Lena Horne: 1917-2010

The legendary Lena Horne has died at the age of 92.  She lived a long, full, fascinating life. 

She was the first black performer to be signed to a long term contract my a major Hollywood studio.  Once signed, MGM seemingly didn't know what to do with her:

Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star” musical after another — “Thousands Cheer” (1943), “Broadway Rhythm” (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor” (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies” (1946), “Words and Music” (1948) — to sing a song or two that could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable.
“The only time I ever said a word to another actor who was white was Kathryn Grayson in a little segment of ‘Show Boat’ ” included in “Till the Clouds Roll By” (1946), a movie about the life of Jerome Kern, Ms. Horne said in an interview in 1990.

She toured Army camps during WWII, entertaining the troops.  She spoke out about the treatment of black soldiers.  While touring with the USO during World War II, she was expected to entertain the white soldiers before appearing before African American troops.  The LA Times said:

A day after performing for white soldiers in a large auditorium at Ft. Riley, Kan., she returned to entertain black troops in the black mess hall.
But when she discovered that the whites seated in the front rows were German prisoners of war, she became furious. Marching off the platform, she turned her back on the POWs and sang to the black soldiers in the back of the hall.


She worked mostly in TV and live performing in the 60s and 70s, returning to the screen to do one more film, The Wiz in 1978.  She played Glinda the Good Witch. IN 1981, she was a smash on Broadway with the Tony winning Lena Horne:  The Lady and her Music. 

The man she credited with her musical ability was Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's associate.  As the NY Times said:


“I wasn’t born a singer,” she told Strayhorn’s biographer, David Hajdu. “I had to learn a lot. Billy rehearsed me. He stretched me vocally.” Strayhorn occasionally worked as her accompanist and, she said, “taught me the basics of music, because I didn’t know anything.”


Strayhorn was also, she said, “the only man I ever loved,” but Strayhorn was openly gay, and their close friendship never became a romance. “He was just everything that I wanted in a man,” she told Mr. Hajdu, “except he wasn’t interested in me sexually.”


She is survived by her daughter.
 
Of course, the best way to celebrate her life is through her music: