved by providing more information of Anderson’s family, childhood, and early life as an aspiring singer. The most important sections of the article about Anderson’s life lacks too much detail. On the other hand, the compared text included specific chronological events and how each event affected one another. This shows the minimal effort put into the development of the Wikipedia article. In addition, the references and footnotes should be improved as well because the article only provided four references that could be observed. Another issue is that the qualities of the references appear to be unscholarly because all the external links given mainly include two to three sentences about who Ivie Anderson is. The lack of details in the bibliography is probably due to the lack of information in the references such as “Duke Ellington society newsletter”, which makes the Wikipedia article difficult to rely on for accuracy because it doesn’t include authors or dates. The “Talk” page in the Wikipedia site only states two possible weaknesses of the article including the date of death and a request to add one piece of information in the “Appreciation” section of the article. It is also seen that the article is rated “Stub-class” and “Low-importance” meaning that the article’s quality is low and needs improvement but is not considered important enough to require immediate attention and improvement. This proves that there is much needed growth ad improvement on Ivie Anderson’s bibliography on the Wikipedia site. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Szhang814 (talk • contribs) 20:09, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

You could have just improved this Wikipedia article with the information you found in that other source, and then anyone would have free access to good information about this person. Why did you choose to write this essay instead of just improving the article? Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:28, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Good question. I concur. SmokeyTheCat 13:17, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Substantial information missing

I agree with "Critique", especially in the following assessment of the article: "This shows the minimal effort put into the development of the Wikipedia article." I hardly recognized her after reading the article. Everyone knows she was put in that convent because she was orphaned and her mother died. She stayed with Duke Ellington's band longer than any other singer and she really was the "salt" that gave Duke's band that sense of spontaneity and personality that won over the audience. There is a video of her with Duke's band on YouTube where Ivie really shows her unique no-gimmick talent: she could sing, dance, and act! I remember reading a nice article about her several years ago explaining her retirement and why she bought the chicken restaurant to have something to do since it was difficult for her to tour with her asthmatic condition. She did not want to leave Duke's band. The 1930 Federal Census shows that she was born in Oklahoma, and was already married and divorced before she joined Duke Ellington's band, was living at 756 E 52nd Place in Los Angeles with her 75 y/o grandmother, Mrs. Frances Jones, and an 11 year old cousin; (her mother and father were also born in Oklahoma), and she listed her occupation as a club entertainer. They had a live-in maid. So, Ivie had some family besides her two or three husbands, and someone has some pictures and other documentation on her career. There also may be some more information in Duke Ellington's papers which were acquired by the Smithsonian Institute in 1988 with the help of Federal funds. So, it's very easy to see how some nice pictures of her during her pioneering national show business career can be obtained and links to videos of her performing. 97.76.210.2 (talk)FFE97.76.210.2 (talk) follow-up and agreement with "Critique" —Preceding undated comment added 19:08, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

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