Lena Horne | |
|---|---|
 Horne in 1946 | |
| Born | Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (1917-06-30)June 30, 1917 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | May 9, 2010(2010-05-09) (aged 92) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1933–2003 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Jenny Lumet (granddaughter) Jake Cannavale (great-grandson) |
| Musical career | |
| Origin | Harlem, New York City |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Labels | |
Musical artist | |
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer andcivil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre.
Horne joined the chorus of theCotton Club at the age of sixteen and became anightclub performer before moving on toHollywood andBroadway. A groundbreakingAfrican-American performer, Horne advocated for civil rights and took part in theMarch on Washington in August 1963. Later she returned to her roots as a nightclub performer and continued to work 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 300 performances on Broadway. She then toured the country in the show, earning numerous awards and accolades. Horne continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, retreating from the public eye in 2000.
Lena Horne was born inBedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn[1] to Edwin and Edna Horne on June 30, 1917.[2] Both sides of her family wereAfrican American, and were a mixture of European American, Native American, and African-American descent.[3][4] She belonged to the well-educatedupper stratum of Black New Yorkers at the time.[5] She lived the first five years of her life in a brownstone at 519 Macon Street.[6]
Horne's father, Edwin Fletcher "Teddy" Horne Jr. (1893–1970),[7] a one-time owner of a hotel and restaurant,[8] was a gambler. Teddy Horne left the family when Lena was three years old and moved to anupper-middle-class African-American community in theHill District ofPittsburgh,Pennsylvania.[9][10] Her mother, Edna Louise Scottron, was an actress with a Black theatretroupe and traveled extensively.[11] Edna's maternal grandmother, Amelie Louise Ashton, was from modernSenegal.[12] Horne was raised mainly by her paternal grandparents,Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne.[7]
When Horne was five she was sent to live inGeorgia.[13] For several years she traveled with her mother.[14] From 1927 to 1929 she lived with her uncle,Frank S. Horne. He was the dean of students at Fort Valley Junior Industrial Institute (now part ofFort Valley State University) inFort Valley, Georgia,[14] and later served as an adviser to PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt.[15] From Fort Valley, southwest ofMacon, Horne briefly moved to Atlanta with her mother; they returned to New York when Horne was twelve years old, after which Horne attended St Peter Claver School in Brooklyn.[14]
Horne then attendedGirls High School, an all-girls public high school in Brooklyn, which later becameBoys and Girls High School; she dropped out at age 16.[16] At the age of 18 she moved to her father's home in Pittsburgh, staying in the city's Hill District for almost five years and learning music from native PittsburgersBilly Strayhorn andBilly Eckstine, among others.[9]
In the fall of 1933, Horne joined the chorus line of theCotton Club, a 'black and tan club' in New York City. In the spring of 1934, she had a featured role in the Cotton Club Parade starringAdelaide Hall, who took Lena under her wing.[17] Horne made her first screen appearance as a dancer in the musical shortCab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935).[18] A few years later, Horne joinedNoble Sissle's Orchestra, with which she toured and with whom she made her first records, issued byDecca. After she separated from her first husband, Horne toured with bandleaderCharlie Barnet in 1940–41, but disliked the travel and left the band to work at theCafe Society in New York. She replacedDinah Shore as the featured vocalist on NBC's popular jazz seriesThe Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. The show's resident maestros, Henry Levine and Paul Laval, recorded with Horne in June 1941 forRCA Victor. Horne left the show after only six months when she was hired by former CafeTrocadero (Los Angeles) manager Felix Young to perform in a Cotton Club-style revue on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.[19]
Horne already had two low-budget movies to her credit: a musical feature calledThe Duke is Tops (1938, later reissued with Horne's name above the title asThe Bronze Venus); and a two-reel short subject,Boogie Woogie Dream (1941), featuring pianistsPete Johnson andAlbert Ammons. Horne's songs fromBoogie Woogie Dream were later released individually assoundies. Horne made her Hollywood nightclub debut at Felix Young's Little Troc on theSunset Strip in January 1942.[19] A few weeks later, she was signed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In November 1944, she was featured in an episode of the popular radio seriesSuspense, as a fictional nightclub singer, with a large speaking role along with her singing. In 1945 and 1946, she sang withBilly Eckstine's Orchestra.
She made her debut atMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer inPanama Hattie (1942) and performed thetitle song ofStormy Weather (1943) based loosely on the life ofAdelaide Hall, for20th Century Fox, while on loan from MGM. She appeared in several MGMmusicals, includingCabin in the Sky (1943) with an entirely African-American cast. She was otherwise not featured in a leading role because of her ethnicity and the fact that her films were required to be re-edited for showing in cities where theaters would not show films with Black performers. As a result, most of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline. One number fromCabin in the Sky was cut before release because it was considered too suggestive by the censors: Horne singing "Ain't It the Truth" while taking a bubble bath. This scene and song are featured in the filmThat's Entertainment! III (1994), which also featured commentary from Horne on why the scene was deleted prior to the film's release. Horne was the first African-American person elected to serve on theScreen Actors Guild board of directors.
InZiegfeld Follies (1946), she performed "Love" byHugh Martin andRalph Blane. Horne lobbied for the role of Julie LaVerne in MGM's version ofShow Boat (1951), having already played the role when a segment ofShow Boat was performed inTill the Clouds Roll By, but lost the part toAva Gardner, a friend in real life. Horne claimed this was due to theProduction Code's ban oninterracial relationships in films, although MGM sources state she was never considered for the role. In the documentaryThat's Entertainment! III, Horne stated that MGM executives required Gardner to practice her singing using Horne's recordings, which offended both actresses. Ultimately, Gardner's voice wasoverdubbed by actress Annette Warren (Smith) for the theatrical release.
Horne became disenchanted with Hollywood and increasingly focused on her nightclub career. She made only two major appearances for MGM during the 1950s:Duchess of Idaho (1950, which was alsoEleanor Powell's final film); and the musicalMeet Me in Las Vegas (1956). She said she was "tired of being typecast as a Negro who stands against a pillar singing a song. I did that 20 times too often."[20] She wasblacklisted during the 1950s for her affiliations in the 1940s withcommunist-backed groups. She would subsequently disavow communism.[1][21] She returned to the screen, playing Claire Quintana, a madam in a brothel who marriesRichard Widmark, in the filmDeath of a Gunfighter (1969), her first straight dramatic role with no reference to her color.[20] She later appeared on screen two more times, asGlinda inThe Wiz (1978), which was directed by her then son-in-lawSidney Lumet, and co-hosting the MGM retrospectiveThat's Entertainment! III (1994), in which she related her unkind treatment by the studio.
After leaving Hollywood, Horne established herself as one of the premiernightclub performers of the post-war era. She headlined at clubs and hotels throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including theSands Hotel in Las Vegas, theCocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and theWaldorf-Astoria in New York. In 1957, a live album entitledLena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria became the biggest-selling record by a female artist in the history of theRCA Victor label at that time. In 1958, Horne became the first African-American woman to be nominated for aTony Award for "Best Actress in a Musical", for her part in the "Calypso" musicalJamaica (which, at Horne's request, featured her longtime friendAdelaide Hall).
From the late 1950s through to the 1960s, Horne was a staple of TV variety shows, appearing multiple times on Perry Como'sKraft Music Hall,The Ed Sullivan Show,The Dean Martin Show, andThe Bell Telephone Hour. Other programs she appeared on includedThe Judy Garland Show,The Hollywood Palace, andThe Andy Williams Show. Besides two television specials for theBBC (later syndicated in the U.S.), Horne starred in her own U.S. television special in 1969,Monsanto Night Presents Lena Horne. During this decade, the artist Pete Hawley painted her portrait for RCA Victor, capturing the mood of her performance style.
In 1970, she co-starred withHarry Belafonte in the hour-longHarry & Lena special for ABC; in 1973, she co-starred withTony Bennett inTony and Lena. Horne and Bennett subsequently toured the U.S. and U.K. in a show together. In the 1976 programAmerica Salutes Richard Rodgers, she sang a lengthy medley of Rodgers songs withPeggy Lee andVic Damone. Horne also made several appearances onThe Flip Wilson Show. Additionally, Horne played herself on television programs such asThe Muppet Show,Sesame Street, andSanford and Son in the 1970s, as well as a 1985 performance onThe Cosby Show and a 1993 appearance onA Different World. In the summer of 1980, Horne, 63 years old and intent on retiring from show business, embarked on a two-month series of benefit concerts sponsored by the sororityDelta Sigma Theta. These concerts were represented as Horne's farewell tour; however, her retirement lasted less than a year.
On April 13, 1980, Horne,Luciano Pavarotti, and hostGene Kelly were all scheduled to appear at a gala performance at the Metropolitan Opera House to salute the NY City Center'sJoffrey Ballet Company. However, Pavarotti's plane was diverted over the Atlantic and he was unable to appear. James Nederlander was an invited Honored Guest and observed that only three people at the sold-out Metropolitan Opera House asked for their money back. He asked to be introduced to Horne following her performance. In May 1981, TheNederlander Organization, Michael Frazier, and Fred Walker went on to book Horne for a four-week engagement at the newly namedNederlander Theatre on West 41st Street in New York City. The show was an instant success and was extended to a full year run, garnering Horne a special Tony award and twoGrammy Awards for the cast recording of her showLena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. The 333-performance Broadway run closed on Horne's 65th birthday, June 30, 1982. Later that same week, she performed the entire show again to record it for television broadcast and home video release. Horne began a tour a few days later at Tanglewood (Massachusetts) during the weekend of July 4, 1982.The Lady and Her Music toured 41 cities in the U.S. and Canada until June 17, 1984. It played in London for a month in August and ended its run inStockholm, Sweden, on September 14, 1984. In 1981 she received aSpecial Tony Award for the show, which also played to acclaim at theAdelphi Theatre in London in 1984.[2] Despite the show's considerable success (Horne still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history), she did not capitalize on the renewed interest in her career by undertaking many new musical projects. A proposed 1983 joint recording project between Horne andFrank Sinatra (to be produced byQuincy Jones) was ultimately abandoned, and her sole studio recording of the decade was 1988'sThe Men in My Life, featuring duets withSammy Davis Jr. andJoe Williams. In 1989, she received theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In the 1990s, Horne released three solo albums: 1994's Grammy nominated "We'll Be Together Again" studio album, 1995's "An Evening with Lena Horne" live album, which won Horne a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and 1998'sBeing Myself, Horne's final studio album. Thereafter, Horne retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though in 2000, Horne's vocals were featured onSimon Rattle'sClassic Ellington album,[16] and in 2006, a compilation album, entitled "Seasons of a Life" featuring various outtakes from Horne's 1990's recording sessions with Blue Note records was released.
Horne was long involved with theCivil Rights Movement. In 1941, she sang atCafé Society, New York City's first integrated venue, and worked withPaul Robeson. DuringWorld War II, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform "forsegregated audiences or for groups in which GermanPOWs were seated in front of Black servicemen", according to herKennedy Center biography.[24] Because the U.S. Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she staged her show for a mixed audience of Black U.S. soldiers and white German POWs. Seeing the Black soldiers had been forced to sit in the back seats, she walked off the stage to the first row where the Black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her. However, the USO observed at the time of her death that Horne did in fact tour "extensively with the USO during WWII on the West Coast and in the South".[25] The organization also commemorated her for the appearances she made onArmed Forces Radio Service programsJubilee,G.I. Journal, andCommand Performances.[25] In the filmStormy Weather (1943), Horne's character would perform the film's title song as part of a big, all-star show for World War II soldiers as well.[26] After quitting the USO in 1945, Horne financed tours of military camps herself.[27]
Horne was at anNAACP rally withMedgar Evers inJackson, Mississippi, the weekend before Evers was assassinated. At theMarch on Washington she spoke and performed on behalf of the NAACP,S.N.C.C., and theNational Council of Negro Women. She also worked withEleanor Roosevelt in attempts to pass anti-lynching laws.[28]Tom Lehrer mentions her in his song "National Brotherhood Week" in the line "Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark are dancing cheek to cheek" referring (wryly) to her and to SheriffJim Clark, ofSelma, Alabama, who was responsible for a violent attack on civil rights marchers in 1965. In 1983, theNAACP awarded her theSpingarn Medal.[29]
Horne was a registeredDemocrat and on November 20, 1963, she, along with Democratic National Committee (D.N.C.) ChairmanJohn Bailey,Carol Lawrence,Richard Adler,Sidney Salomon, Vice-chairwoman of the DNCMargaret B. Price, and Secretary of the DNCDorothy Vredenburgh Bush, visitedJohn F. Kennedy atThe White House,[30] two days prior to his assassination.
Horne married Louis Jordan Jones, a political operative,[31][32] in January 1937 inPittsburgh. On December 21, 1937, their daughter,Gail (1937–2024), was born. They had a son, Edwin Jones (1940–1970), who died ofkidney disease.[7] Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and divorced in 1944. Horne's second marriage, in December 1947 in Paris, was toLennie Hayton, who was music director and one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM. They separated in the early 1960s but never divorced. He died in 1971.[33] In her as-told-to autobiographyLena byRichard Schickel, Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as aninterracial couple. She later admitted in an interview inEbony (May 1980) that she had married Hayton to advance her career and cross the color barrier in show business, but "learned to love him very much".[34]
Horne had affairs with long-time heavyweight championJoe Louis, musician and actorArtie Shaw, actorOrson Welles, and directorVincente Minnelli.[19]
Horne also had a long and close relationship withBilly Strayhorn, whom she said she would have married if he had been heterosexual.[35] He was also an important professional mentor to her.
Among her close friends was authorRex Stout, creator of the mystery series featuring the fictional detectiveNero Wolfe. She first met Stout in the early 1950s when their daughters were classmates at a Quaker boarding school in upstate New York. In 1996 Horne wrote the Introduction to a new edition of Stout’s novel,Champagne for One.
ScreenwriterJenny Lumet, known for her award-winning screenplayRachel Getting Married, is Horne's granddaughter, the daughter of filmmakerSidney Lumet and Horne's daughter Gail.[36] Her other grandchildren include Gail's other daughter, Amy Lumet, and her son's four children, Thomas, William, Samadhi and Lena. Her great-grandchildren includeJake Cannavale.[37]
Horne wasCatholic.[38][39] From 1946 to 1962 she resided inSt. Albans, Queens, New York, enclave of prosperous African Americans, where she counted among her neighborsCount Basie,Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz luminaries.[40] In the 1980s, she moved into the fifth floor of the Volney, a hotel turned co-op, at 23East 74th Street.[41]
Lena Horne died ofcongestive heart failure at age 92 on May 9, 2010.[42] Her funeral took place atSt. Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue in New York, where she had been a member.[43] Thousands gathered and attendees includedLeontyne Price,Dionne Warwick,Liza Minnelli,Jessye Norman,Chita Rivera,Cicely Tyson,Diahann Carroll,Leslie Uggams,Lauren Bacall,Robert Osborne,Audra McDonald, andVanessa Williams.[44][45] Her remains were cremated.[46]
In 2003,ABC announced thatJanet Jackson would star as Horne in a television biographical film. In the weeks following Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the2004 Super Bowl, however,Variety reported that Horne had demanded Jackson be dropped from the project. "ABC executives resisted Horne's demand", according to theAssociated Press report, "but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part."Oprah Winfrey stated toAlicia Keys during a 2005 interview onThe Oprah Winfrey Show that she might possibly consider producing the biopic herself, casting Keys as Horne.[47]
In January 2005,Blue Note Records, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note." Remixed by her long-time producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne with a remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as "Something to Live For", "Chelsea Bridge", and "Stormy Weather". The album, originally titledSoul but renamedSeasons of a Life, was released on January 24, 2006. In 2007, Horne was portrayed byLeslie Uggams as the older Lena and Nikki Crawford as the younger Lena in the stage musicalStormy Weather staged at thePasadena Playhouse in California (January to March 2009). In 2011, Horne was also portrayed by actress Ryan Jillian in a one-woman show titledNotes from A Horne staged at the Susan Batson studio in New York City, from November 2011 to February 2012. The83rd Academy Awards presented a tribute to Horne by actressHalle Berry at the ceremony held February 27, 2011.[48]
In 2018, aforever stamp depicting Horne began to be issued; this made Horne the 41st honoree in the Black Heritage stamp series.[49]
In June 2021, theProspect Park bandshell in Brooklyn was renamed the Lena Horne Bandshell to honor Horne, a Bed-Stuy Brooklyn native, and to show solidarity with the Black community.[50]
TheNederlander Organization announced in June 2022 thatBroadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre would be renamed after her later that year.[51] The theater's marquee was unveiled on November 1, 2022. The theatre is now called theLena Horne Theatre, which means Horne is the first Black woman to have a Broadway theater named after her.[52][53][54]
| 1961 | Lena Horne at the Sands | Best Vocal Performance Album, Female | Nominated |
| 1962 | Porgy and Bess | Best Solo Vocal Performance, Female | Nominated |
| 1981 | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music | Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female | Won |
| Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music | Best Cast Show Album | Won | |
| 1988 | The Men in My Life | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | Nominated |
| "I Won't Leave You Again"(withJoe Williams) | Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group | Nominated | |
| 1989 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Won | |
| 1995 | An Evening with Lena Horne | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | Won |
| Year | Organization | Category | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Tony Awards | Best Actress | Nominee | Jamaica |
| 1980 | Howard University | Honorary doctorate[57] | Honored | |
| 1980 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress – Musical | Won | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music |
| 1980 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Special Citation | Won | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music |
| 1981 | Tony Awards | Special Citation | Won | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music |
| 1984 | John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts | Kennedy Center Honors[58] | Won | For extraordinary talent, creativity, and perseverance |
| 1985 | Emmy Award | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music | Nominee | |
| 1987 | American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers | The ASCAP Pied Piper Award[59] | Won | Given to entertainers who have made significant contributions to words and music |
| 1994 | Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award | Songwriters Hall of Fame | Won | |
| 1997 | Society of Singers | Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award[60] | Won | for "whom singers are awarded for their contribution to the world of music along with their dedicated efforts to benefit the community and worldwide causes" |
| 1999 | NAACP Image Award | Outstanding Jazz Artist | Won | |
| 2006 | Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site | International Civil Rights Walk of Fame[61] | Inducted | |
| ? | Hollywood Chamber of Commerce | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Won | Honor (motion pictures) |
| ? | Hollywood Chamber of Commerce | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Won | Honor (recordings) |
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