Kenneth Spencer

American operatic singer and actor Kenneth Spencer (1911-1964) starred in a few Broadway musicals and musical films in the United States during the 1940s. Frustrated with the racial prejudice he experienced in the United States as a black man, Spencer moved to West Germany in 1950, where he had a successful singing career. He also appeared in several German films. His career was cut short when he died in the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 304 in 1964.


West German postcard by Agfa, no. 527.


West German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 410. Photo: Columbia.

Only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance

Kenneth Lee Spencer was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1911 (according to some sources 1913). He was the son of a steelworker and initially trained as a gardener. Against his father's wishes, he took private vocal lessons while working as a gardener. Eventually, he caught the attention of the tenor Roland Hayes who helped him to get a scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.

After completing his four-year vocal studies in 1938, Spencer tried to get a performing career going but met many obstacles due to racial prejudice in the United States. In 1938 he sang in the Federal Music Project NBC Blue radio opera 'Gettysburg', first at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, then at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1940 he was the understudy for Paul Robeson in the short-lived Broadway musical 'John Henry'. His professional recital debut in 1941 at New York City's Town Hall followed this.

During the early 1940s, Spencer made his first major successes in California as a Hollywood Bowl concert artist and radio performer. This led to his being cast in significant parts in two MGM films in 1943, the musical Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) where he shared the screen with Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, and Louis Armstrong, and the War film Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943) starring Robert Taylor.

Spencer also sang offscreen the commenting ballad in A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone, 1945). He returned to Broadway to portray Joe in the critically acclaimed 1946 revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's 'Show Boat', where he sang 'Ol' Man River'. The revival was highly successful, running almost exactly a year, and this was remarkable at the time for a revival of a play or musical. This was the first American production of 'Show Boat' to receive a full-fledged Broadway cast album, rather than just a studio cast recording.

Despite his popularity, Kenneth Spencer was repeatedly discriminated against as a black man in the USA and was only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance, for example. Through his performances, Spencer supported organisations that worked to improve the legal and social situation of the African-American population, for example in 1941 for the ‘Harlem Committee of the Community Service Society’ and in 1946, already as an established artist, at an event organised by the National Negro Congress.


West German promotion card by Columbia, no. DrW 2886 c.


West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, no. 2226. Photo: H.D. / Europa / Czerwonski. Kenneth Spencer in Mein Bruder Josua / My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956).

Popularity in France and Germany

In 1949 Kenneth Spencer's life changed after performing in Europe for the first time at the International Music Festival in Nice. The European public responded with enthusiasm to his performance and he was soon getting offers to perform all over Europe. It was the first time Spencer experienced a working environment and culture not hindered by racial prejudice.

In Paris, he met the white American journalist Josephine Clarke. However, the two did not marry until they were living in Europe, as marriage between a white woman and a man of colour was a criminal offence in more than half of the US states at the time. In 1953, Spencer became the father of a son. In 1950 he returned to Europe to sing in several radio broadcasts with the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française and perform in several highly lauded concerts in Berlin, including performances with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Spencer was so enamoured with the German public and frustrated with the meagre opportunities he found as a black artist in America that he moved his family to Wuppertal, West Germany in late 1950. Spencer spent the next 14 years in Germany performing in concerts, operas and plays. In 1951, he performed in the French film Les joyeux pélerins/The Merry Pilgrims (Fred Pasquali, 1951) starring Aimé Barelli and his orchestra. He also appeared in a few German films such as Tanzende Sterne/Dancing Stars (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) starring Germaine Damar, An jedem Finger zehn/Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954) and Mein Bruder Josua/My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956) starring Willy A. Kleinau and Ingrid Andree. His final film role was in the West German adventure film Unser Haus in Kamerun/Our House in Cameroon (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) starring Johanna von Koczian and Götz George.

His ability to perform not only Spirituals and classical music but also folk songs in their original languages (French, German, Italian, Russian, Hebrew) won him much popularity in France and post-war Germany. He made many recordings with Columbia Masterworks Records during the 1950s and 1960s which consisted of classical music, spirituals, and folk songs. In 1964, Kenneth Spencer travelled to the United States without his family to support the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with a concert tour.

On the return flight, the Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-8 crashed over Lake Pontchartrain in the Mississippi estuary after a stopover in New Orleans. It happened shortly after take-off on 25 February 1964 at 02:06 local time. All 58 occupants of the aircraft, including Spencer and the French women's rights activist Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux, were killed. The passengers were only recovered from the water weeks later. The final findings of the CAB/NTSB were issued in 1966, indicating that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence from which there was insufficient altitude to recover. Kenneth Spencer was 52.


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1255. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).


West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag G.m.b. H., Minden/Westf., no. 1333. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).

Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.