The New York Times Obituary
Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan. Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley.
Ms. Horne might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early, and languished at MGM in the 1940s because of the color of her skin, although she was so light-skinned that, when she was a child, other black children had taunted her, accusing her of having a “white daddy.” Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star” musical after another — “Thousands Cheer” (1943), “Broadway Rhythm” (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor” (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies” (1946), “Words and Music” (1948) — to sing a song or two that could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMf0Z7EPdLo
I have always been a fan of Lena Horne one of my favorite moments in life was the night I took my Mother to see Lena Horne at the Fairmount hotel in San francisco in 1979, it was a magical night she will be missed...If you don't have her CD "The Lady and Her Music" You are missing something wonderful..
Until Next time Jazzlovers.
Ms.Lena Horne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo
DW Jazzlover
It always saddens me that people, in particular black Americans, were so persecuted for the colour of their skin. So many had so much to offer. Taunting a child "must have had a white daddy" is just plain ignorance and disgusts me.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, that's my two bob's worth!
Have a great day everyone,regardless of your colour.
I too wrote an elongated tribute to Miss Lena (because I felt she deserved it), however, as her granddaughter, Jenny Lumet, stated at the funeral:
ReplyDelete"I've tried to sum her up and I can't. ... Summing up really means it's over, and I think she's not over and that she's quite infinite."
As long as there are examples of talent, struggle, class, beauty, dignity and transference, in some part Lena Horne will always exist, if only as a divine symbol of those qualities.
Snatch JOY!
One.