Discover Top Posts Tagged with #james gavin

“Lena Horne, the mahogany goddess, stands in her own pantheon as a singer, actress, a legend. That is how Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw her in one film in the forties. But she, as America’s first black beauty on celluloid, was filmed in a convenient way so that her big moments could be deleted for white audiences in the racist claim of Southern cities. Lena Horne made her mark in that film with the song that gave her fame, “Stormy Weather” – her pivotal imagespeak moment. In the film The Wiz (1978), when she sings “If You Believe” it is a song about faith in one’s hopes, aspirations, one’s dreams. It grows into a universal message through her vocal magic as well as her gaze, which is at all times, serenely hypnotic …”

/ André Leon Talley reflecting on Lena Horne in the book Mega-Stars (1984) /

Born on this day: regal trailblazing diva Lena Horne (30 June 1917 - 9 May 2010). My favourite songs by Horne will always be her alluring renditions of “Honeysuckle Rose”, “Love Me or Leave Me” and “Give Me Love.” For anyone remotely curious about her tempestuous life, times and activism, James Gavin’s 2009 biography Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne is compulsory reading. (And note that Gavin’s new book Cool Heat: Anita O'Day and Her Dangerous Jazz Life just recently dropped! Jump on it!). Pictured: 1943 portrait of Horne by Eric Carpenter.

#lena horne #stormy weather #james gavin #black elegance #black glamour #african american #civil rights #civil rights activist #diva #kween #fierce #chanteuse #andre leon talley #stormy weather the life of lena horne #lobotomy room

"Even with his penis he was defiant."

These two are killing me. Why would you say that about your WW2 boss, James?!? Why are you watching him piss and thinking about his defiant penis. 😭

#from Ridgeways Paratroopers #ww2 #mathew ridgeway #james gavin #in the totebag

After an academic discussion about the ramifications of trying to benefit from time travel, Peter Corrigan suddenly found himself transported from 1961 back to April 14th, 1865. Corrigan desperately tried to prevent the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. While his efforts were in vain, thanks in part to the intervention of John Wilkes Booth, when Corrigan did return to the present he found that he had altered the course of time after all. ("Back There" Twilight Zone, TV)

#alfred hitchcock #anthony perkins #janet leigh #1960 #vera miles #james gavin

Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne Review

Here is review #2 for Out of the Past’s 2020 Classic Film Reading Challenge! This book I just finished a few days ago and have been dying to talk about! So let’s talk about Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne by James Gavin. Before opening this book, all I knew was Lena Horne was one of Hollywood’s first Black starlets and that she had acted in a couple of films. Oh my, did I learn way more than I anticipated.

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born to a middle class Black family in 1917. Horne’s upbringing would shape her adult life. Lena’s parents had her and split pretty much immediately, with her dad leaving her and her mother. Lena would always have a loving fondness for her father, Teddy, but her mother was a different story. Lena’s mom, Edna, wanted to be an actress and would blame Lena and say she was the reason why Edna never fulfilled her dream. Horne’s grandmother, Cora, was very fundamental in the early Civil Rights Movement and taught Lena to always be poised, sound educated, and NEVER to show your emotions.

Lena Horne in the early ‘30s, right before her Cotton Club days, via A Trip Down Memory Lane - blogger

Lena began her career at the Cotton Club in 1933. She believed her dancing and singing abilities were lacking, but she was eager to learn and was pretty, so they brought her on. Horne went from nightclub to nightclub, band leader to band leader, trying to learn how to hone her craft. She didn’t necessarily choose her career, but went along with it anyways.

Everywhere Lena went in the club scene, there was rampant racism. A lot of the clubs she would entertain at wouldn’t allow Blacks to enter the front door, would say they were integrated when they weren’t, or would be flat out whites only.

Lena Horne performing in a nightclub circa the ‘40s, via Doctor Macro

This caused a racial identity crisis that would haunt Lena for the rest of her life. One common theme throughout this book was that Lena was considered too light for Black audiences and too dark for white audiences. When she went to MGM in 1942, the studio wanted to be more progressive, but honestly had no clue what to do with its first Black starlet. Lena would drip with disdain on how the studio treated her in future interviews. She felt she was for the most part placed into movies as a stand alone entity, so if the studio needed to cut her scene for the Jim Crow south, they could.

Lena’s film debut was in Panama Hattie in 1942, with one of those stand alone scenes. Horne’s first real acting chance happened in the musical, The Cabin in the Sky in 1943. She also starred in Stormy Weather that same year. Both films had all Black casts. Throughout the rest of the ‘40s, Horne would do a song here and there in a random film. She was to look pretty while singing and that got old real quick.

Lena Horne and Bill Robinson in Stormy Weather, via The New York Times

James Gavin does a good job in giving first hand accounts of Horne and stays as unbiased as possible. A lot of these interviews revealed a complex Lena Horne. Horne could be fun and a joy to be around, or could come off as icy and distant, and if you did anything that upset her, she could drop you at a moment’s notice. It seems she did that to a great deal of people, however, there were two people she wanted to get rid of that kept coming back - her mother and her first husband, Louis Jones. Her mother remarried but would show up every now and then insisting Horne owed her whatever she wanted. Jones wanted a domestic for a wife and Horne was too busy trying to become a star. They had two children together, Gail and Ted, and were involved in an ugly custody battle, that ended with Horne getting custody of Gail and Jones getting custody of Ted. This caused a distance between Horne and her son, that she regretted immensely. Horne and Gail had a complex relationship as well, but they knew each other a bit more intimately.

Lena Horne with her children Gail and Ted, circa the ‘40s or ‘50s, via Pinterest

After Horne didn’t get two roles she truly wanted - the role of Julie in Showboat (1951), which she had already in a sense done on-screen with a cameo in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) where she performed songs as Julie, and the title role of Pinky (1949), a light skinned Black woman who passes for white. Both of those roles went to white actresses: Horne’s good friend Ava Gardner played Julie and Jeanne Crain played Pinky. Horne would note that they would use her special Max Factor make up to darken the skin of white actresses, and to darken her herself.

Gavin also discusses Horne’s racial identity crisis with two specific sections: one talking about her marriage to a white man, Lennie Hayton, and how she tried (and felt she failed) to be active in the Civil Rights Movement. Horne loved Hayton, but didn’t want to hear chatter about her intentions of marrying a white man, which is why she kept turning him down when he proposed. Once they got married, she was accused of turning on her own race because she married a white man. At times, Gavin describes Horne’s frustration with Hayton due to his indifference on racial injustices. The two stayed married until Hayton’s death in 1971, but were separated for a while before he passed. Horne would say Hayton was her one true love after he was gone.

Lena Horne and Lennie Hayton, via Pinterest

Horne always felt like she was set to a higher standard because she was the first Black starlet and had to represent her race in the best possible light. She would turn down roles the NAACP director Walter White deemed represented their race in a stereotypical way. When the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum, many asked “Where’s Lena?” Horne felt like she wasn’t doing enough and decided she needed to go south to prove she was for the cause. Horne would meet Civil Rights Legends such as Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, and Medgar Evers. Horne would stand behind King and Lewis during the March on Washington and even speak, saying loudly, “FREEDOM”. Even though she tried so hard to help the movement, her anger at racial injustice and the fear of not doing enough would be another thing that haunted her for the rest of her life.

Lena Horne speaking to a reporter during the March on Washington, via Huffpost

Gavin also highlights Horne’s recording career and how she had a bit of an insecurity when it came to her singing. Her records never sold as much as she wanted them to, and she felt like her voice was never good. Horne had so many musical style changes and tried to stay relevant to the changing fads and felt like she always faltered.

Lena’s 1957 album cover for Lena Horne at the Waldorf Astoria, via Discogs

Gavin portrays Horne’s complexities in a sensitive way. He mentions how people viewed Horne as fun, icy, standoffish, stubborn, etc, but he always backs up what could have motivated her to act that way. I think in describing anyone it is important to give as much information as possible and not just holding onto a couple of descriptors and saying them over and over with no explanation. Gavin doesn’t do that at all.

Gavin’s book taught me that Lena Horne was a strong Black woman, in a sense because she wanted to be and also because she felt like it was who she needed to be. Horne paved the way for so many great Black female singers and actresses, but she felt like she had to fight tooth and nail to get some sort of positive recognition. Horne’s complexities make her more than just a starlet on a pedestal, they make her human.