Duke Ellington with (r to l) my aunt Margaret Tynes and Joya Sherrill rehearsing for the television version of Ellington’s jazz suite A Drum is a Woman. The one-hour television special aired on CBS’s “U.S. Steel Hour” on May 8, 1957. Photo (obviously) via Getty Images.
Margaret Tynes
Margaret Tynes by Carl Van Vechten, 1959)
Thanks @lascasartoris! —> Margaret Tynes, my lovely aunt, by Carl Van Vechten again, 1959.
(Source: beinecke.library.yale.edu)
My aunt, opera singer Margaret Tynes, with a poster for her performance in Russia in September 1959. She was photographed by Carl Van Vechten who photographed her many times.
Pioneering beauty entrepreneur Rose Morgan in a 1961 advertisement for Gleem toothpaste. Ms. Morgan owned Rose Morgan’s House of Beauty, a salon she opened in Harlem in the 1940s that she eventually expanded to include a dressmaking department, a charm school and a wig salon. In 1965, she was a co-founder of the black-owned Freedom National Bank in New York. A former wife of boxing legend Joe Louis, her celebrity clientele (long before her marriage) included Lena Horne, Ethel Waters and my aunt, opera singer Margaret Tynes.
My aunt Margaret Tynes with Harry Belafonte in Chicago, June 1956. Margaret was Harry’s leading lady off-Broadway in a show he produced called, Sing Man, Sing!
My aunt Margaret Tynes photographed by Carl Van Vechten on September 29, 1959. She had a phenomenal international career as a singer in opera, jazz and theater for over fifty years. A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University (BA 1939) and Columbia University (MA 1944), she starred as Harry Belafonte’s leading lady off-Broadway in a show he produced called Sing Man, Sing! She also recorded a jazz suite called A Drum is a Woman with Duke Ellington and made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1961, she gained international acclaim as Salomé at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds in Italy, where she lived for more than forty years.
My aunt, Margaret Tynes, with a poster for her performance in Russia in September 1959. She was photographed by Carl Van Vechten who photographed her many times.
Duke Ellington’s “Rhythm Pum Te Dum” from his jazz suite, “A Drum Is a Woman.” This track features my aunt Margaret Tynes, Joya Sherrill, Ozzie Bailey and Mr. Ellington himself. “A Drum Is a Woman” was turned into a 1957 CBS television special with the aforementioned artists and dancers Carmen de Lavallade and Talley Beatty.
My aunt, opera singer Margaret Tynes, was the subject of Jet magazine’s “The Week’s Best Photos” feature in 1961. She appeared as Salome, her most critically-acclaimed role, at the Spoleto Festival in Italy under the direction of legendary director Luchino Visconti.
“Duke Ellington at the Keys” for Olivetti 1969
“Duke Ellington at the Keys” for Olivetti 1969. A little VBG trivia: The Olivetti typewriter was designed by the legendary Ettore Sottsass and Hans von Klier - who was married to my opera singing aunt Margaret Tynes for 40 years until his death in 2001. Margaret also performed and recorded with Duke Ellington.
My aunt Margaret Tynes with Harlem Renaissance notable Nora Holt and opera star William Warfield photographed by Carl Van Vechten at a party Ms. Holt held in honor of singers that she championed.
The first African American to earn a master’s degree in music (Chicago Musical College, 1918) Nora Holt was a music critic for two preeminent black newspapers, the Chicago Defender and the New York Amsterdam News. Married five (or more) times, she was also a regular in the gossip columns thanks to her scandalous love life. She died in Los Angeles in 1974.
William Warfield, a baritone, was born in 1920 to a family of sharecroppers in Arkansas. Best known for his roles in Show Boat and Porgy and Bess, he was married for twenty-one years to opera legend Leontyne Price before they divorced in 1973. He spent the remainder of his life as a voice teacher and died in 2002.
