Pretty as a picture Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.
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 and on television, while releasing well-received record albums. She 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. She continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, disappearing from the public eye in 2000.
As long as I can remember at a very young age I remember my mother talking about Lena Horne and how beautiful she was. I was old enough at the time to understand and know who she was, but I think it was in The Wiz when I first saw her in the role of Glenda the good witch. I remember being intrigued and wanting to know more about her, and she is a legacy almost a year since she passed. Horne broke down barriers and paved the way for those to travel on a road long after her. With so much poise class and elegance she may be
gone in form, but not forgotten from mind.
It's been reported that Oprah Winfrey has taken control of the project and cast Alicia Keys in the title role. During an interview for her film, The Great Debaters, Oprah revealed that while she’s never going to act again, she’s taken to producing like a billionaire fish to water. “We’re going to start filming next year,” Oprah said of her Lena Horne biopic. “And we’ve got Alicia.”
Le debut
FIN
Comments
Post a Comment