The San Francisco Public Library is honored to be the home of “Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman,” Lava Thomas's monument to Maya Angelou. Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, came to the Bay Area with her family in the 1940s. She documented her eventful life through several autobiographies. We also have clues to her activities in San Francisco through our print and database collections.
She was listed twice in the 1949 San Francisco City Directory.
Her name appears as the misspelled Margrette Johnson, a dancer residing at 948 Fulton Street (her family's address) and as Marguerite Johnson, a clerk for David Rosenbaum (the owner of the Melrose Record Shop).
At the beginning of her memoir Singin' And Swingin' And Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), she described getting hired at the Melrose Record Shop at 1256 Fillmore Street.
San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1951
The store featured jazz and rhythm and blues music not easily found in other stores. Louise Cox noticed the young Maya Angelou's knowledgeable taste in recordings and hired her as a clerk.
The Billboard November 5, 1949
Husband and wife Richard and Louise Cox ran the operations of the store. Angelou met her future husband Tosh Angelos working there.
Angelou made an appearance in the November 28, 1951 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with her married name -- Mrs. Marguerite Angelos. This family event happened at the Booker T. Washington Center and featured art and performances by children. Angelou assisted in putting the program together.
Her autobiography, Gather Together in My Name (1974), tells of her early forays into the performing arts. She told of being tutored by an experienced dancer named R.L. Poole. Angelou recalled her performing with him as the team Poole and Rita (Rita was a diminutive of Marguerite) at the Champagne Supper Club. This nightclub operated at 1849 Post Street between 1952 and 1955. The club frequently advertised in the Chronicle but there is no mention of Poole and Rita there. The dance team may have rated as "others" as shown in this blurb announcing comedy stars Red Foxx and Slappy White.
source: San Francisco Chronicle April 4, 1952
Around this time, Maya Angelou met dancer Alvin Ailey at the dance classes they took with avant-garde choreographers Walland Lathrop and Anna Halprin. Ailey's biographer described them forming a dance team, Al and Rita, that performed at small community events. Ailey, in his autobiography, noted they rehearsed frequently but never danced outside of her apartment.
Pearl Primus, the Trinidadian-American dancer and choreographer, also strongly influenced Angelou as a performer. She described being moved to tears watching Primus perform her dances rooted in African tradition. An awed Angelou auditioned for Primus who exclaimed, "You are a dancer. You are a dancer," and awarded Angelou a scholarship to study with her in New York.
Bibliography
Ailey, Alvin, Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey (Carol Pub. Group, 1995).
Angelou, Maya, The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library, 2004).
"David Rosenbaum [obituary]," San Francisco Chronicle January 6, 1998.
"Dealer Doings," The Billboard November 5, 1949.
Dunning, Jennifer, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance (Addison-Wesley, 1996).
"Notes And Addenda," San Francisco Chronicle November 28, 1951.
Polk's Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory (R.L. Polk & Co.,1949)
Schwartz, Peggy, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus, with Murray Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2011).
Databases used:
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive
San Francisco Chronicle Historical
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