LENA HORNE | June 30, 1917-May 9, 2010 | In Memoriam
Listen
Lena: A Sound Portrait of a Multifaceted Lady — her impassioned interview with Gene Dealessi at Pacifica Radio in 1966 — perfectly demonstrates the scope and conviction of this extraordinary artist and global citizen.
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
Cab Calloway and Lena Horne, circa 1943, in a 20th Century-Fox publicity still for the musical Stormy Weather.
Courtesy of the Noel Parrish Collection/Library of Congress
Lena Horne with the Tuskegee Airmen and Gen. Noel F. Parrish, their white commander, 1944
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“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
— Lena Horne
Photo: Carl Van Vechten
Lena Horne in 1941
© Associated Press
Lena Horne in 1995
A POEM FOR LENA HORNE
And when it came down to Negro nights,
those Colored Only slices in time,
you took the cake, Lena, & ran
& danced with it, O! You were so gorgeous
they didn’t know what to do with you,
those not so gentle men at MGM & elsewhere.
Where else but in the USA’s of the world
would it go on record that you & Ava
Gardner used to knock back a few
in the palmy hours, laughing over how
the studio would darken her up from head
to toe to lip-synch & mouth the sound
of your voice for Showboat. Hurray
for Hollywood! The jewel blue you
will never be seen, only heard in the role
of Miss Julie, the octoroon swooning
under the June-jazzed Dixiemental moon.
You can laugh about it now & soften the sting.
You can smile & even do a step or two & sing
& I suppose you haven’t done bad, given
your class & origins & given the almighty odds
& the gods of showbiz heaven who own, control
& chart the color of beauty & its stars.
Tell me again about the time your numbers
banker daddy told Samuel Goldwyn he’d be happy
to pay for your maids & upkeep since
you didn’t have sense enough to understand
the movies didn’t have much use for people
of your hue. They stashed you in some doozies
too—Panama Hattie, As Thousands Cheer,
I Dood It, Swing Fever, Two Girls & a Sailor,
but the trick was to tailor you for the South.
How did they do it? Well, wasn’t much to it.
They’d log you in, then chop you out (like
lumber) for the slumbering southern houses.
I knew your son Ted, a fledgling writer, dead
to you these many years. You outlived him,
your husband and your dad who all moved out
in the very same year. I can almost hear—
sometimes when you sing—the strong & lasting
side of you that once told Billie Holiday
she had to learn to be tough, that these hucksters
didn’t mean no man no good, let alone womanhood.
You’re still lovely, Lena. Moms Mabley was wrong.
The rubberbands she said were holding your face up
are never going to snap. You are the song.
– Al Young
from SOMETHING ABOUT THE BLUES: An Unlikely Collection of Poetry
© 1992 and 2007 by Al Young
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Dennis McLellan: Lena Horne dies at 92; singer and civil rights activist who broke barriers | L.A. Times ~ May 10, 2010
Aljean Harmetz: Lena Horne, Singer and Actress, Dies at 92 | New York Times ~ May 9, 2010
Lena Horne ~ R.I.P. | A Picture Tribute | Black Voices.com
Amy Goodman: Singing Lena Horne’s Praises | truthdig ~ May 11, 2010
Singer and Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne Remembered: Amy Goodman interviews Horne biographer James Gavin | Democracy Now, May 11, 2010
Joseph McNair: Stormy Weather (Lena Horne. 1917-2010) | Asili: The Journal of Multicultural Heartspeak ~ June-September 2010
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Lena Horne sings “Stormy Weather”
Lena lays down the ABC’s with the Muppets at Sesame Street
Lena Horne biographer James Gavin on News Hour in conversation with Jeffrey Brown
Courtesy photo
Lena Horne the Lady, the Grand Diva | Jazz Roots Rhythms (Celebrating Jazz & Global Music)
Lena Horne biography in timeline format at LenaHorne.com
Listen
Lena Horne & Sammy Davis, Jr sing “I Wish I’d Met You”
— from the Lena Horne album, The Men in My Life
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