I got impatient and went on the air and said if I was late getting onto the show some day, it would be because I had to come in the back way. Levinson called his boss and raised hell about Bailey mentioning the Fremont's Jim Crow policy on the air. Nobody seemed to resent the exclusivity of his arrangement, said Bailey. All the hired help was very proud that somebody had broken the color line. Well, there's truth in that.
Somebody has to start it.
We sang a little scat and a little do-wop. We fashioned ourselves pretty much after the Ink Spots. Either them or the Mills Brothers, everybody fashioned themselves after one or the other. He intended music to be his fallback profession. Combined with his high grades, it won him a voice scholarship to Morehouse in Atlanta.