(Hi everyone! I'm Katherine. I hope you'll indulge me and accept a first post that's less criticism or analysis and more tribute, because I wanted to mark this sad occasion, and because at least one of my splendid co-guest-bloggers seemed to need a Lena Horne 101.)
Musician, actress, and activist Lena Horne passed away at the age of 92 yesterday. As is all too often the case, I didn't realize just how interesting a figure she was until she was gone. As a fan of musicals of the forties and fifties, I knew some of her music, although I hadn't realized the extent of her show business career. For a glimpse of that range, take a look at her IMDb page, and then remember that that list of movies, TV specials, variety shows, and television guest appearances doesn't include her couple dozen albums or hundreds of live appearances, from popular nightclub acts to her hit one-woman Broadway show. Here's Horne's signature song, "Stormy Weather," from the 1943 film of the same name:
What I hadn't known anything about, though, was her activism. According to her Kennedy Center biography, she was the first African-American singer to tour with an all-white band (in 1940), and later refused to sing for segregated audiences when she was entertaining troops during World War II. Her social justice interests went beyond issues that affected her own career: "She joined Eleanor Roosevelt's unsuccessful campaign for anti-lynching legislation and worked on behalf of Japanese Americans who faced discrimination." She was blacklisted in the 1950s but maintained an impressive career until she chose to retire in the 1980s, when she was in her late sixties. No wonder Kermit found her inspiring: