Horne, Lena (1917—) | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The career of singer and entertainer Lena Horne has both evolved with and mirrored the times. From the Jim Crow years in the South, to the 1950s McCarthy blacklists, to the Mississippi marches for Civil Rights, Lena was there as a performer and a sympathizer, despite the fact that her career often suffered according to the extent of her involvement. From her beginnings—at the age of 16—as a chorus girl at Harlem's whites-only Cotton Club in the 1930s, Horne developed a reputation as a moderately talented singer with a tendency to coast on beauty and charm. But Horne was troubled by the fact that her celebrity image did not seem to match her personal beliefs. It seemed that every decision she faced about roles to take or songs to sing resonated with symbolic reference to race. Too refined (and "too white") to be taken seriously as a blues singer, she honed her image as a cabaret artist, only to be criticized for a perceived lack of warmth in her vocal delivery that was itself partly based on the "down and dirty" stereotype she could not fulfill. Her marriage to a white man, music arranger Lennie Hayton, also contributed to her reputation, as her African American fans were offended by her perceived betrayal of faith. Horne's autobiography, Lena, written in 1965, captures all these experiences in memorable detail, reading like a textbook on the combined effects of race and class in American cultural life during the twentieth century.

As a movie actress under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s and 1950s, Horne's light skin held her back from playingAfrican America roles, for which she wasn't "black" enough, and from white roles, for which she was too "colored." When she tried using dark make-up on her fair skin, she felt it looked like the blackface used in a minstrel show. Max Factor was called in to create a special foundation color for Horne called "light Egyptian," later used for white actresses playing mulattos. One option Horne did not especially like was to play Latin parts, though she did so in the otherwise forgettable film Panama Hattie (1942). In fulfillment of her contract with MGM, she was frequently asked to perform "guest numbers" as a chanteuse, elegantly gowned and leaning against a pillar. These sequences would then be edited out of the films for showings to white audiences in the South. Horne found greater satisfaction in all-black films like the fanciful religious fable Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Stormy Weather (1946), for which she was leant to Twentieth Century Fox. Based on the life of dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the title song to Stormy Weather became Horne's theme song in the years to come.

Over the next thirty years, Horne stayed busy performing in posh clubs in New York, Hollywood, and Las Vegas; making television appearances on the popular shows of the day, including those of Ed Sullivan and Perry Como; and taking part in numerous political benefits. One goal she seemed unable to fulfill was finding the right part in a Broadway show. Although she enjoyed singing the songs of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg in the musical Jamaica, which opened in 1957, she hated her part; that of a silly island woman in love with American consumer goods. It took another two decades and several personal tragedies (Horne lost her father, her son, and her husband to fatal illnesses within a few short months in 1967-68) for Horne to find the right role.

In 1981, at age 64, when other performers might have been ready to retire, she opened in Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which was to become the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history. She held the audience's rapt attention from the opening phrase of her first song—Cole Porter's aptly titled "From This Moment On." The public was re-introduced to a woman they never really knew, who evinced a bold sense of humor and the ability to laugh at herself. After her Broadway success, Horne's recording career also blossomed, with releases like We'll Be Together Again (1994) and Being Myself (1998), which she produced at the age of 81. Horne's renditions of old standards like "My Buddy" and "Willow Weep for Me" mix poignancy with wit, echoing the experiences of a full and courageous life.

Haskins, James, with Kathleen Benson. Lena: A Personal and Professional Biography of Lena Horne. New York, Stein and Day, 1984.

Horne, Lena, and Richard Schickel. Lena. London, Andre Deutsch, 1965.

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