Historical Legend Herb Jeffries The Bronze Buckaroo
FIRST SINGING BLACK COWBOY MOVIE STAR, LEAD SINGER OF THE DUKE ELLINGTON BAND AND VINTAGE RENAISSANCE MAN (Sept 1913-May 2014)
I was privileged to meet Herb Jeffries when he was 90 years old. Even though we met late in life (his) we became fast friends immediately. That’s just the kind of man Herb was. He never met a stranger. I was very lucky to benefit from his wisdom during the 2 times we spent a few days together and the 10 years we knew each other.
Herb Jeffries entertainer, movie star, songwriter, author, and lead singer of the Duke Ellington Band hardly sum up the life and times of this legendary and renaissance man. He was born in a Detroit ghetto to an Irish mother and a father of mixed Sicilian, French, Italian and Moorish heritage (who Herb never knew). He had a great-grandmother with some Ethiopian heritage but Herb Jeffries, the First Black Singing Cowboy Movie Star was not Black, nor African-American, at all.
After his father died in WWI, Herb’s mother remarried an Ethiopian jazz enthusiast named Howard Jeffrey. Herb was heavily influenced by his stepfather’s passion for music and began singing as a teen. Tall for his age he began singing in nightclubs in Detroit at age 17. When Herb realized his 4 1/2 octave range would be his ticket out of the Detroit ghetto where he was born he began to dream of a life of adventure, travel, and success. Born Umberto Alexander Valentino, he took a variation of his stepfather’s name Jeffrey and became Herb Jeffries singer.
While singing in a Detroit nightclub he met the famous Louis Armstrong. After hearing Herb sing, Armstrong encouraged him to go to a Jazz Club in Chicago and even gave him a note on a napkin to get him in for an audition. He hitched a ride to Chicago and finally got up the courage after about three days to audition for the club owner to play in an all-black jazz band. When the man questioned Jeffries’ racial make-up, he spontaneously capitalized on his dark, curly Italian hair and French features by claiming he was “Creole.” He also knew Louis was from New Orleans. Herb got the job, but that split-second decision would stay with him for the rest of his life. As he gained experience, he began singing with the big Black bands and went out on the road.
Touring with a band through the South, Jeffries saw hundreds of blacks lined up at movie theaters waiting to see Gene Autry and Roy Rogers singing cowboy films. He was astonished, but recognizing a great opportunity he began thinking about how to make a Black Singing Cowboy movie with black actors.
Herb persuaded a Hollywood producer he bumped into in a Chicago diner to make cowboy movies with black actors for black audiences. When they couldn’t find a singer who could also ride a horse, Jeffries became the leading man and ended up starring in the films. Herb had ridden a mule on his grandfather’s farm growing up. The producer thought Herb’s skin wasn’t dark enough so Herb wore dark makeup and rarely took his white Cowboy Hat off. The producer also thought Herbert Jeffrey sounded better so that became his movie star name.
Herb starred in the movies, wrote some of the songs, and sang as well as performed his own stunts in what became a series of westerns in the late 1930s. He played singing cowboy character “Bob Blake” and rode a white horse named “Star Dusk.” The movies included: “Harlem on the Prairie,” (1937) “Two-Gun Man from Harlem,” (1938) “Harlem Rides the Range,” (1939), and “The Bronze Buckaroo,” (1939) the most famous, along with three more that were lost to history. They were a part of the first talking movies.
The films were distributed in segregated theaters throughout the South by a Dallas distribution company. Known as “The Bronze Buckaroo,” Herb became America’s first Black Singing movie hero. Herb was proud to provide encouragement and hope to children and adults of color during the early days of film.
In the meantime, Duke Ellington had caught “The Bronze Buckaroo” at the Apollo Theatre. In late 1939, Duke invited him to come up on stage and sing with the band when Herb was in the audience at a concert in Detroit. Duke made Herb an offer he couldn’t refuse as “Singing” was his real dream. Herb gave up his movie career to become the lead singer for the Duke Ellington Band and toured with the band for 10 years. In 1942, he had a Billboard hit called “Flamingo” with the band which went Platinum and is still selling 75 years later. Jazz lovers from all over the world also love his remarkable renditions of “Angel Eyes,” “Old Man River,” “Satin Doll,” and “That Old Black Magic.”
Herb contended that everything he knew about style and clothes he learned from Ellington, but he never could get away from his love of cowboys. It didn’t take long for him to create his own “Jeffries Style” with cowboy boots, leather vests or fringed jackets, and big cowboy hats which he wore when not on stage.
His career on a roll, Herb’s life was rosy but a dramatic event in 1948 almost ended it all. The plane he had borrowed from Mickey Rooney crashed on a routine flight from Las Vegas to San Fernando Valley and he seriously injured his back. Doctors wanted to operate but with no guarantees at that time, Herb refused treatment.
He suffered extreme pain for months until his aunt recommended a book “Autobiography of a Yogi.” Being a man of action, Herb found the location of the yogi, went there, and demanded an appointment. When the Yogi heard the ruckus, he came out and consented to see Herb. He began studying yoga under the master and in eight months his pain was gone.
Herb practiced yoga every morning and every evening for the rest of his life and attributed his excellent mobility to these exercises which kept him fit, ageless and actively performing up until age 98.
Although he enjoyed a lucrative nightclub career, he fondly recalls his experiences as a screen and television actor. His post-War body of work in television and movies is often overlooked. Starting with the 1951 film “Disc Jockey” which boasted a host of big band personalities; he appeared in twelve pictures, four of which were made for television.
With the civil unrest in America in the 1960s, Herb traveled overseas where he continued to perform and found another career as a nightclub owner. Opening his own nightclub in Paris, Herb entertained many celebrities including Orson Welles, Ali Khan, and King Farouk of Egypt.
When he returned to the United States he took up acting again. Herb’s notable television guest appearances included “Gunsmoke,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “The Virginian,” and the voice of the Freight Train in the 1970’s cartoon series “Where’s Huddles.” He also composed several motion picture soundtracks during those years. Herb’s last film appearance was in 1996 in “The Cherokee Kid” with Sinbad, James Coburn, and the great Gregory Hines. Then the 1999 American Movie Classic documentary on film preservation entitled “Keepers of the Flame” became his final film appearance.
At age 81, Herb recorded a Nashville album of songs on the Warner Western label title “The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again.” In 2003, he was inducted into the first class of the National Cowboys of Color Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas (now the National Multicultural Museum and Hall of Fame), and honored at a special White House celebration during Duke Ellington month when George W. Bush was President.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Herb finally received recognition for his contribution to the motion picture industry, when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6672 Hollywood Boulevard in 2005.
Herb continued his multifaceted career through lectures, concerts, recordings, and writings. His voice remained as powerful at the end of his life as it was when he broke barriers and opened up a world for many others.
At a Vintage (Herb’s word) 100 years, he went to sing in the heavenly choir. Herb loved people and throughout his years was consciously filled with an unbound enthusiasm and respect for life. Herb believed “there is only one race, the human race.” We should all be so intentional in our daily living.
We will see you on the other side, my fine Vintage friend.
NOTE: We will be sharing weekly narrations of Historical Legend stories from different professional voices. You will get a taste with Part 1 of Herb Jeffries First Black Singing Cowboy Movie Star Podcast (a future article), but Part 2 Herb Jeffries Lead Singer of the Duke Ellington Band Podcast and the rest of the narrations and other special content will only be available to Paid Members.