A professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Pennsylvania, Donald Bogle is the foremost authority on African Americans in film. His books, which include Dorothy Dandridge; Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks; Primetime Blues; and Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams have won awards and wide critical acclaim. In Heat Wave, Bogle traces screen star Ethel Waters’ life from her childhood years of poverty in Chester, PA, to her success in Hollywood—where she became the second African American ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. Bogle recounts with detail her stint in black vaudeville, her turbulent personal life, and her hard-won success as a Broadway musical comedy and dramatic star.