Lancelot Pinard (Sir Lancelot)
Though he is little remembered today, Sir Lancelot (ca.1903-2001) had perhaps the most remarkable career of any calypso figure during the twentieth century. He was born in Trinidad, where he studied classical voice. In 1939 he left for New York, with the intent of studying medicine. In New York, Trinidadian bandleader Gerald Clark heard him singing lieders and arias and recruited him to sing calypsos. He performed with Clark's band at the Village Vanguard and began recording calypsos, including a song about the FBI called "G-Man Hoover."
In 1941 Lancelot toured the West Coast of the U.S. with Trinidadian Lionel Belasco's band. While in Los Angeles, he was noticed by Hollywood movie producers. He starred as a calypso singer in I Walked With a Zombie, in which his composition "Shame and Scandal in the Family" was used as an integral part of the film's plot. He sang Lion's famous "Ugly Woman" in the musical Happy Go Lucky and sang calypsos in several other movies, such as The Ghost Ship (a psychological thriller), Brute Force (a Burt Lancaster prison drama) and Romance on the High Seas (a Doris Day musical). He also composed the soundtrack to a cartoon titled The Reluctant Bluebird.
Lancelot undertook many concert tours in Latin America on Pan Am Airways,
which provided him with free passage in return for his advertising song
"Pan American Way." He also toured Europe and, during the 1960s,
performed for several months in Asia. In his later life, he focused on
religious calypsos.
