Dorothy Dandridge was not only one of the most beautiful women in the world, she was my leading lady. Dorothy and I were constantly in search of ways in which to do things that people never saw before. Like two very attractive people kissing who are people of color. Here we were trying to live up to the best of the cinema art, but because of the issue of race, we were not given the time in which to do it that other films would’ve been given under the circumstances. Otto Preminger shot that picture – huge, color, CinemaScope, big screen – he did that in 10 days. We could barely get the lines right before it was a take. We were lucky that it came off as well as it did. The film was a huge success, I think, not just because we may have done a performance that was worthy of viewing, but I think it was a curiosity to see this film that was just us being us and love and caring. Black people had just never quite been seen in that rhythm before. —Harry Belafonte on Carmen Jones (1954), Black Hollywood: They’ve Gotta Have Us
