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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO NAT ``KING'' COLE
______
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of Nat
``King'' Cole, who was born one hundred years ago on March 17, 1919 in
Montgomery, Alabama.
Mr. Cole is recognized for being one of the most distinguished and
exemplary music recording artists of all time and as a talisman for the
civil rights movement.
Nat King Cole began his music career with a focus on jazz, having
founded the Nat King Cole Trio as a young man. The band quickly became
an influential melodic phenomenon. He signed with Capitol Records in
1943, and the release of his first album, The King Cole Trio, followed
in 1945. The album was widely successful as it hit the top of
Billboard's inaugural album chart. The talented pianist and vocalist
went on to record approximately 700 songs under Capitol Record's label,
including 150 singles that appeared on the R&B, Pop and/or Country
charts of Billboard. Mr. Cole's success caused Capitol Record's
legendary Hollywood building on Vine Street to be informally nicknamed
``The House That Nat Built.''
In 1946, he hosted the nationally aired, fifteen-minute ``King Cole
Trio Time,'' which was the first broadcast of its kind to have an
African American musician as a host. Mr. Cole made history once again
in 1956 when he became the first African American performer to host his
own network television show, NBC's ``Nat King Cole Show.'' He also
appeared in numerous films, including St. Louis Blues and Cat Ballou.
Along with his legendary musical career, Mr. Cole is remembered for
his milestone leadership in the civil rights movement. After purchasing
a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood in 1948, he became a
target of the Ku Klux Klan who burned a cross on his family's lawn.
This horrific incident spurred him to help overturn a 1920's City of
Los Angeles statute that allowed the neighborhood to be segregated.
Before Mr. Cole's premature death in 1965, when he was just 45 years
old, his final album, L-O-V-E, reached number four on the Billboard
album chart. At that time, Capital Records had sold more than nine
million Nat King Cole records. Nat King Cole received many honors
including being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, receiving
a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and being featured on a
U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp.
Married in 1948, Mr. Cole and his wife, Maria had five children:
Natalie, Carole, Nat Kelly, Casey and Timolin. In 2008, their twin
daughters, Timolin and Casey Cole, founded Nat King Cole Generation
Hope to help fund music programs for schools across America.
I ask all Members of Congress to join me in recognizing Nat King
Cole on the one-hundred-year milestone of his birth. Mr. Cole's life is
a lesson in success despite adversity, the triumph of respect, talent
and civility coupled with cultural, business and political savvy.
____________________
