I thought I’d share one of the first pictures that inspired me to create Vintage Black Glamour. The caption from Corbis on this circa 1920s picture reads “Photo shows Thelma and Bonnie, called the “Graceful Creoles,” posing coyly for the photographer at the Lido. The Lido is in Venice, Italy. And you thought you just loved “Thelma and Louise”… :)
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.
(via lascasartoris)
Paul Robeson, majestic singer and actor, brilliant scholar and athlete, fierce political activist and all-around renaissance man, in a 1925 photo by Edward Gooch. According to Shadow And Act, David Harewood, the British actor and star of Showtime’s “Homeland” is in talks to portray Mr. Robeson in an upcoming film. Wynton Marsalis has signed on to score the film as well.
Mildred Parson Mason Larkins, photographed by Richard Aloysius Twine (1896-1974) of Saint Augustine, Florida between 1922 and 1927. Photo: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
It never fails: I end up looking for one thing and finding so much more. This is the Wilberforce University Quartette of 1922, Agnus Redden, Basso; H.Q. Smith, Tenor; L.O. Byrd (Director) Baritone; L.H. Berry (Manager), Tenor. Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Guests at a breakfast party for Langston Hughes in 1925 including E. Franklin Frazier, Hubert Delany and Rudolph Fisher. hosted by Regina Anderson (Andrews) and Ethel Ray at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
I am currently reading “The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 1: 1902-1941” by Arnold Rampersad so, especially as I work on the Vintage Black Glamour book, Langston Hughes is often on my mind. In this photo by Nickolas Muray taken in 1923, Mr. Hughes was about 21 years old.
