The ageless beauty known as Lena Horne turned 91 this week. Still working in the industry, the actress and singer is known for her high cheek bones and her attitude and cabaret style of singing.
It all started when Lena Calhoun Horne was born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. In her biography she stated that on the day she was born, her father was in the midst of a card game trying to get money to pay the hospital costs. Her parents divorced while she was still a toddler. Her mother left later in order to find work as an actress and Lena was left in the care of her grandparents. When she was seven her mother returned and the two traveled around the state, which meant that Lena was enrolled in numerous schools. For a time she attended schools in Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Later she returned to Brooklyn. She quit school when she was 14 and got her first stage job at 16, dancing and later singing at the famed Cotton Club in Harlem (a renowned theater in which black performers played before white audiences).
She was in good hands at the club, especially when people such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington took her under their wings and helped her over the rough spots. Before long, her talent resulted in her playing before packed houses. If she had never made a movie, her music career would have been enough to have ensured her legendary status in the entertainment industry, but films were icing on the cake. After she made an appearance on Broadway, Hollywood came calling. At 21 years of age, Lena made her first film in 1938, "The Duke is Tops." It would be four more years in 1942 before she appeared in another, "Panama Hattie," in which she played a singer in a nightclub. By now Lena had signed with MGM, but unfortunately for her, the pictures were shot so that her scenes could be cut out when they were shown in the South, since most theaters in the South refused to show films that portrayed blacks in anything other than subservient roles to whites, and most movie studios did not want to take a chance on losing that particular source of revenue.
Lena Horne has been an inspiration to many African American performers in Hollywood and throughout the nation for decades. It’s almost unbelievable that Miss Horne has turned 91, but it’s a testament to her talent, beauty, and goodwill that we are still talking about her and aware of her. She once told me that the only regrets she had at this stage in her life were, “When I was working in Hollywood in the ‘30s and ‘40s, my own people couldn’t see my films. They were not allowed in theaters in the South and had to be aware of leaving their seats in the North and West if a white patron wanted that seat. Times have sure changed.” Miss Horne is right, but she has not changed at all. Still a vision of beauty and talent. Happy Birthday Miss Horne!
