A closer look
Talk about a ruthless career pivot. Alberta Hunter was a massive blues star in the 1920s, but when the gigs dried up in the 50s, she simply lied about her age, forged a diploma, and worked as a scrub nurse for twenty years. When the hospital finally forced her to retire because they thought she was 70 (she was actually 82), she just shrugged, walked back into a New York recording studio, and casually rebooted her international music career. She spent her eighties dominating talk shows and making your quarter-life crisis look pathetic.
