The Ikettes - Venetta Fields, Robbie Montgomery and Jessie Smith in New York City circa 1965. The women would later leave Ike Turner and become “The Mirettes.” Life is good, but it’s not all candied yams! I just looove Ms. Robbie on Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s! Photo by James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
The Marvelettes - Gladys Horton, Wanda Young (Rogers), Georgeanna Tillman (Gordon) and Katherine Anderson (Schaffner) in New York City, circa 1964. I just watched their story on Unsung - did you see it? My favorite song by The Marvelettes is “Don’t Mess With Bill” - primarily because there is a murder scene in one of my scripts that fits it to a tee. Long story… Photo by James Kriegsmann. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Pat Cleveland being fitted by designer Stephen Burrows in his East Village studio in April 1971. Burrows was a newly rising star in fashion at this time, especially after the opening of his boutique, “Stephen Burrows World” in Henri Bendel
life:
Our week with Marilyn continues on …
LIFE.com remembers the young Marilyn with a selection of Eyerman’s early photos: pictures of her studying with bandleader Phil Moore (singing); dance instructor, and the ex-husband of the great Cyd Charisse, Nico Charisse (ballet); and a one-time European stage star, Natasha Lytess, who would serve as Monroe’s acting coach until the mid-1950s.
See the photos here on LIFE.com.
Dear @life - Phil Moore was not a “bandleader” at all. He was a composer, arranger and vocal coach to other icons before & after Monroe including Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Dorothy Dandridge, Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, Ava Gardner and so many more. Photo: J.R. Eyerman - Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Princess Kouka of Sudan, Paul Robeson’s co-star in the film “Jericho,” photographed by Frank Shaw in 1937.
Alice Coachman (far right), the first African-American woman to win a gold medal (1948 London) takes a break and watches the games with fellow athletes, Emma Reed, of Nashville, Tennessee (broad and high jumper) and Nell C. Jackson, of Tuskegee, Alabama, (200 meters and relay. Ms. Coachman, a native of Albany, Georgia, won the gold in the high jump. Photo: Bettman/Corbis
Olympic icon Florence Griffith Joyner, photographed by Irving Penn for Vogue in 1989. Ms. Griffith Joyner won 5 Olympic medals in her career (4 gold, 1 silver) and shattered two world records. The Los Angeles-born athletic superstar was also a superstar of style - designing her own trademark one-legged track suits and wearing brilliantly designed eye-catching nails that matched her outfits and quite often, the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag. “Flo Jo” died in 1998 at the age of 38 due to complications from epilepsy.
Olympic icon Jesse Owens and his wife, Ruth Owens, return home from the Olympics in Berlin on August 24, 1936. The son of a sharecropper and grandson of slaves, the Oakville, Alabama-born Mr. Owens won a record 4 gold medals at the 1936 games, annihilating the racist myth of white superiority in the presence of Adolph Hitler. Mr. Owens stated after his victories, “When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.” Mr. and Mrs. Owens had three daughters and were married for 45 years before he died in 1980 at the age of 66 of lung cancer. Photo: by Joseph Costa/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.
Tina Turner dancing during a portrait session in 1964. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Stringer
Doris May, of Philadelphia, Jeanne Noble of Albany, Georgia and Rosalind Murray of Washington, D.C., attend the Dean’s Garden Party at Howard University in May 1946. This annual affair, hosted by Susie A. Elliott, Dean of Women, was held on the lawn facing the women’s dormitories for mothers of the graduates and alumni and friends of the university. The event was featured in the October 1946 edition of the Howard University Bulletin.
Carolyn Polk, “May Day Queen” of 1946 with her court as they appeared in the October 1946 edition of the Howard University Bulletin. According to the bulletin, May Day celebrations, staged by the Physical Department for women, were a “gigantic and beautiful spectacle in which students give exhibitions in dancing, singing and calisthenics.” The highlight was the crowning of the May Queen who reigned over the festivities with an alumnus serving as “Alma Mater.” The parade of beautifully gown women was proudly described in the bulletin as a “traditional march of beauty, movement and music.”
Muriel Rahn and Muriel Smith, beautiful singer/actresses who alternated the lead role of Carmen in “Carmen Jones” on Broadway in 1943. This photo appeared in the program for the show.
Born in Boston and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, Muriel Rahn became the first African-American singer to perform in an opera at Carnegie Hall a year before “Carmen Jones” when she appeared in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. Her last Broadway appearance was as Cora Lewis in “The Barrier,” an opera based on Langston Hughes’s play The Mulatto.
New York-born Muriel Smith originated the role of Carmen on Broadway. In 1956, she turned down an offer from Samuel Goldwyn to star in the film version of ”Porgy and Bess,” stating,”It doesn’t do the right thing for my people.” After a successful career overseas, particularly Great Britain, she taught voice at Virginia Union University before her death in 1985.
