Hadda's psychological effect was powerful, winning her brief but memorable screen appearances in The Bad & the Beautiful and In a Lonely Place, and in 1951, she became the first black performer featured in her own weekly television program, KTLA's Hadda Brooks Show. While the rock & roll frenzy pushed her from the forefront of pop commerce, she remained a polished and in-demand act, performing at the governor's request during festivities celebrating Hawaii's 1959 entry into the union.
Brooks re-emerged, in full blossom, with a 1987 residency at Perino's and began a reclamation of a career that for the next 15 years reached heights of glamour and acclaim on a level equal to her postwar breakout. A big-screen appearance with Jack Nicholson in The Crossing Guard was followed by a deal with Virgin Records, splashy spreads in trendy magazines, entertaining at movie-star fetes, and winning glowing reviews in such cities as New York and New Orleans. Her nightclub performances were always sumptuous exercises in atmosphere and passion (albeit sometimes manifested as hostile confrontations with inattentive patrons), and her way with a piano only grew more beguiling. "I love you honey," she frequently drawled, "but I'll get over it." Trouble is, we never will.
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