Susan Catherine Reed (January 11, 1926 – April 25, 2010) was an American singer, harpist, zitherist and actress. A regular on the New York folk scene, ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'' magazine dubbed her "the pet of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

nightclubbers" in 1945.

Life and career

She was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the cit ...

, the daughter of Isadora Bennett and Daniel Reed, respectively a theater publicist and actor.

Folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

collector

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

and musician

Huddie Ledbetter Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, Virtuoso, virtuosity on the twelve-string guita ...

were family friends, as were visiting Irish actors and musicians from the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the p ...

Company. After she moved to New York City with her family – including her older brother Jared, who also performed – she began singing and playing the zither, harp and

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

at private parties and for wounded soldiers convalescing in hospitals. Although she originally aspired to becoming a painter,"Susan Reed Peers Over Zither at Networkers, Calls Them Shy Wolves", ''The Harvard Crimson'', October 23, 1947
Retrieved April 4, 2014 she was discovered by Barney Josephson, owner of the

Café Society Café society was the description of the "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafés and restaurants in New York, Paris and London beginning in the late 19th century. Maury Henry Biddle Paul is credited with ...

club in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, who booked her to appear there.Obituary by Derek Schofield
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', June 14, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2014. Ken Hunt, "Susan Reed: Singer who inadvertently helped spark Britain’s folk revival"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', July 9, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2014Biography by Bruce Eder at Allmusic.com
Retrieved April 4, 2014 Her performances of folk

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s and other traditional songs found immediate success, and she appeared on radio and TV shows with

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

. She made her debut at the Town Hall in New York in 1945, at the age of nineteen, followed by a national tour. In 1947,

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

wrote of her, with Ives,

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

and

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...

, as one of the foremost performers in the "enthusiasm for native balladry and folklore that is running through the country from coast to coast".Dennis Hevesi, "Susan Reed, a Fleeting Star in a Folk Music Revival, Is Dead at 84"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', May 1, 2010; page A32. Retrieved April 4, 2014 In 1948, she appeared with

Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, S ...

in the film ''

Glamour Girl Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude. The term may be a euphemism for erotic photography. For glamour models, body shape and size are directly relate ...

'' (retitled ''Night Club Girl'' in the UK), in which she played a folk-singing country girl brought to sing in New York nightclubs. ''Glamour Girl'' at IMDb
Retrieved April 4, 2014 The movie directly inspired English folk singers

Shirley Shirley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë * ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film * ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film * ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...

and

Dolly Collins Dorothy Ann Collins (6 March 1933 – 22 September 1995), was an English folk musician, arranger and composer. She was the older sister of Shirley Collins. Born in Hastings, Sussex (now East Sussex), she grew up in an artistic, socialist ...

. Reed appeared regularly on TV and radio in the early and mid 1950s, and recorded for the Columbia,

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

, and Elektra record labels. Her albums included an adaptation of

Joseph Canteloube Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (; 21 October 18794 November 1957) was a French composer, musicologist, and author best known for his collections of orchestrated folksongs from the Auvergne region, ''Chants d'Auvergne''. Biography Canteloube ...

's ''

Chants d'Auvergne ''Chants d'Auvergne'' (; en, italic=yes, Songs from the Auvergne) is a collection of folk songs from the Auvergne region of France arranged for soprano voice and orchestra or piano by Joseph Canteloube between 1923 and 1930. The 27 songs, collecte ...

'' (''Songs of the Auvergne'', 1950), ''Susan Reed Sings Old Airs from Ireland, Scotland and England'' (1954) and ''Susan Reed'' (1956). She also acted on TV, and appeared on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

in ''Shooting Star'', a musical about

Billy the Kid Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at t ...

. Her popularity diminished as her relatively mannered singing style became less fashionable; according to Bruce Eder at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, "she was neither fish nor fowl, too pop for the most serious folk audiences and too folky for mainstream audiences..". In the late 1950s she ran afoul of the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

, and was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

as a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

sympathiser. She married actor

James Karen James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in '' Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', '' Wall Street'', ''The Retu ...

in 1958; they had one child before divorcing in 1967. She ended her career in the early 1960s. She established an antiques shop in Greenwich Village, and later sold ethnic handicrafts and clothes in

Nyack, New York Nyack () is a Village (New York), village located primarily in the Town (New York), town of Orangetown, New York, Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, Rockland County, New York (state), New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retai ...

. She still gave occasional performances into the 2000s. In 2006, her recordings for Elektra were reissued on CD. She died in 2010 at a

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

nursing home, at the age of 84.

Discography

* ''Folk Songs and Ballads'' (RCA Victor, 1948) * ''Songs of the Auvergne'' (Columbia, 1950) * ''Susan Reed Sings Old Airs from Ireland, Scotland and England'' (Elektra, 1954) * ''Susan Reed'' (Elektra, 1956) * ''Songs for the Wee Folk'' (Elektra, 1959)

Filmography

* ''

'' (1948 Feature Film) * ''

Goodyear Television Playhouse ''Goodyear Television Playhouse'' is an American anthology series that was telecast live on NBC from 1951 to 1957 during the first Golden Age of Television. Sponsored by Goodyear, Goodyear alternated sponsorship with Philco, and the ''Philco Tel ...

'' – "The Inward Eye" (1954 TV episode)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Susan 1926 births 2010 deaths Musicians from Columbia, South Carolina American folk singers American harpists People from Greenwich Village People from Nyack, New York People from Greenport, Suffolk County, New York