Saturdays with the Stars: Lena Horne

Each month of 2020 we will be looking at the movies of some of Hollywood's most famous sex symbols, women whose intense beauty frequently overshadowed their filmic careers.  Last month, our focus was on Betty Grable, who became a pinup sensation during World War II while also maintaining a perch as the biggest star on the Fox lot.  This month, we will turn our attention to a pioneering actress, a civil rights icon, and yes, a sex symbol of her era, though unlike some of the women we're profiling this year, her career lasted decades after she first came onto the scene...just not at the cinema.  This month, our star is Lena Horne.

Lena Horne was born the daughter of a gambling kingpin and a noted theatre actress; she was the descendant of both slaves and (reportedly) John C. Calhoun, one of America's most pro-slavery politicians and a former vice president.  Her father left her when she was only three, so she was largely raised by her grandparents.  She became a chorus girl at the legendary Cotton Club at the age of only 16, and toured across the country for much of the 1930's until also taking a turn at a different iconic New York night club: Cafe Society.  By that time, though, Hollywood seemed to be in her sights as she'd already made a few bit parts in films before eventually relocating to California in the early 1940's.

Horne made history when she signed a long-term star contract with MGM in 1942.  At that point, no African-American had ever signed a star contract of that ilk, one that looked like some of her peers at MGM like Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, rather than a supporting part where she'd be forced to play a maid or servant.  At the time, however, most Southern movie theaters wouldn't allow films that featured African-American performers in non-stereotypical roles, and so Horne was rarely given an actual leading part in movies of the era, because she needed to be able to be edited out of the film for Southern audiences.  Her work in MGM pictures like Thousands Cheer, Swing Fever, and Two Girls and a Sailor frequently had her in small parts, with the leading roles going to white actresses like June Allyson & Kathryn Grayson.  During this era Horne would only receive major roles in one MGM picture, Cabin in the Sky, as well as Fox's Stormy Weather, where she'd get her signature song from the flick's title tune.

Horne's film career was brief, and likely wouldn't have been notable in hindsight were it not for her decades as a high-profile nightclub and cabaret performer, as well as a fixture on television variety shows.  She was turned down for the leads of Pinky and Show Boat, despite being a mixed race woman and the parts calling for mixed race women (both parts would go to white actresses), and almost never made movies past the 50's, save for 1978's The Wiz.  Still, her beauty & grace, as well as the trail she blazed for women of color was not forgotten-when Halle Berry name-checked three women who had made her victory as the first African-American woman to win Best Actress possible, she name-checked Horne alongside Diahann Carroll & Dorothy Dandridge.  Esteemed company, to be sure.  This month, we will take a look at this unique performer, and her brief career in film that was cut too short by racism & prejudice.