Spotlighted in Los Angeles' Cocoanut Grove nightclub, cocking an ear to the tinkle of glasses, stood a tall (6 ft. 2½ in.) Negro in an open-necked shirt. Suddenly he cut loose with a high, pained call of "Timber!" that froze drinkers' elbows in midair. Folk Singer Harry Belafonte, the newest nightclub hit on the West Coast, swung into a blue-noted work song:
Lord, this timber's gotta roll; I gotta pull this timber 'fore the sun go down, Get across the river 'fore the boss comes 'round.
Belafonte kept them listening with full attention for...
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