A holiday with Harry

Young Chang

Harry Belafonte has not yet started his holiday shopping. But it’s not

his many performances that have put him behind. Rather, it’s something

closer to the spirit of Christmas -- his philanthropy -- that is the

culprit.

This season, the 73-year-old “King of Calypso” has been working with

the United Nations on an international campaign against HIV and AIDS.

Nowadays, the singer and actor is recognized as much for his political

activism as he is for his biggest hit, “Day-O,” also known as “The Banana

Boat Song.”

Belafonte, no newcomer to the Orange County Performing Arts Center,

returns to Segerstrom Hall on Saturday to perform classics and new songs.

“A lot of material people are familiar with,” Belafonte said. Music

“that they’ll want to hear.”

Belafonte’s career began when he started performing with the American

Negro Theatre in New York after high school. He simultaneously studied

drama at Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop.

A singing role led to cabaret engagements, which led to a recording

career in 1949 and songs that climbed to the top of the billboard charts

in the mid-1950s. In 1953, he appeared in the film “Bright Road” with

Dorothy Dandridge. A year later, he won a Tony Award for his work in the

Broadway revue “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.”

His 1956 album, “Calypso,” topped the charts for 31 weeks with hits

including “Day-O” and “”Jamaica Farewell.” He became television’s first

black producer at the turn of the 1960s, and his special, “Tonight with

Harry Belafonte,” won an Emmy.

Over the years, Belafonte has starred in films with actors including

Sidney Poitier and John Travolta. He stopped recording for a while in the

late 1960s and appeared only occasionally in films.

But Belafonte’s civil rights activism never dwindled.

He has been honored by such groups as the American Jewish Congress,

the NAACP, the Urban League, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S.

State Department and the Peace Corps. He received the Albert Einstein

Award, UNICEF’s Danny Kaye Award, the Martin Luther King Peace Prize and

the Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts. He was

the the first person to ever be awarded the Nelson Mandela Courage Award.

“Whenever people are in need of help,” Belafonte said, “Wherever they

send me on a mission and wherever I can make a difference in the lives of

children anywhere, I make it my business to respond to that as positively

as I can.”

Marty Capune, a film liaison with the city of Newport Beach, was

especially struck by Belafonte’s warmth and desire to help people when

they met about 11 years ago.

The performer was shooting a video to market a “Best of Belafonte”

album in Europe. The location was Newport Beach. During one shot at

Pirate’s Cove, as Belafonte and the film crew waited for a family to

finish their picture-taking, the singer walked up to the group and put

his arm around the family’s son, Capune remembers.

The father looked over, shocked.

“He goes, ‘Harry Belafonte?’ And Harry goes, ‘You could call me a very

distant relative,”’ Capune said.

Capune, a Newport Beach resident, said he’d like to see tickets for

this weekend’s Belafonte show sell out.

“He’s the only person I’ve ever asked for an autograph,” Capune said.

“He’s probably the most dignified vocalist I can think of.”

Dignity is important to Belafonte.

The native New Yorker said he is most proud of “what I’ve done,

whatever aspect of my career . . . that I’ve come with purpose. That I’ve

come with dignity and that I’ve come with things that have been helpful

to so many people.”

This holiday season, Belafonte said he will eat turkey and unwrap

presents with family. His schedule is packed, as he continues to be

active with civil rights issues and perform, but he won’t cut out any of

his passions.

“I’ll just continue to do them all, and just try to do them a little

better than the last time I did them,’ he said.

FYI

WHAT: Harry Belafonte

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center,

600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

COST: $45-$65

CALL: (714) 740-7878