Talk:Clara Ward

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The entry you got for gospel singer Clara Ward says she was born on August 24, 1924, yet I have seen several other references elsewhere saying she was born on April 21, 1924 (Iceberg Radio, Lycos, Music Strands), August 21, 1924 (Artist Direct) and August 24, 1924 (Answers.com).

Many sites play it 'safe' by not saying what date she was born, only giving the year. Question is, what is Clara Ward's true birthday? And why is there this discrepancy?

Good point and good sleuthing. I can't find the definitive answer for this question or think of how to find it, short of going to the hall of records in Philadelphia to look for it, which I am not able to do. Her sister's book doesn't give her birthdate, her headstone does not give a month or day, and I can't find an obituary from 1973 that does. But the majority of sites list her birthdate as April 21, 1924, and the one you cited for August 24 does nothing more than echo the quite probably incorrect date I put in her wikipedia page. I no longer recall where I got that date, but I am correcting it to April 21 with a question mark. --Italo Svevo 21:22, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

I wrote to Clara Ward's sister, Willa, and she wrote back and told me definitively that Clara was born on 'April 21, 1924'. --Agriffinny 03:00, 24 March 2007 (UTC)


== Later Career Details: ==


The Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia's recording of "Surely God Is Able" originally recorded as a 78rpm on the Gotham label and due to contract requirements with Herman Lubinsky reissued on his Savoy label with other material added to make it a full LP, became the first "gold-selling" gospel album in history. Some of her musical influences at this time were Mrs. Queen C. Anderson and the Brewsteraires of Memphis, Tennessee, and the popular radio minister, Rev. Herbert W. Brewster, D.D. Ward's House of music even published a book about Rev. Brewster entitled "The Brewster Book" which included hints and guidelines for church workers. The Ward Singers performed twice for President Lyndon Johnson including at his inaugural ball at Madison Square Garden. The Famous Ward Singer's recordings on the Savoy label were issued in England on the "Realm" label with Savoy's cover photographs in the 1950's and early 1960's.

The Ward Singers had many legendary gospel music hits (Packing Up, We Shall Be Changed, Old Landmark, How I Got Over, He Knows How Much We Can Bear, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Take Your Burdens To The Lord and Leave Them There) and in the 1950's Clara wrote many popular gospel songs which are standards today. As a rule, she never retained residual copyright interests or royalties but sold her material to the record companies outright. At the tme of her death she retained royalties to less than a dozen original compositions. In the 1960's she owned the Ward's House of Music in Philadelphia, PA, which supplied sheet music to choirs and gospel groups all across the United States. Her sister Willa, who had married and no longer toured, managed it and her father assisted with this family business. Ward's House of Music maintained an inventory of over 10,000 different songs. Clara began publishing her own compositions in 1952.

In 1958 she was the first American gospel singer to tour the Holy Land. She traveled with her mother and Rev. C.L. Franklin and the trip was designed with the flair of a honeymoon, with extensions to attend an international religous seminar in London with Rev. Franklin and visiting the Pyramids. Ward's House of Music later published two very popular souvenir books containing Clara's story: "How The Trip To The Holy Land Changed My Life" with many b/w photographs of Clara and her mother in the Holy Land. Gertrude Ward also issued a LP on the Ward label narrating her plane flight and visit to the holy sites she had read about in her Bible and had sung about for so long. Ward's Publishing House also issued three 64-page books entitled: "Special Songs of Clara Ward and The Famous Ward Singers" in Volumes 1, 2 and 3 containing many of the songs they recorded, made famous on tours, and some original compositions. Although out of print, these books are still very much in demand today for choirs and gospel groups to use. Many gospel songs derive themes from Negro spirituals and the Christian religion and Jesus Christ is a focal point, and Clara often doted on the fact that she was the first gospel singer to actually go to the Holy Land and see the land where Jesus was born and had his public ministry. She was never afraid to get involved in controversies and often clashed publicly with Mahalia Jackson regarding the singing of gospel music in nightclubs, the copyright to Mahalia's first hit "Move On Up A Little Higher" which she credited to Rev. Brewster, the hairstyles of her group on stage, their costumes rather than choir robes, and other gospel music issues. She was a pioneer in gospel music and women's rights and excelled as an entrepreneur role model.

While touring in the 1950's, the Famous Ward Singers of Philadephia were so spectacularly successful and popular that they did not even have to advertise or plan for concerts. Clara could drive into a city in the morning in her stretch limousine pulling her wardrobe trailer and book the city auditorium and by word of mouth the auditorium would be full and sold out by that evening for the concert. This was a common occuurrence all over the country with the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia in the 1950's and their recordings are still selling today! There are several reasons for this but the most relevant one is that the musical harmony of this group was perfected through Clara's intense individualized vocal tutoring of the singers. She had the ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of an individual singer, coach and inspire them, and would pick appropriate complimentary musical material and tailor the song's arrangement to bring out the best in the voice of the singer. The Ward Singers always recruited the best singers but then they trained them and took them a step higher.

Clara was especially known in the 1950's for her custom designed airport/stretch limousines for the Ward Singers tours. Her father, George, worked in a steel factory and helped Clara prepare the specifications for these customs vehicles in the 1950's. The Ward Singers' limousines and her wardrobe trailer, which carried her $50,000 wardrobe of gowns and dresses, were photographed for many magazine articles of the day. Of course, the Ward Singers trademark was/is their hairstyle/wigs. It was not completely glamour or show business that necessitated the limousines because racial discrimination made transportation and booking hotels difficult for Afro-Americans in the 1950's in America. It is to the Ward Singer's credit that in the 1950's they traveled almost a million miles a year by limousine, had to buy a new car every year, and never had an automobile accident.

In September of 1960, Newsweek Magazine reported her annual income in gospel music as being one million dollars. International touring, domestic touring, several recording contracts including Vanguard Records and other work including Disneyland and Las Vegas shows continued in the 1960's. Movie appearances included "A Time To Sing", "Night Time In Las Vegas" a/k/a "Spree", "It's Your Thing" and she also appeared in "Viva Las Vegas" with Elvis Presley at his request; however, the Clara Ward Singers segment was surreptitiousy edited out of the final release of the Presley movie. Clara Ward and Dinah Washington were long time friends from Philadelphia and when they were both appearing at different hotels on the Las Vegas strip in the early 1960's, the Ward Singers would finish their show first and march over to Dinah's hotel and sing on stage with her: everyone, including the audience, loved it. Also, Clara's own shows were popular with the Hollywood stars doing shows in Vegas. When the top names would finish their shows, many would get a table at the Ward's shows and ejoy it.

In 1969 Clara Ward entered into a very successful business relationship with professional booking agent Monte Kay and this resulted in over a dozen appearances on national TV for the Clara Ward Singers that year. They also had their own one-day TV special in London, England. Clara opened on March 11, 1969, in Las Vegas at "The Desert Inn Hotel". It was the first time that the "Desert Inn" had booked an Afro-American entertainer. Clara had already been popular in Las Vegas at other casinos and hotels and performed regularly (mostly summers) at the Golden Horseshoe Club in Disneyland. Three albums were recorded for Disney by the Ward Singers and issued in Europe and the States.

The advent of a new booking agent meant more bookings in international venues. In 1970 Clara Ward took her group to Europe for seven months. In February of 1971 Clara Ward and the Ward Singers recorded an album on the Verve/MGM label in Europe entitled "The Heart, Faith and Soul of Clara Ward". In April 1971 the Ward Singers toured colleges in America. In the summer of 1971 Clara toured night clubs for three months. When fall came she went back on the college circuit. On September 6th and 9th, 1971, Gertrude Ward toured with her Ward Singers group. On September 25, 1971, Clara Ward and Singers filmed the first of two Flip Wilson TV episodes they would appear in This first show aired on November 18, 1971 (partial clip available on www.youtube.com). On this show they also sang several songs recently released on Nashboro NA 7098. On November 19, 1971, Clara Ward appeared at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Clara and her mother also appeared at the live recording session of Aretha Franklin's "Amazing Grace" album at Institutional Baptist Church in Los Angeles and her picture appears on the original gate-fold Atlantic album cover.

From 1969 to 1972, Clara Ward worked on several projects with the late Shannon Williams at Nashboro Records in Nashville, Tennessee. She recorded two albums in Los Angeles at Ray Charles' Tangerine Recording Studio and sent the tapes to Shannon in Nashville for release on Nashboro as "The Gospel Soul of Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers", Nashboro NA 7098, and "Vision of Truth", Nashboro NA 7103. She later traveled to Nashville and was the lead vocalist for a choir album directed by Charles May, one of Brother Joe May's seven children. The background choir consisted of the famous BC&M Choir and the 21st Century Singers; the album was released as "Essence" Nashboro NA 7108. Other studio work for Nashboro consisted of gospel singles not released on the other albums, posthumously released. Clara Ward and the Clara Ward Singers also appeared at a concert at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, recorded live by Nashboro Records, with other gospel acts, and these recordings were posthumously released. Nashboro's master archives devolved to MCA Records in Hollywood and appears to have merged with Dot Records' archives and some of Clara Ward's Dot and Nashboro material has been reissued on CD's in the 1980's on into the 21st century, including two songs previously unreleased. Some of these recordings have been severely edited from their original production sound in their CD issuance and significant background tracks have been deleted.

Many people assert that Clara Ward suffered from the "Jean Harlow Syndrome", suggesting that her mother played an undue influence on her life and career and restricted her personal relationships and activities to further show business career goals. Evidence exists for and against this view of their mother-daughter relationship.

On December 9, 1972, Clara Ward, at the age of 48 with untreated high blood pressure and other health problems, suffered a stroke while at her Baldwin Hills home she shared with her mother. A few weeks later on December 31, 1972, in the evening, she suffered another stroke; nursing and medical care was given to Clara at home but she was eventually moved to UCLA Medical Center in January of 1973 and put on life support for a while but she never regained consciousness. Clara Ward's obituary was published in the New York Times.

Clara Mae Ward and her mother, Evangelist Gertrude Ward, who survived her by nine years and continued a subsiding career in gospel music, are both interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Clara's sister and original member of the Ward Gospel Trio, Willa Ward-Royster, who wrote a book about the group, lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and still occasionally performs (2007).

All of the above information is still verifiable in books, period magazine articles, R.I.A.A., business records, entertainment agencies, BMI, ASCAP, newspaper archives (including Marvin Bunton's Gospel News Journal), album covers and other media. I have tried to avoid duplication. 68.211.3.188 05:16, 17 February 2007 (UTC)F.F.Etienne