Adelaide Hall

American born jazz singer and actor (1901–1993)

Adelaide Louise Hall (20 October 1901 – 7 November 1993) was an American born UK based jazz singer and entertainer. Her career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death. Early in her career, she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance; she became based in the UK after 1938. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and with Fats Waller.

Adelaide Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, to Elizabeth and William Hall in 1901. Adelaide and her sister Evelyn attended the Pratt Institute, where William Hall taught piano. Her father died on March 23, 1917. Three years later, Evelyn died of pneumonia on March 25, 1920 leaving Adelaide to support herself and her mother. In 1924, Hall married the British sailor Bertram Errol Hicks, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago. Soon after their marriage he opened a club in Harlem, New York, called "The Big Apple" and became her official business manager.

Hall began her stage career in 1921 on Broadway in the chorus line of Noble Sissle's and Eubie Blake's musical Shuffle Along. Shuffle Along became a huge hit and propelled Hall's career. She went on to appear in a number of similar black musical shows, including Runnin' Wild on Broadway in 1923, in which she sang James P. Johnson's hit song "Old Fashioned Love".

In 1925, Hall toured Europe with the Chocolate Kiddies revue. The show included songs written by Duke Ellington. Hall was hired to join the cast of the Chocolate Kiddies revue in New York, where they rehearsed before setting sail for Europe. The initial tour started at Hamburg, Germany, on 17 May 1925, and ended in Paris, France, in December 1925, visiting many major cities in between. The revue was designed to give Europeans a sampling of black entertainment from New York. Included in the cast were The Three Eddies, Lottie Gee, Rufus Greenlee and Thaddeus Drayton, Bobbie and Babe Goins, Charles Davis and Sam Wooding and his Orchestra. After the initial tour disbanded, Sam Wooding and his Orchestra continued touring the Chocolate Kiddies revue for several years later. During Hall's visit to Germany she also sang at Berlin's renowned transvestite club, the Eldorado Café. The venue is immortalised in Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, as well as in the 1972 film Cabaret and the musical of the same name. In 1926, Hall appeared in the short lived Broadway musical My Magnolia, which had a score written by Luckey Roberts and Alex C. Rogers, after which she appeared in Tan Town Topics with songs written by Fats Waller. Hall then starred in Desires of 1927 (with a score written by Andy Razaf and J. C. Johnson), which toured America from October 1926 through to September 1927.

In 1926, upon Hall's return to New York after touring Europe with the Chocolate Kiddies, she was featured in Tan Town Topics, a revue containing songs written by Fats Waller and Spencer Williams. The cast included Fats Waller, Eddie Rector and Ralph Cooper, Hall, Maude Mills, Arthur Gaines, Leondus Simmons and a dance troupe called the Tan Town Topics Vamps. The show opened at Harlem's Lafayette Theatre on 5 April followed by a short road tour on the eastern Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) circuit taking in Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. During July 1926, Hall appeared in residency with Lottie Gee and the Southern Syncopated Orchestra at Small's Paradise, New York. On Tuesday, 5 October, Hall appeared again at Small's Paradise at a special party, "Handy Night", hosted by the venue to honour W. C. Handy and to celebrate the release of his newly published book Blues: An Anthology—Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs. For entertainment, Hall, Lottie Gee, Maude White and Chic Collins provided a selection of jazz and blues numbers. From October 1926, Hall toured America playing the TOBA circuit until September 1927 in the highly praised show Desires of 1927, conceived by J. Homer Tutt and produced by impresario Irvin C. Miller. As the Pittsburgh Courier noted: "Adelaide Hall and assistants have some show. Speed, pretty girls, catchy music, a touch of art, which touches the border line of nudity – the names of such well known stage celebrities as Adelaide Hall, J. Homer Tutt, Henry 'Gang' Jones, the Harmony Trio, Charles Hawkins, Arthur Porter, 'Billy' McKelvey and Clarence Nance." One account of the effect Hall had on audiences when she 'squageled' was written up in the Exhibitors Herald in August 1927.

Hall arrived in Paris, France in the fall of 1935 and remained living there until 1938. Her husband Bert opened a nightclub for her in Paris, situated at 73 rue Pigalle in Montmartre, called La Grosse Pomme (French for "The Big Apple", the name of his original New York club) where she frequently entertained. "It (the club) held about two hundred people. I made this dramatic entrance coming down a spiral staircase from the attic. Nobody knew that all the boxes of wine and tinned food were stored up there with me. I came down the stairs in the most gorgeous costumes you'll ever see, floating in feathers and plumes," recalled Hall during an interview. At the beginning of 1936, Hall starred in the Black and White Revue. The show of 50 performers opened in Paris, France and in February the production travelled to Switzerland for a tour. The revue was produced by Ralph Clayton, staged by Arthur Bradley and choreographed by ballet master Albert Gaubier who had danced under the direction of Serge Diaghilev in the Russian company Ballets Russes. The orchestra that travelled with the production was under the direction of Henry Crowder. During the August 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany, Hall appeared at Berlin's Rex Theatre singing jazz. Her performance is notable for her contravening Adolf Hitler's ban on jazz music being played. In 1937, Hall choreographed her own take on the famous French dance the Can can; she called it the Canned Apple and would perform it at her Montmartre nightclub La Grosse Pomme. Hall is also credited with introducing the Truckin' dance craze to the Parisians. During her residence in Europe, Hall sang with several orchestras, including those of Willie Lewis and Ray Ventura; in 1937 (while on a trip to Copenhagen), she recorded four songs with Kai Ewans and his Orchestra for the Tono record label. On 13 May 1938, BBC Radio broadcast Over to Paris, an hour long programme direct from a Paris studio that highlighted a variety of famous Parisian artists of radio, cabaret and the music hall. The show included performances from Hall and Mistinguett, who were accompanied by two orchestras.

After many years performing in the US and Europe, Hall went to the United Kingdom in 1938 to take a starring role in a stage adapted musical version of Edgar Wallace's The Sun Never Sets at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She was so successful and became so popular with British audiences that she stayed and made her home there, becoming one of the most popular singers and entertainers of the time. Hall lived in London from 1938 until her death. On 28 August 1938, Hall recorded "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "That Old Feeling" at London's Abbey Road Studios, with Fats Waller accompanying her on the organ. The recordings were released on HMV Records. On 10 September 1938, she appeared in Broadcast To America with Waller at London's St George's Hall in a live transatlantic radio broadcast. On 25 February 1939, BBC TV broadcast Harlem in Mayfair from Hall's London nightclub, the Old Florida Club. The cabaret show starred Hall; also on the bill were Esther and Louise, Eddie Lewis, and Fela Sowande with his Negro Choir and Orchestra. On 20 May 1939, BBC TV broadcast the cabaret show Dark Sophistication, starring Hall performing at the Old Florida Club. On 26 August 1939, Hall took part in the BBC TV production Kentucky Minstrels, which was transmitted live from the 2500 seat RadiOlympia Theatre in London. On Friday, 1 September 1939, Hall was scheduled to appear at 9:00 pm in a live BBC TV broadcast titled Variety recorded direct from the RadiOlympia Theatre. Other performers on the bill included Nosmo King, The Gordon RadiOlympia Girls, Hubert Murray and Mooney, and Bobby Howell and his Band. However, with war looming, the BBC were instructed by the government to shut down broadcasting, and at 12:35 the service went off the air for seven years. It appears that the show Variety never took place at RadiOlympia; The Times newspaper for the following day (2 September) noted in their section 'News in Brief' that "RadiOlympia closed at 12:30 yesterday", presumably another result of the country being placed on a war footing. Unexpectedly, the show Variety became one of the first British theatrical casualties of World War II and part of the mystery surrounding "what really happened at the BBC on 1 September 1939?" That year, Hall became a featured vocalist with Joe Loss & His Band and from 1939 to 1941, Hall headlined the popular BBC Radio variety show Piccadixie. She also toured the UK extensively during these years, headlining the Piccadixie British Tour, supported by comedian Oliver Wakefield and pianist George Elrick. During the war, Hall entertained the troops in Europe for the USO (United Service Organizations Inc.) and the British equivalent ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) in which she served as a captain. Her uniform was made by Madam Adele of Grosvenor Street in Mayfair, London. The First World Radio Broadcast, 17 October 1939. On 17 October 1939 Adelaide Hall starred in one of the most sensational live radio broadcasts ever attempted by the BBC to hit the airwaves. It took place at the RAF Hendon base in North London, in front of a specially invited audience of RAF personnel, and was the first large scale variety concert organised by ENSA. The whole show was relayed worldwide across the airwaves, the first time a live show had ever been broadcast by the BBC around the globe. On the bill was Hall, her accompanist Fela Sowande, Mantovani and His Orchestra, The Western Brothers, and Harry Roy and his Band. Hall later recalled in vivid detail the challenges she faced during WWII while entertaining the troops across Europe and in the UK, some of whom were wounded: "Sometimes I had to sing without music, but it was a challenge, and so rewarding to get all the people to sing with me." At one London performance Hall gave at Lewisham Hippodrome theatre during the week of 20 August 1940, the Luftwaffe attacked overhead, dropping bombs and, "even though we could hear bombs exploding outside the theatre, we carried on I had sung 54 songs until the all clear sounded at 3:45 a. m. in the morning!" Hall's 54 encores are believed to be a world record for the amount of encores sung by one artist on stage. Hall also claimed to be one of the first entertainers to enter Germany before the war had officially ended. She travelled with the troops as they advanced towards Berlin, dismissing the dangers such bravery entailed. had her own BBC Radio series, Wrapped in Velvet (making her the first black artist to have a long term contract with the BBC), and appeared on the stage, in films, and in nightclubs (of which she owned her own in New York, London and Paris). In the 1940s, and especially during World War II, she was hugely popular with civilian and Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) audiences and became one of Britain's highest paid entertainers. Her London nightclub The Old Florida Club owned by Hall and her husband was destroyed by a landmine during an air raid in 1939. Her husband Bert was in the club's cellar when the landmine exploded but he survived the attack. Hall has a cameo appearance as a singer in the 1940 Oscar winning movie The Thief of Bagdad (directed by Michael Powell (and others) and produced by Alexander Korda) in which she sings Lullaby of the Princess, written by Miklós Rózsa. In 1943, Hall featured in an ENSA radio show broadcast by the BBC entitled Spotlight on the Stars during which she was accompanied by the BBC Variety Orchestra. During the show she mentions how she had just returned home from a tour. On 20 May 1940, Hall's recording of 'Careless' debuted in the British charts at number 30, where it remained for two consecutive weeks. In the August 1940 issue of British Vogue magazine, a photograph of Hall appears on the 'Spotlight' page compiled by the features editor Lesley Blanch under the caption: "Adelaide Hall and her husband run the Florida. His show, her songs, our fun." On 6 June 1945, Hall's recording of "There Goes That Song Again" entered the BBC British charts at number 15. Hall appears in the earliest post war BBC telerecording: a live recording of her performance at RadiOlympia Theatre on 7 October 1947. The footage was filmed on the "Cafe Continental" stage set at the theatre for a BBC TV show titled Variety in Sepia. Hall sings "Chi Baba, Chi Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep)" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and accompanies herself on ukulele and dancing. When the show was broadcast on BBC TV it was 60 minutes in length and included performances from Winifred Atwell, Evelyn Dove, Cyril Blake and his Calypso Band, Edric Connor and Mable Lee and was produced by Eric Fawcett. The six minute footage of Hall is all that survives of the show. In 1948, Hall appeared in a British movie called A World is Turning. The movie was intended to highlight the contribution of black men and women to British society at a time when they were struggling for visibility on the screens. Filming appears to have been halted due to the director's illness and only six reels of rushes remain, including scenes of Hall rehearsing songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "The Gospel Train" (a traditional African American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers). In 1949, Hall appeared on the BBC TV shows Rooftop Rendezvous and Caribbean Carnival. That year, Hall recorded five spirituals accompanied by the pianist Kenneth Cantril. The five songs chosen and released by London Records (the US outlet for British Decca) were "Swing Low Sweet Chariot", "Bye and Bye", "Nobody Know De Trouble I've Seen", "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", and "Deep River". In 1951, Hall appeared as a guest in the music spot on the first ever British comedy series How Do You View, starring Terry Thomas and written by Sid Colin and Talbot Rothwell. On 29 October 1951, Hall appeared on the bill of the Royal Variety Performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre in the presence of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. Alongside Trinidad born US dancer Pearl Primus and the female members of her company, who also performed that year, Hall was the first black female artiste to ever take part in the Royal Variety Performance. Hall also entertained at private parties for the Duchess of Kent, the Churchills, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She was one of the many performers at an all star midnight Anglo American gala at the London Coliseum on the night of Monday, 11 December 1951, before the then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Also on the bill was Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, and Noël Coward. In the early 1950s, Hall and her husband Bert opened the Calypso Club in Regent Street, London, and Royalty flocked there. It was reported in the press that Princess Elizabeth was a frequent visitor and that Hall had taught the princess the Charleston. Hall appeared in the 1951 London run of Kiss Me, Kate playing the role of Hattie, singing Cole Porter's "Another Op'nin', Another Show", and in the 1952 London musical Love From Judy at the Saville Theatre playing the role of Butterfly, singing "A Touch of Voodoo", "Kind to Animals" and "Ain't Gonna Marry". The entire production of Love From Judy was filmed with the original cast and aired on BBC on 16 March 1953. In 1956, she returned to London's West End in the play Someone to Talk To. In 1957, at the request of Lena Horne, Hall returned to America to appear with Horne in the musical Jamaica. The world premiere of Jamaica took place in Philadelphia in September 1957 and transferred to Broadway on 31 October. In 1958, Hall was cast as one of the lead characters in Rodgers and Hammerstein's new musical Flower Drum Song. On 1 April 1960, Hall appeared on the BBC TV music show The Music Goes Round hosted by John Watt. The show was an NBA TV version of the radio show Songs from the Shows. On 3 March 1965, Hall appeared on BBC2 television in Muses with Milligan with Spike Milligan and John Betjeman in a show devoted to poetry and jazz. In 1968, Hall appeared in Janie Jones, a new American play written by Robert P. Hillier and directed by Peter Cotes. The cast included American actress Marlene Warfield. The play had its world premiere on 8 July at the Manchester Opera House, where it ran for one week prior to its London West End opening on 15 July at the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre). On 4 January 1974, she appeared on the British TV shows Looks Familiar (as a panelist) and on What Is Jazz, with Humphrey Lyttelton. On 15 June 1976, she appeared on British TV in It Don't Mean a Thing. and in 1981 appeared on the Michael Parkinson BBC TV show Parkinson as a guest. In July 1982, Hall appeared at a Gala concert held at St Paul's Cathedral in London to celebrate the sacred music of Duke Ellington. A live recording of the concert titled The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington was filmed for a Channel 4 TV documentary. Artists also taking part included Tony Bennett, Phyllis Hyman, Jacques Loussier, Alan Downey, Wayne Sleep, Ronnie Scott, Stan Tracey and the New Swingle Singers. The concert was hosted by Rod Steiger and narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. In April 1980, Hall returned to the U. S. and from 1 to 24 May, she appeared in the cast of Black Broadway (a retrospective musical revue) at the Town Hall in New York. Among other artists appearing in the show were Elisabeth Welch, Gregory Hines, Bobby Short, Honi Coles, Edith Wilson, Nell Carter and John W. Bubbles of Buck and Bubbles fame. The show originally was staged at the Newport Jazz Festival on 24 June 1979, before it was re assembled in 1980 and staged at the Town Hall. Following Black Broadway, in June 1980, Hall took up temporary residence at Michael's Pub in New York and commenced a three week engagement, performing three shows a night. In June 1980, she performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival held at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Other artists on the bill included Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Stéphane Grappelli, Mel Tormé, Zoot Sims, Carmen McRae and Chick Corea. On 2 July 1980, writer Rosetta Reitz organised a tribute to the Women of Jazz at Avery Fisher Hall as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. Called The Blues is a Woman, the program, narrated by Carmen McRae, featured music by Hall, Big Mama Thornton, Nell Carter and Koko Taylor. Hall appeared at the Duke Ellington Tribute Concert at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1982, where she sang Ellington's 'Come Sunday'. Back in the States, in February 1983, Hall appeared on the bill of the 100th birthday celebration for composer Eubie Blake held at the Shubert Theater, New York. Unfortunately, Blake was recovering from pneumonia at the time so could not attend the event but with the aid of a special telephone hook up to his home in Brooklyn he was able to listen to the entire two hour show. On 5 April 1983, Hall commenced a month long engagement at The Cookery in New York. Her accompanists were Ronnie Whyte and Frank Tate. In 1985, Hall appeared on British TV in the cast of Omnibus: The Cotton Club comes to the Ritz, a 60 minute BBC documentary in which some of the performers from Harlem's Cotton Club were filmed performing at the Ritz Hotel in London, along with contemporary musicians. Also on the bill were Cab Calloway and his Orchestra, Doc Cheatham, Max Roach and the Nicholas Brothers. In 1985, Hall appeared on British TV on The South Bank Show in a documentary entitled The Real Cotton Club. In July 1986, Hall performed in concert at the Barbican Centre, London. In October 1988, Hall presented a one woman show at Carnegie Hall in New York. She presented the same show in London at the King's Head Theatre (Islington) during December 1988. She is one of the very few performers to have made two guest appearances (2 December 1972 and 13 January 1991) on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. In 1989, she appeared at London's Royal Festival Hall at the Royal Ellington Tribute Concert that included the world premiere of Ellington's Queen's Suite, which was written for Queen Elizabeth II. Other artists appearing included the Bob Wilber Band, Tony Coe and Alan Cohen. The concert was filmed by Independent Film Production Associates. 1989 also saw Hall appear in concert at the Studio Theatre, Haymarket in Leicester. The concert was organised by composer/musician Gavin Bryars and sold out almost as soon as it was announced. In 1990, Hall starred in Sophisticated Lady, a Channel 4 television documentary about her life broadcast on 24 July, which included a performance of her in concert recorded live at the Riverside Studios in London. Her final US concert appearances took place in 1992 at Carnegie Hall, in the Cabaret Comes to Carnegie series. The same year, she was presented with a Gold Badge Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. After attending the award ceremony she said: "I was so proud to be acknowledged. They said, 'You look like a Queen. You don't look more than fifty or sixty. You look so well.' I wore a sequin suit – different colours – it glittered. I must have been the oldest one there! I ate everything that came along."

Adelaide Hall died in the early hours of 7 November 1993, aged 92, at London's Charing Cross Hospital of natural causes (old age). Honouring her wish, her funeral took place in New York at the Cathedral of the Incarnation (Garden City, New York) and she was laid to rest beside her mother at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. In London, a memorial service was held for her at St Paul's, Covent Garden (known as the "actors' church"), which was attended by many stars including Elaine Paige, Elisabeth Welch, Lon Satton and Elaine Delmar. One of the participants, TV presenter and broadcaster Michael Parkinson, remarked during his eulogy: "Adelaide lived to be ninety two and never grew old."

In 2018, Hall was named by the Evening Standard on a list of 14 "Inspirational black British women throughout history", alongside Mary Seacole, Claudia Jones, Margaret Busby, Olive Morris, Joan Armatrading, Tessa Sanderson, Doreen Lawrence, Maggie Aderin Pocock, Sharon White, Malorie Blackman, Diane Abbott, Zadie Smith and Connie Mark. Chapter 20 (titled "La Grosse Pomme") in the 2017 spy novel I Spy the Wolf by Stephen Davis is set inside Adelaide Hall's La Grosse Pomme nightclub in Pigalle, Paris, during March 1939. Hall was one of the major entertainers of the Harlem Renaissance. Along with Louis Armstrong, she pioneered scat singing and is widely acknowledged as one of the world's first jazz singers, regarded as such by Ella Fitzgerald. In the "100 Great Records of the 1920s" Hall is at number 26 with Duke Ellington's Orchestra, singing "The Blues I Love to Sing" (Duke Ellington/Bubber Miley), Victor 21490, 1927. Influential writer Langston Hughes, in his book Famous Negro Music Makers (published by Dodd, Mead, 1955) lists individual musicians that helped develop jazz, in which he states that "jazz singers too, had not been without influence on the development of this (Jazz) music", and then includes Hall alongside Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ray Nance and Joe Carroll, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Alberta Hunter, Baby Cox and Florence Mills, as all being outstanding jazz vocalists of their time. Hall is mentioned in the novel Strange Brother (set in New York in the late 1920s, early 1930s) written by Blair Niles and first published in 1931. Published in 1998, Marsha Hunt's novel Like Venus Fading was inspired by the lives of Hall (known as the lightly tanned Venus), Josephine Baker and Dorothy Dandridge. The mesmerising effect Hall had on her audience at the Cotton Club is captured in the fictionalised 2017 novel A Time in Ybor City by Ron Kase. Kase's account captures Hall's 11:00 o'clock evening performance in the Cotton Club Parade revue, at which George Gershwin is in the audience. The account is a fictionalised account based on part fact. "When Harry Met Addie" was composed by Gavin Bryars in 1999 (published by Schott Music Ltd., London). Bryars wrote it as a tribute to Hall and saxophonist Harry Carney. The piece was first performed at the Duke Ellington Memorial Concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 1 May 1999, and was commissioned by the baritone saxophonist/bass clarinettist John Surman. The soprano was Cristina Zavalloni and the London Sinfonietta Big Band was conducted by Diego Masson. Hall was loosely portrayed as the nightclub chanteuse in Francis Ford Coppola's 1984 film The Cotton Club. It was Hall's husband, Bert Hicks, who suggested to Eric Bartholomew's mother that he should change his stage name to Morecambe, after the place of her son's birth, thereby christening the British comic duo Morecambe and Wise.

A new musical revue After Midnight featuring the classic music of Duke Ellington, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, and Harold Arlen, premiered to much praise at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York on 3 November 2013 and was booked through to 31 August 2014. The show is an idealised fantasy of Harlem in its 1920s–1930s heyday and salutes black musicians and performers such as Ethel Waters, Hall, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and the Nicholas Brothers, who became international stars during that era. At least three of the songs that Hall introduced are performed in the show, including headliner Fantasia Barrino's rendition of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" and Carmen Ruby Floyd's performance of Ellington and Hall's "Creole Love Call". The song "Diga Diga Do" also appears in the show.

In February 2014, a new stage show called A Nite at the Cotton Club, produced by Lydia Dillingham, opened at the Southern Broadway Dinner Theatre at The Historic Hildreth Brothers Building in Alabama, USA, in which the actress Brandy Davis portrays Hall. The entire run sold out.

On 14 February 2014, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) celebrated its centenary by publishing a timeline of songs chosen to represent the past hundred years. One song was chosen to represent each year. Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh's song "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby", written for the Broadway revue Blackbirds of 1928, was chosen for 1928, and Hall's recording of the song was chosen to represent the year.

As part of Black History Month in June 2020, Sherman's Showcase – an American musical TV comedy series created by actors Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle – portrayed Adelaide Hall in a Harlem Renaissance meets Downton Abbey musical sketch titled Downton Addy's. The show was aired on 19 June on stations AMC and IFC. Bashir Salahuddin played the part of Paul Robeson, Day'Nah Cooper took the role of Dowager Countess of Basie, Aleksei Archer portrayed Adelaide "Addy" Hall, and Nefetari Spencer brought Zora Neale Hurston to life. Costume designer Ariyela Wald Cohain looked directly to the Downton Abbey movie for visual references. Critics praised it: Rolling Stone called it "the hidden gem of sketch comedy"; The New York Times said it was "irreverent", and Salon said it was "bright, accessibly silly and uproarious". Collider called it "a hard show to explain but a very easy one to fall in love with". In June 2020, British Vogue acknowledged Adelaide Hall in their list of "7 Remarkable Black Women Who Shaped British History".

Adelaide Hall was honoured in 2021 by the Black Plaque Project, an initiative of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, with a plaque commemorating her outstanding career and achievements in the world of entertainment. The plaque is placed in the world renowned Abbey Road Recording Studios in St John's Wood, London, where Hall recorded with fellow American jazz artiste and composer Fats Waller. Hall is No. 15 in the Black Plaque Project that honours the achievements throughout history of members of the UK's black community.

In March 2021, 1 Minute Theatre Reviews acknowledged Adelaide Hall in their 10 "people of colour who have made a major contribution to the stage musical".

Adelaide Hall "Sing to the moon Addie and the stars will shine." In January 2021, the Women Inspire podcast devoted an episode to the life and career of Hall, titled "Sing to the moon Addie and the stars will shine".

In honour of UK Black History Month, what would have been Hall's 122nd birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle, featuring illustrations by London based artist Hannah Ekuwa Buckman.

Hall will be one of the recipients of an English Heritage blue plaque in 2024, alongside Christina Broom, Diana Beck and Irene Barclay.

SongsLabel & NumberDateArtist"Creole Love Call" / "The Blues I Love to Sing" BVE 39370 1/ BVE 39371 1 Victor Records(26 October 1927) (recorded Victor Studio No. 1, Camden, NJ ) Duke Ellington Orchestra (vocals by Adelaide Hall)"I Must Have That Man" / "Baby" BVE Test 110(21 June 1928) (recorded in New York)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by George Rickman"Chicago Stomp Down"W81777 A / W81777 B / W81777 C Columbia Records(3 November 1927) (recorded OKeh session, Union Square, New York City)(26 October 1927) Duke Ellington Orchestra (vocals by Adelaide Hall)"I Must Have That Man" / "Baby"E 28059 / E 28060 Brunswick 4031(14 August 1928) (recorded in New York)Adelaide Hall acc. by Lew Leslie's Blackbirds Orchestra"Rhapsody in Love" / "Minnie The Moocher"R 218 / R 221 Brunswick(October 1931) (recorded in London, UK)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by Francis J. Carter and Bennie Paine"Too Darn Fickle" / "I Got Rhythm"R 225 / R 229(October 1931) (recorded in London)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by Francis J. Carter and Bennie Paine"Baby Mine" / "I'm Redhot From Harlem"R 230 / R 232(October 1931) (recorded in London)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by Francis J. Carter and Bennie Paine"To Have and To Hold" / "Minnie The Moocher"P 102 Oriole UK(October 1931) (recorded in London, UK)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by Francis J. Carter and Bennie Paine"Strange As It Seems" / "I'll Never Be The Same"Br 6376 / Br6362 Brunswick(5 August 1932) (recorded in New York)Adelaide Hall with orchestra acc. "You Gave Me Everything but Love" / "This Time It's Love"B 12166 A / B 12167 A Brunswick(10 August 1932) (recorded in New York)Adelaide Hall with piano acc. by Francis J. Carter and Art Tatum"I Must Have That Man" / "Baby"B 12773 B / B 12774 B CBS(21 December 1932) (recorded ARC session, New York City)Adelaide Hall with Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra"I Must Have That Man" / "Baby"B 12773 C / B 12774 C Brunswick(7 January 1933) (recorded Arc session, New York City)Adelaide Hall with Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra"I'm Shooting High" / "Say You're Mine"CPT 2649 1 / CPT 2652 1 Pathe PA 914(5 May 1936, Paris)Adelaide Hall with Willie Lewis and his Orchestra "After You've Gone" / "Swing Guitars"CPT 1 / CPT 1 Pathe PA(15 May 1936, Paris)Adelaide Hall with Willie Lewis and his Orchestra "I'm Shooting High" CPT 1 / Pathe PA(15 October 1936, Paris)Adelaide Hall with Willie Lewis and his Orchestra (trumpeter Bill Coleman is included on this recording)"There's a Lull in my Life" / "Medley" K 6001 / K 6001 D 599 Tono (Copenhagen, Denmark)(December 1937)Adelaide Hall with the Kai Ewans Orchestra"Stormy Weather" / "Where or When"K 6002 / K 6002 Tono (Copenhagen, Denmark)(December 1937)Adelaide Hall with the Kai Ewans Orchestra"That Old Feeling" / "I Can't Give You Anything but Love"HMV (EMI Records)(28 August 1938) (recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, UK)Adelaide Hall with organ acc. by Fats Waller"You're Blasé"BBC Radio Transcription Service – The London Transcription Service 10PH 12545 78RPM(1939) (recorded at BBC Studios, London, UK)Adelaide Hall with Stéphane Grappelli and Arthur Young and his Swingtette

SongsLabel & NumberDateArtist"Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine" / "Bill"Columbia Gramophone Co. (EMI Records)(11 July 1951) (recorded in London, UK)Adelaide Hall"How Many Times" / "Vanity"Columbia Gramophone Co. (EMI Records)(11 July 1951) (recorded in London)Adelaide Hall

Year Single Chart position Peak month US 1928"Creole Love Call" ft. Adelaide Hall vcl.19June