Lena Horne Remembered

Another legendary individual has left the earth. Lena Horne was a beautiful woman who epitomized grace and class. Ms. Horne first achieved fame in the 1940s, became a nightclub and recording star in the 1950s and made a triumphant return to the spotlight with a one-woman Broadway show in 1981. She might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early: she languished at MGM for years because of her race, although she was so light-skinned that she could've passed for white.

In 1945 the critic and screenwriter Frank S. Nugent wrote in Liberty magazine that Ms. Horne was “the nation’s top Negro entertainer.” In addition to her MGM salary of $1,000 a week, she was earning $1,500 for every radio appearance and $6,500 a week when she played nightclubs. She was also popular with servicemen, white and black, during World War II, appearing more than a dozen times on the Army radio program “Command Performance.”

“The whole thing that made me a star was the war,” Ms. Horne said in a 1990 interview. “Of course the black guys couldn’t put Betty Grable’s picture in their footlockers. But they could put mine.” Touring Army camps for the U.S.O., Ms. Horne was outspoken in her criticism of the way black soldiers were treated. “So the U.S.O. got mad,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘You’re not going to be allowed to go anyplace anymore under our auspices.’ So from then on I was labeled a bad little Red girl.” In the early 1960s Ms. Horne, always outspoken on the subject of civil rights, became increasingly active, participating in numerous marches and protests. Thia led to Lena becoming blacklisted in Hollywood.

In 1943, Lena was lent to 20th Century Fox for “Stormy Weather,” one of those show business musicals with almost no plot but lots of singing and dancing, Ms. Horne did both triumphantly, ending with the sultry, aching sadness of the title number, which would become one of her signature songs. In 1978 she played Glinda the Good Witch in “The Wiz,” the film version of the all-black Broadway musical based on “The Wizard of Oz.” That is one of my all time favorite movies. She never stopped singing.

Returning to her roots as a nightclub performer, Horne took part in the March on Washington in August 1963, and continued to work as a performer, both in nightclubs as well as on television, all while releasing well received record albums. Horne announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in a one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which ran for more than three hundred performances on Broadway, and earned her numerous awards and accolades, and she would continue recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s until disappearing from the public eye in 2000.

Born on June 30, 1917 in New York, Lena will be remembered as a trailblazer for years to come. She was a beautiful woman who was not afraid to speak her mind. Her lagacy opened doors for African American women. There are rumors that a bipoic is planned with Alicia Keyes in the starring role. Originally a biopic was going to be produced with Janet Jackson as the star but it was nixed due to the wardrobe malfunction during the SuperBowl in 2004. Lena Horne died on May 9th after months of failing health. From her legacy, we can learn much. Be true to who you are, but whatever you do, do it with style, class, and of course grace.

Copyright May 14, 2010 by Pamela Cole Thorpe