Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall began her stage career in 1921 in the Broadway production of Shuffle Along, followed by Runnin' Wild in 1923. In 1925, she toured Europe with the Chocolate Kiddies revue. She appeared in My Magnolia and Tan Town Topics in 1926 before touring the United States in Desires of 1927. In 1927, she recorded "Creole Love Call" and "The Blues I Love To Sing" with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. She starred alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in Blackbirds of 1928, which ran on Broadway for 518 performances before transferring to Paris' Moulin Rouge in 1929. Hall and Robinson reunited for the Broadway musical Brown Buddies in 1930.

Throughout the 1930s, Hall performed in international concerts and musical revues, including a world concert tour in 1931–1932 and the Stormy Weather Revue in 1933. She starred in Chocolate Soldiers at the Apollo Theater in 1934 and The Cotton Club Parade 24th Edition that same year, introducing the songs "Ill Wind" and "Primitive Prima Donna." Her film credits included On the Air and Off (1933) and An All-Colored Vaudeville Show (1935). After touring the United States and Canada in 1935, she moved to Paris, where she starred in the Black and White Revue in 1936 and recorded with Kai Ewans and His Orchestra in 1937.

In 1938, Hall moved to the United Kingdom to star in the stage musical The Sun Never Sets at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She subsequently appeared in BBC television productions including Harlem in Mayfair (1939), Dark Sophistication (1939) and Kentucky Minstrels (1939), and headlined the BBC Radio variety show Piccadixie from 1939 to 1941. Her film credits included The Thief of Bagdad (1940), and she appeared in the BBC television production Variety in Sepia in 1947. Other screen credits included A World Is Turning (1948), Rooftop Rendezvous (1949) and Caribbean Carnival (1949).

Hall continued performing on stage and television in the following decades. Her theater credits included Kiss Me, Kate (1951), Love From Judy (1952), Someone to Talk To (1956), Jamaica (1957) and Flower Drum Song (1958). She appeared in Janie Jones in 1968 and recorded jazz music with Humphrey Lyttelton in 1969 and 1970. Her later television credits included Looks Familiar (1974), What Is Jazz (1974), It Don't Mean a Thing (1976) and Parkinson (1981).

Hall returned to the United States in 1980 to appear in the musical revue Black Broadway at New York's Town Hall, followed by performances at the Playboy Jazz Festival and Avery Fisher Hall. Her later appearances included the television documentaries Omnibus: The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz and The Real Cotton Club (both 1985), a concert at London's Barbican Centre in 1986, and one-woman shows at Carnegie Hall and the King's Head Theatre in 1988. In 1990, she starred in the Channel 4 documentary Sophisticated Lady. Her final U.S. concert appearances took place at Carnegie Hall in 1992 as part of the Cabaret Comes to Carnegie series.

She died on 7 November 1993.