Lillian Yarbo

The 'Real' Billie
By her early twenties, Yarbo—credited, prior to 1928, as Yarbough[7][8][9]—was a rising star, both in Harlem night spots and on the Broadway stage.[10][11][12][13] Writing in the March 10, 1928 issue of The New Yorker (reviewing the new Miller and Lyles musical, Keep Shufflin'), a young Charles Brackett put readers on alert:

There is a Miss Billie Yarbough, who must have been designed by Covarrubias and must be seen.[14]

With a style sometimes likened to that of her contemporary, Josephine Baker,[15] Yarbo was embraced by audiences and critics alike, beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until her 1936 screen debut.[16][14][17][18][19] As for her vocal stylings, just a few, fleeting, onscreen remnants exist (see excerpt from The Family Next Door (1939)). That said, Yarbo clearly did not lack for confidence, having once told trumpeter Buck Clayton, "To hell with Billie Holiday! Come down and listen to me, the real Billie."[20]

Twenty-Four Sheet' Lil
Yarbo appeared in at least two films in 1936 and one in 1937 before receiving glowing notices—and her first onscreen credit—the following year in the otherwise indifferently received Warren William vehicle, Wives Under Suspicion.[21][22][23] For that and her equally acclaimed performance in Frank Capra's hugely successful adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You[24][25] (which, by virtue of the film's panoramic, full-cast billboard, also inspired a new nickname),[26][27] Yarbo was judged 1938's best Negro comedic actress by Pittsburgh Courier film critic Earl J. Morris.[28] In 1939, she was awarded that same distinction by the short-lived Sepia Theatrical Writers Guild.[29][30] Indeed, even prior to 1938, the then-as-yet thoroughly anonymous Yarbo—as Claire Trevor's maid in Alfred Werker's much-rewritten Big Town Girl[31]—caught the eye of one discerning reviewer.

... and a Negro lassie—inexcusably omitted from from the cast list [emphasis added]—renders yeoman service and considerable comedy as the "countess' " maid.[32]

Awards and critical plaudits notwithstanding, and despite the sentiments ascribed to director King Vidor as early as 1937[33] (following Yarbo's sophomore screen turn, appearing uncredited with Barbara Stanwyck in Vidor's Stella Dallas), she continued to be routinely cast in bit parts, primarily as a maid, cook or otherwise low-skilled worker, often uncredited, appearing in at least 50 films between 1936 and 1949.

In the fall of 1943, amidst an already setback-laden half-decade,[5][34][6] a potentially career-altering opportunity for Yarbo, being cast in a straight dramatic role opposite Canada Lee in what might well have become the definitive screen adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son, failed to materialize when Orson Welles, who had directed Lee in the original Broadway production, proved unavailable.[35][36] Adding injury to insult, just weeks later, a near-fatal car crash put Yarbo out of commission for the first half of 1944.[37][38] She appeared in just one film that year, and over the next five—ending her screen career much as it had begun—averaged exactly two films a year, uncredited in all but one.

On November 13, 1948, roughly four months after finishing work on what would prove to be her final film (and roughly 13 years since last having performed onstage), Yarbo made her return to live performance. Perhaps inspired by having made, roughly two months prior, "one of her rare visits to a night spot,"[39] Yarbo, backed by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy, performed at a benefit event staged at Club Congo (formerly Club Alabam)[40] by the Alpha Phi Alpha House Campaign Committee to "provide a much-needed housing [sic] and scholarship for 'forgotten' students."[41]

On May 19, 1949, The California Eagle's Gertrude Gipson reported that "C. P. Johnson on along with a six-piece combo, and Billy Yarbo, who has returned to dancing, will open at the Fairbanks in Alaska around the first."[42] Whether or not this actually came to pass is unclear, but if so, it would appear to be Yarbo's last documented public performance.

Similarly unclear is the matter of whether, during that same period, Yarbo had occasion to see some very nice notices greeting her penultimate screen performance—and her final credited one, portraying "a giggling, singing, four times married little maid"[43][44] in Warner Brothers' long-shelved Night Unto Night (1949),[45] one more instance of Yarbo being one of the few reasons to watch—precisely as had been the case in her first credited role[21][23]—in an otherwise "sleep-induc[ing]"[46] picture:

Other characters include one who talks like someone out of a bad play, a couple of doctors, the heroine's sexy sister, and, fortunately,
Lillian Yarbo as Josephine, the maid of all work, who provides the only bright spot in the generally murky atmosphere.[44]