Happy 60th Birthday Chaka Khan! And congratulations on 40 years in the music business! I thought this 1980ish photo would work for obvious reasons…
A 1970s Ultra Sheen advertisement.
Richetta Randolph Wallace, circa 1930. She was private secretary to Mary White Ovington, a writer, suffragist and one of the founders of the NAACP. She was also private secretary to James Weldon Johnson, attorney, poet, author (“Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man) and composer of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”) and the executive secretary of the NAACP, Walter White. Born in Virginia in 1884, Ms. Randolph moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in 1933 and remained until her death in 1971. Photo: Brooklyn Historical Society
Pat Cleveland in 1972 wearing Stephen Burrows. Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced is a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York which showcases several original pieces by the pioneering designer, along with sketches and photographs of his innovative work from the 1970s. Photo: Charles Tracy.
Lena Horne speaking on a panel at Bethune-Cookman College (now University), the school founded by Mary McLeod Bethune in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1964. I don’t know what the topic of the panel was that day, but I do know that Mary McLeod Bethune was a family friend to Ms. Horne. These pictures were taken by Robert Sengstacke, of the Chicago publishing family that founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. Mr. Sengstacke was a student at Bethune-Cookman at the time. Photos: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images.
Josephine Baker getting a little kiss from Geoffrey Holder in 1964. I’m guessing this is probably backstage at “Josephine Baker And Her Company,” her musical revue that appreared briefly on Broadway that year. Both Mr. Holder and his wife Carmen de Lavallade performed in the show with Ms. Baker and, in the video clip linked in the comment section, Mr. Holder discusses, with his signature verve, what a delight it was for he and Ms. de Lavallade to work with Ms. Baker. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives.
Pioneering Broadway and film actress Nina Mae McKinney (1913-1967) in Berlin around 1929. Best known for her starring role in the 1929 film, “Hallelujah,” the Lancaster, South Carolina-born Ms. McKinney found that stardom and a five-year MGM contract still did not mean roles for her, so she moved to Europe, where she enjoyed great success as a cabaret singer. In England she starred in two films with Paul Robeson, “Congo” in 1930 and “Sanders of the River” in 1935. She did return to America to appear in a few films including, “Safe in Hell” (1931), “Pie, Pie, Blackbird” (1932) and “Pinky” in 1949. Photo: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
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Happy 80th Birthday Quincy Jones! His middle name is Delight. Isn’t that appropriate? Mr. Jones has produced and arranged for everyone from Dinah Washington to Count Basie to Sarah Vaughan to Michael Jackson, of course. In this 1961 photo, he is in the studio looking over some sheet music. Today, Mr. Jones continues to innovate. He recently invested in a new startup called Playground Sessions, a new musical app that helps you play the piano! Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty.
Bill Cosby enjoying a cigar, circa 1960s. According to Cigar Aficianado magazine, his favorite cigar is an Ashton Maduro No. 60.
Elisabeth Welch, the American singer who introduced the “Charleston” on Broadway before becoming a superstar in England, in 1935. Born in Manhattan in 1904 to a Scottish-Irish mother and African American father, Ms. Welch was a favorite of iconic composers Noël Coward and Cole Porter. She was the first singer to popularize the classic Porter tune, “Love for Sale” and it would become a signature song in her career. She also introduced “Stormy Weather” to British audiences and would be so beloved there, she remained for the rest of her life. Ms. Welch, among other career highlights in her 70-year career, was nominated for a Tony award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1986 at age 82, for her role in “Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood.” Ms. Welch also starred in two films with Paul Robeson, “Song of Freedom” in 1936 and “Big Fella” in 1937. In the comment section, I am linking a fantastic short video (1:56) of Ms. Welch singing “Harlem in my Heart” from “Big Fella” and Mr. Robeson can be seen in the clip. Photo: National Portrait Gallery, London.
Actor Graham Brown, pictured on one of his actor composite photos from the 1960s. Born Robert Elwood Brown in Harlem on October 24, 1924, Mr. Brown was an actor whose career spanned more than five decades. A World War II veteran, he began acting in Army shows before enrolling in college at Howard University, where he was a member of the Howard University Players theater group and graduated in 1949. Over the last few months, I have had the honor of analyzing and organizing Mr. Brown’s personal collection of photographs, papers and other historically and culturally relevant ephemera, for donation to a major institution on behalf of his family. I could hardly believe my eyes at some of the things I held in my hands in the Harlem office where I spent hours examining Mr. Brown’s collection: a personal letter to Mr. Brown from Harold Jackman, a prominent Harlem Renaissance figure. Mr. Brown’s Howard Players member card, programs from their plays, and a photo of them in Norway at the home of the Norwegian ambassador, surrounding him at his piano in 1949. There are pages and pages of Mr. Brown’s writing: attempts at poems, short stories, English homework and drafts of articles he wrote for Howard’s school newspaper, “The Hilltop” and copies of the actual newspapers. There are Columbia University bursar’s receipts from 1952 (he briefly attended graduate school there) and show programs, posters, tickets, letters and photos from much of his life and career. Mr. Brown was a member of the Negro Ensemble Company, where he worked with actors such as Roxie Roker (his Howard classmate) in “The River Niger,” Laurence Fishburne and Esther Rolle. He was also in several productions of the Greenwich Mews Theater, a theater famous for it’s integrated productions in the 1950s and a member of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. In the 1960s and 1970s, made several appearances on Broadway (Gore Vidal’s “Weekend”) and with Joseph’s Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, including “The Black Picture Show” in 1975. His film credits included “Malcolm X,” “Clockers,” “Sanford & Son,” and “Law & Order.” Mr. Brown died on December 13, 2011 at the age of 87.
“I was a fly chick when I was young.” ~ The artist Ladybird Cleveland (now Strickland) to a reporter in 2012 in a story about an exhibition of her paintings. Ms. Strickland, the mother of legendary fashion model Pat Cleveland, was photographed here by Carl Van Vechten on September 21, 1954. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
