Lena Horne - 9265 Words

Singer/actress Lena Hornes primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination†¦show more content†¦Jones owed his job a clerk in the county coroners office to political patronage. It did not bring in much money, and in 1938, when Horne was approached by an agent with an offer to co-star in a low-budget all-black movie mu sical with a mere ten-day shooting schedule in Hollywood, she accepted. The film was The Duke Is Tops, released in July 1938. Later in the year, Horne was asked to take on a more time-consuming project, a part in a new mounting of producer Lew Leslies all-black musical revue Blackbirds. Again, she accepted in the name of increasing the family income, spending months in rehearsals and out-of-town tryouts before Lew Leslies Blackbirds of 1939 opened on Broadway on February 11, 1939. One of Hornes numbers was Youre So Indifferent, written by Sammy Fain and Mitchell Parish, a song she would keep in her repertoire. The show ran only nine performances, closing February 18. Horne returned to Pittsburgh, where she temporarily separated from her husband, then reconciled with him. She began taking singing engagements in the homes of wealthy families in the area. She also became pregnant again, and her son, Edwin Fletcher (Teddy) Jones, was born in February 1940. That fall, she made a final separation from her husband (they were formally divorced in June 1944) and moved to New York to restart her career. In December, she accepted an offer to join theShow MoreRelatedLena Mary Calhoun Horne : An Advocate For Civil Rights And The Abolition Of Segregation1065 Words   |  5 PagesIn 1919 at the tender age of two, Lena Horne made her first public appearance on the cover of the Branch Bulletin, a publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was touted as the organization’s youngest member. Lena would go on to become a noted singer, dancer and sex symbol. Not content to revel in her fame, Lena became an advocate for ci vil rights and the abolishment of segregation. Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born to a middle-class family in Brooklyn, NewRead More Lena Horne Essay1396 Words   |  6 PagesLena Horne Lena Horne was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Teddy and Edna Scottron Horne. After her father left her at the age of two in order to pursue his gambling career; her mother leaving soon after that to pursue her acting career; she went to live with her grandparents. Through her grandparents influence she became involved with organizations like the NAACP, at an early age. In 1924 she went back to live with her mother, traveling and being schooledRead MoreLena Horne : An American Icon3136 Words   |  13 Pages LENA HORNE: AN AMERICAN ICON Fela Langston MUSI 305 Section A Dr. Zigler 13 May 2015 Lena Horne: an American Icon Lena Horne, born Lena Mary Calhoun Horne in Brooklyn, New York was an American jazz vocalist, actress and civil rights activist who lived from June 30, 1917 to May 9, 2010. Although Horne’s beauty and her elegance received praise throughout her career, her talents and impact on American society are equally unforgettable. She was an eight timeRead More Frank Sinatra Essay example774 Words   |  4 PagesOther contributors to the album included Barbara Streisand, and Julio Iglesias. The album sequel Duets II (1994) won Sinatra his ninth Grammy Award in 1996. Duets II included collaborations with country-and-western star Willie Nelson, jazz singer Lena Horne, and popular singer and songwriter Neil Diamond. Frank Sinatra, the legendary leader of the Rat Pack and arguably the greatest entertainer of this century, died of a heart attack Thursday night, May 14, 1998, in Los Angeles at the ageRead MoreThe Way, Meet Vera Stark Essay2499 Words   |  10 PagesWhen thinking about black actresses in the 1930s through 1950s, a few names may come to mind like Nina McKinney, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, and Hattie McDaniel. However, many other black actresses have graced the big screen including Suzette Harbin, Theresa Hams, Ethel Moses, Mae Turner, and Hilda Simms just to name a few. Many of these talented actresses differ in their career paths, but they all endured some form of racism and sexism which made it laborious for them to thrive in their careersRead MoreI Am a Woman, Too: Feminism to the Black Woman966 Words   |  4 Pagesof some important black women that carry on the legacy of our past generations: Maya Angelou Josephine Baker Bessie Blount Marita Bonner Dorothy Dandridge Jessie Redmon Fauset Althea Gibson Billie Holiday Lena Horne Zora Neale Hurston Harriet Jacobs Mae Jemison Marjorie Stewart Joyner Nella Larsen Toni Morrison Rosa Parks Leontyne Price Condoleezza Rice Bessie Smith Maria Stewart So it is seen todayRead MoreI Am A Woman,Too: Feminism To The Black Woman Essay examples941 Words   |  4 Pagesof some important black women that carry on the legacy of our past generations: Maya Angelou Josephine Baker Bessie Blount Marita Bonner Dorothy Dandridge Jessie Redmon Fauset Althea Gibson Billie Holiday Lena Horne Zora Neale Hurston Harriet Jacobs Mae Jemison Marjorie Stewart Joyner Nella Larsen Toni Morrison Rosa Parks Leontyne Price Condoleezza Rice Bessie Smith Maria Stewart So it is seen todayRead MoreAnalysis Of Foucault And Queer Theory 1211 Words   |  5 Pagesall. Hooks’ exploration continues through the examination of the women idealised by the drag queens in Paris is Burning. It is primarily (upper-class) white women who are presented as the epitome of femininity rather than women of colour such as Lena Horne . This shows that the hegemonic discourses responsible for the creation of gender and sexuality categories incorporate multiple sites of privilege. By not looking at race the analysis of these categories is incomplete. Hooks then goes on to addressRead MoreA Brief Note On Irish Novelist And Non Fiction Writer Joseph O Neill Once Said1120 Words   |  5 Pagesconfident in who I am. I know that my culture, family influence, environment, friends and the need to know has influenced me. If you were to ask me to describe my identity, I would tell you, â€Å"My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.†- Lena Horne, and nothing or no one can take that away from me. Read MoreThe Red Scare of McCarthyism 576 Words   |  2 Pagesonly for influence. (Wisegeek.org) McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled. -Joseph R. McCarthy (Brainyquote.com) Known and accused Artists were Dashneill Hammett (author), Waldo Salt (screenwriter), Lillian Hellman (author of plays), Lena Horne (singer and actress), Pael Robeson (actor and singer), Elia Kazon (director, producer, writer and actor), Aaron Copland (composer), and Leonard Bernstein (Composer, conductor and author). Anyone could be accused including: screenwriters, actors