Editing Herb Jeffries (section)

==Early life and ethnicity==
Jeffries was born Umberto Alexander Valentino in [[Detroit]] to a white [[Irish people|Irish]] mother<ref name=IMDB/><ref name="NY Times">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/arts/music/herb-jeffries-singing-star-of-black-cowboy-films-dies-at-100.html?_r=0|title=Herb Jeffries-Singing Star of Black Cowboy Films Dies at 100|date=May 27, 2014|publisher=NY Times}}</ref> who ran a [[rooming house]]. His father, whom he never knew, was of mixed  [[French people|French Canadian]], [[Italians|Italian]] and [[Moors|Moorish]] roots.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/transcripts/316339183 Transcript], npr.org. Accessed March 24, 2022.</ref><ref name="EncyclJazz">Feather, Leonard. "Jeffries, Herb" profile, ''Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' (Oxford UP, 1999). p. 354.</ref><ref name="BBC">Manzoor, Sarfraz. "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01r9sks/ From Our Own Correspondent – The Black Cowboy]." ''BBC Radio 4.'' First aired on March 21, 2013. Segment on Jeffries begins at 22:10. Accessed March 22, 2013.</ref><ref name="Centenary">{{cite news|last=Fessier |first=Bruce |title=Bruce Fessier: At 100, age is just a number for jazz legend Herb Jeffries |newspaper=[[The Desert Sun]] |publisher=[[Gannett Company]] |date=2013-09-24 |url=http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130923/LIFESTYLES0111/309230018/Bruce-Fessier-100-age-just-number-jazz-legend-Herb-Jeffries |access-date=2013-09-25 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130925173457/http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130923/LIFESTYLES0111/309230018/Bruce-Fessier-100-age-just-number-jazz-legend-Herb-Jeffries |archive-date=September 25, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="BGMI">"Jeffries, Herb" profile at [http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/BrowseSeriesServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=BDMI&edition Biography and Genealogy Master Index] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130102065400/http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/BrowseSeriesServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=BDMI&edition |date=January 2, 2013 }} (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013); accessed March 23, 2013.</ref> He also claimed that his paternal great-grandmother was an Ethiopian with the surname of [[Carey (surname)|Carey]].<ref name="Tbbroits">{{cite news|title=The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Off Into The Sunset|url=http://wmra.org/post/bronze-buckaroo-rides-sunset|access-date=2 June 2014|agency=WMRA}}</ref>

Firm evidence of Jeffries's race and age is hard to come by, but [[census]] documents from 1920 described him as [[mulatto]] and listed his father as a black man named Howard Jeffrey. Jeffries himself, late in life, said that Howard Jeffrey was his stepfather, and his biological father was Domenico Balentino, a Sicilian who died in [[World War I]].<ref name="NY Times"/> Jeffries once described himself in an interview as "three-eighths Negro", claiming pride in an [[African-American]] heritage during a period when many light-skinned black performers were attempting "[[Passing (racial identity)|to pass]]" as all-white in an effort to broaden their commercial appeal. In marked contrast, Jeffries used [[make-up]] to darken his skin in order to pursue a career in jazz and to be seen as employable by the leading all-black musical ensembles of the day.<ref name="BBC"/>

Much later in his career, Jeffries identified as white for economic or highly personal reasons. ''[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]'' reported that Jeffries identified as White and stated his "real" name as "Herbert Jeffrey Ball" on an application in order to marry [[Tempest Storm]] in 1959.<ref name="Jet">Johnson, John H., ed. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=mkEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=herb+jeffries Herb Jeffries Lists Self 'White']". ''Jet''. June 11, 1959. pp. 48–49; accessed March 22, 2013.</ref> Jeffries told the reporter for ''Jet'':{{blockquote|text=... I'm not [[Passing (racial identity)|passing]], I never have, I never will. For all these years I've been wavering about the color question on the blanks. Suddenly I decided to fill in the blank the way I look and feel. Look at my blue eyes, look at my brown hair, look at my color. What color do you see?" he demanded to know. "My mother was 100 per cent white," Jeffries said, his blue eyes glinting in the New York sun. "My father is Portuguese, Spanish, American Indian, and Negro. How in the hell can I identify myself as one race or another?"<ref name="Jet"/>}}

Raised in Detroit, Jeffries grew up "a ghetto baby"<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10964481/Herb-Jeffries-obituary.html|title= Herb Jeffries-obituary|date=July 13, 2014|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> in a mixed neighborhood without encountering severe racism as a child. In the aftermath of the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]], he dropped out of high school to earn a living as a singer.<ref name=telegraph/> He showed great interest in singing during his formative teenage years and was often found hanging out with the Howard Buntz Orchestra at various Detroit ballrooms.<ref name=IMDB/> Intensely musical from boyhood, he began performing in a local [[speakeasy]], where he caught the attention of [[Louis Armstrong]], who gave the teenager a note of recommendation for [[Erskine Tate]] at the [[Savoy Ballroom (Chicago)|Savoy Ballroom]] in Chicago. Knowing that Tate fronted an all-black band, Jeffries claimed to be a [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] and was offered a position as a featured singer three nights a week. Later he toured with [[Earl Hines|Earl "Fatha" Hines]]'s Orchestra in the [[Deep South]].<ref name=telegraph/>

A 2007 [[documentary film|documentary]] [[short film|short]] describes Jeffries as "assuming the identity of a man of color" early in his career.<ref name="Bailey">{{cite web| first1= Betty |last1= Bailey |first2= Carol |last2= Lynde |url= http://myhero.com/go/films/view_quicktime.asp?film=Herb%20Jeffries |title= Black/White & All That Jazz |publisher= Tall Paul Productions |year= 2007 |access-date= 22 March 2013}}</ref> He is shown in ''Black/White & All That Jazz'' explaining that he was inspired by [[New Orleans]]-born musician [[Louis Armstrong]] to say falsely, at a job interview in Chicago, that he was "a [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole from Louisiana]]" when he was of Irish and Sicilian heritage, among other ethnic backgrounds.<ref name="Bailey"/>