Lena Horne with a group of Tuskegee Airmen on January 1, 1945. There are countless photos of Ms. Horne visiting Tuskegee Airmen and other military personnel to show her support for their service. She also showed her support for them by refusing to perform for segregated military audiences during World War II. Photo: Associated Press.
Lena Horne hugging her brilliant daughter Gail Jones, backstage at the York Playhouse on October 6, 1960 after Gail made her stage debut in the musical “Valmuouth.” Gail Jones is now Gail Buckley and the author of several books including The Hornes: An American Family.” Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
Hilda Simms and Lena Horne in the late 1940s. It drives me crazy that I have not been able to find a legitimate source/photographer behind this photo. It’s one thing to find it on a random website (like I did last year) but it’s another thing to share it and properly credit it for a wider audience. Sigh…
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.
Lena Horne and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a party Ms. Horne gave in Dr. King’s honor in New York in 1963. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Gordon Parks and Lena Horne, most likely on Saturday, October 29, 1949. I say “most likely” because the tickets in Ms. Horne’s hand read: “Cosmopolitan Tennis Club, Inc presents their Annual Fall Dance at The Renaissance Ballroom. The date: Saturday, October 29, 1949.” Photo via Dwayne Rodgers The Black Vernacular. Dwayne received this photo from Mr. Parks’s daughter, Leslie Parks, and was kind enough to share it with me.
Happy New Year Vintage Black Glamour Friends! Surely I don’t have to tell most of you that this is Lena Horne and Hazel Scott (circa 1940s - Metronome/Getty) but I will say that they were not toasting the new year in this picture. I suspect they were merely toasting their mutual fabulousness…
Thank you so much for such an awesome 2012 (57,000+ Facebook fans, 4,000+ Twitter followers, 132,000+ (!) Tumblr blog subscribers - I am so grateful for each and every one of you.
Cab Calloway hanging out with Lena Horne in the 1940s. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives.
Happy Thanksgiving! The great Lena Horne is really demonstrating fuel conservation here (circa 1940s) but let’s just pretend she just put a bird in the oven:)
Incredible photo set featuring Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Rosalind Russell and more from Jet’s April 9, 1953 issue. It was an NAACP Benefit show and Ms. Horne is featured with the head of the NAACP, Walter White; the iconic composer W.C. Handy, legendary comedian Danny Thomas and four disabled Marines. Jazz pianist Errol Garner is pictured with singer Elaine Malbin and Eartha Kitt and shown with jazz musician Arthur Prysock. Actress Rosalind Russell is shown with Dr. S. Carter.
Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, New York, 95 years ago today. In this photo from May 1956, she is trying on a dress - and wearing those saleswomen out…
Photo: William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images.
Lena Horne with composer, arranger and vocal coach Phil Moore in July 1949. Moore worked as an arranger for MGM and arranged music for the 1938 film The Duke Is Tops. Moore also helped Horne and Dorothy Dandridge develop their nightclub performances and coached, arranged and/or wrote songs for Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland,Pearl Bailey, Ava Gardner, Diahann Carroll, Johnny Mathis and The Supremes. He died in 1987.
