Nat “King” Cole and Maria Cole dance at their wedding reception 65 years ago today, March 28, 1948, which happened to be Easter Sunday. The Coles were married at Harlem’s famous Abyssinian Baptist Church by Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the legendary Harlem congressman. According to Michael Henry Adams, author of the beautiful coffee table book, “Harlem Lost and Found,” Ms. Cole wore a $700 ice-blue satin dress designed by none other than VBG fashion designer legend, Zelda Wynn Valdes! Photo by Lisa Larsen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.
This photo of Nat “King” Cole, Sarah Vaughan and Thelma Carpenter Georgia Carr comes to VBG courtesy of the lovely blonde woman in the picture, Monica Lewis, who had a remarkable decades long career as a jazz singer. Ms. Lewis is 90 years old today and just as stunning! She is joined by Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole of course, along with Stan Kenton, a progressive jazz bandleader that she was dating at the time. The occasion was a gathering of top musicians in Chicago sponsored by BILLBOARD magazine. I wish I knew the name of the beautiful lady standing in between Ms. Vaughan and Mr. Kenton (she is not Mr. Cole’s wife, Maria Cole) so if you do know, tell me her name in the comment section!***
*** Thanks to Derrick Lucas for contacting Mr. Cole’s former manager, Dick LaPalm, but clearly Mr. LaPalm was mistaken. And thank you Toni Callender for your comment and giving me the opportunity to correct the original post - and the excuse to share the lovely Georgia Carr with VBG fans.
A model wears Art Smith’s “Modern Cuff” Bracelet, circa 1948. Art Smith (1917-1982) was a modernist jeweler born in Cuba to Jamaican parents who eventually emigrated to Brooklyn. He opened his first shop on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village in 1946 - no small feat. According to the Brooklyn Museum (host of a 2008 exhibit of his work) he was one of the leading modernist jewelers of the mid-twentieth century. Along with being covered by magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Smith, an avid jazz lover, once made cufflinks for Duke Ellington which included some notes from Mr. Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.” Mr. Smith was also a supporter of early Black modern dance groups and an active supporter of Black and gay rights. Art Smith was quoted in the 1969 catalog for his one man exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Craft: “A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a ‘what is it?’ until you relate it to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are. Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with. It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.”
Sarah Vaughan, born on this day in 1924 in Newark, NJ, in her dressing room in Chicago, 1948. I wonder which fragrance she was using? Photo: Ted Williams.
The One and Only Aretha Franklin turned 71 years old yesterday! Doesn’t she look beautiful with her afro in this 1973 photo by Anthony Barboza? I love it! Photo: Anthony Barboza/Getty.
Happy 69th Birthday Diana Ross!!!! In this 1975 photo, she is doing karate pose like a BOSS! Photo: Steve Schapiro/Corbis.
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.
