Juliette Ball Succumbs

 

Juliette Ball

Juliette Ball was born March 4, 1923 in Birmingham Alabama. She resided there until 1929 when she, her brother Fred and parents Daisy and Leslie Ball moved to Los Angeles, CA.

Juliette attended Jefferson High School, Los Angeles City College and the University of California at Los Angeles. Juliette soon realized that she had a calling for Hollywood. With her striking beauty and statuesque figure, she was perfect as an actress and glamour girl. Juliette would have minor roles in major films including, Stormy Weather (1943) starring Lena Horne and Bill Robinson and Cabin in the Sky (1943) starring Ethel waters, to mention a few and was frequently a “stand-in” for Lena Horne in many movies. Additionally, she modeled in europe for several european fashion magazines.

Juliette Ball would become a regular on the social scene and a true socialite. As an actress and showgirl she could either be found on stage in musicals like Sweet n’ Hot starring her dear friend Dorothy Dandridge or seen in the audiences at such glamorous clubs as Los Angeles’ famed jazz club, Club Alabam on Central Avenue. This was during the height of the jazz scene and Los Angeles’ Harlem Renaissance. Juliette was every bit a part of it. Known for hosting some of the most fabulous parties at the families estate in the West Adams, “Sugar Hill” area of Los Angeles, also known as the “Woolworth Estate” or as friends and family referred to as… The House on 21st Street. This home would give way to a place where a guest list of the who’s who of Black & White Hollywood and socialites came to entertain and be entertained and Juliette was the hostess.

Juliette would marry twice, but it was her marriage to second husband Harlem Globetrotter, Bill “Rookie” Brown in 1953 that would make headlines.

Following in her mothers footsteps, Juliette was also a pioneer for civil rights. In 1955 she joined very dear friend and fellow Hollywood actress Commissioner Maggie Hathaway in a crusade to end segregation in public golf courses in the County of Los Angeles. Along with many other friends including, Maria Cole, widow of the late Nat King Cole and the support of then Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn they formed the “Minority Associated Golfers.” In 1967 Juliette would chair the first NAACP Image Awards for the Hollywood/Beverly Hills Chapter.

Juliette would later settle down in the Windsor Hills area of Los Angeles with her mother and remained living there until her passing on June 7, 2010. She is survived by her brothers Alvin and Harold Ball; a sister Dolores Reid; nieces and nephews Michelle Ball, Alison Kilmer, Rohmi Reid, Frederick Ball and five great nieces and nephews.

Services were held at Angelus Rosedale Chapel on Wednesday June 16, 2010.