she had noticed him around campuscour of course as one of e few black students in theiss. mid-1950s. miss. hard to she had heard him perform once or twice. he played the guitar and sing he folk songs.ing radio for a while, he earned pocketco money by recording radio his commercials and later she would hear one of his shingles playing on the air and feel a shiver of pratt & whitney in a day said y that if the young man without voice ever turn professional, he would give him a contact.the that was news to me, too since . have no memories of my father a singing. play. jean was a music instructor, the faculty adviser for the french club, and she decided it would be fun to help the students put on a production. she chose a one-act play called -- one that recounts the fanciful story of captain cook's arrival in the tropics. to direct, she enlisted michael, a junior from england who had taken one of her classes as a freshman. they passed most of the parts, but they didn't have anyone to play the chief, the tribal leader who greets the explorers. he said he knew someone with the p