Canada’s First Lady of Jazz
I’m so upset! I’ve been playing music for more years than I can remember. I joined my first jazz band at the age of 12. I currently play in a local big band. I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life and yet, this is the first time I’ve heard of jazz singer, trailblazer, and civic leader, Eleanor Collins. It’s been said numerous times that Canadians don’t celebrate their own people enough and Ms. Collins is a perfect example of this. So, who is she and why is she being honored with a stamp, you ask? Let me tell you!
Elenora Ruth Procter was born in Edmonton, Alberta on November 21, 1919. Her parents had come to the area from Oklahoma as two of the 10,000 African American homesteaders who were offered 160 acres of land for $10. As a child, she began singing at her church, Shiloh Baptist in Edmonton, but it wasn’t until she won a singing contest at the age of 15 that music turned into a career. She began singing with Joe Macelli’s dance band among others.
In 1938, the family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Eleanor began singing with the Sweet Low Quartette in 1940 performing occasionally on CBC. She left the group in 1942 to marry Richard Collins who she stayed married to for 70 years. In 1948, Eleanor retired from music and moved her family to Burnaby, BC. The neighborhood they moved to was unhappy to see a black family move in. Her kids were bullied at school and a petition was formed to try to evict her and her family out of the neighborhood. Eleanor reacted with grace and volunteered at the school to teach music, helping the community to see the value of African Americans to their city.
Eleanor broke her retirement in 1952 and began doing some theatrical work such as a production of ‘Taming Of The Shrew’. Eleanor would go on to break boundaries when CBC Vancouver decided to produce their first show. ‘Bamboula: A Day in The West Indies’ was also Canada’s first TV show to feature an interracial cast.
The CBC approached her to star in her own show. ‘The Eleanor Show’ ran for only a few months in 1955 but was groundbreaking in so many different ways. She was the first woman, the first person of color, and the first jazz singer to headline a national television show. Ten years later, she would get a second variety show simply called, ‘Eleanor’.
I’m not sure why none of these shows lasted long or why they seem to be erased from our collective national identity (until now!) but there’s no doubt that she made an impression on the world of jazz, singing with many jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson (more on him in a future post.) But while Eleanor had the chops to make it big, she chose to stay in Canada performing close to home.
On her 95th birthday, November 21, 2014, Eleanor Collins was given the Order Of Canada to add to her impressive list of accolades. So? Does she also deserve her own stamp? This philatelist says YES! Let’s look closer at her stamp.
The Eleanor Collins commemorative stamp was released on January 21, 2022, a week and a half before the start of Balck History Month. It’s available as both a booklet of 6 stamps and as a first day cover with the cancellation from Vancouver and depicting an microphone. The permanent stamp was illustrated by David Belliveau who based it on a photo of Eleanor by Franz Linder. It’s printed by Lowe-Martin.
I watched the unveiling of the Eleanor Collins online. Listening to her talk made me realize what a lost opportunity Canada had. Even at 102, she speaks with such grace and kindness and yet, we seem to have ignored her in the rest of the country. Few of her performances are on YouTube and her Wikipedia page is far more empty than it should be. I think it’s time to resurrect her music and her life and hopefully, this stamp will help.
Honors:
- Distinguished Centennial Pioneer Award – 1986
- BC Entertainment Hall of Fame Star – 1992
- BC Black Historical Society Award
- Alberta Black Cultural Research Society Award
- ACTRA Sam Payne Award – 2006
- Order of Canada – 2014
- Black Canadian Awards Lifetime Achievement Award – 2014
- Commemorative stamp – 2022
Sources used for this article
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Collins
- https://www.gg.ca/en/node/153
- https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/news/canada-s-first-lady-of-jazz-eleanor-collins-honored-on-new-commemorative-stamp-1
- Details, Canada Post; January 2022 No. 1
