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S39E1: The Disappearance of Miss Scott | Preview

The Disappearance of Miss Scott [ASL]

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Learn about jazz virtuoso and screen superstar Hazel Scott, the first Black American to have their own television show. An early civil rights pioneer, she faced down the Red Scare at the risk of losing her career and was a champion for equality. This version contains on-screen ASL interpretation.

TRANSCRIPT

- Just a minute.

Who do you wanna see?

- I'm Hazel Scott.

We're here for the audition.

- Oh, Miss Scott!

Yes, they're waiting for you.

Go right in.

(jazzy music) - It's always bold for an artist to say that they want to step on the front line or be in the back of the line that urges the crowd to move forward, and Hazel was always ahead of this curve too.

- When I think of Hazel Scott, I think of her as a pianist, I think of her as an actress, I think of her as a singer, I think of her as an activist.

And you add all those things up.

She's absolutely unique.

(jazzy music continues) - You have someone, some 70, 80 years ago, who challenged the way Blacks were portrayed in media, in Hollywood.

- She's at the forefront of what would happen in later decades with the Civil Rights Movement.

- There had never been a Black performer who had their own show ever in television, and here's this glamorous Black woman who's breaking all of these barriers with this one TV show.

♪ Let me sing a lullaby ♪ ♪ A lullaby ♪ ♪ Of Birdland ♪ - She had incredible confidence and that would sometimes get her in trouble.

♪ Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I ♪ - She was targeted because of her outspokenness on civil rights.

- She ripped them to shreds, and it costs her everything.

- [Interviewee] If you fight the establishment, you're not very popular with it.

- The meeting will come to order.

- [Interviewee] And everything is done to remove you from public memory.

♪ And there's a weepy old willow ♪ ♪ He really knows how to cry ♪ - Well, I'm kind of embarrassed to even say this, but the first time I really heard of Hazel was during Alicia Keys' tribute at the Grammys when she was playing the two pianos.

- I've been thinking so much about the people and the music that have inspired me, and I wanna give a shout-out to Hazel Scott, 'cause I always wanted to play two pianos.

(jazzy music) - I spent the last 15 some odd years learning about music, and this was the first time I ever even came across her, just by randomly seeing her video online.

And she just blew my mind.

And I think that that really speaks volumes to what this documentary is really about.

- It is always just so distressing to me, the amount of hidden figures that we have within Black America and its history.

(jazzy music continues) (audience applauding)