Sade, born Helen Folasade Adu in Ibadan, Nigeria, turns 54 today! In this 1985 photo (Gered Mankowitz/Redferns) she is at a recording studio on Willesden High Road in London.
Happy 73rd Birthday to the One and Only Tina Turner!!! At left, she is attending the opening party for “Tommy” on March 18, 1975 (Sal Traina/Conde Nast). In the picture on the right, she is attending Giorgio Armani’s fashion show in Milan on February 28,2011. (Venturelli/WireImage).
Phyllis Hyman, Bill Cosby and Natalie Cole chat at the Black Athletes Hall of Fame Awards Dinner in New York City in the mid 1970s. Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Michael Jackson was born 54 years ago today in Gary, Indiana. This photo was taken on August 17, 1978 at his brother Jackie’s house after he was signed to Epic Records. Photo: Gregg Cobarr/Wireimage
Whitney Houston was born 49 years ago today in Newark, New Jersey. In this photo (via Getty) she is attending a party in 1988.
Minnie Riperton and Stevie Wonder chatting at a party in 1975. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty.
Speaking of Marilyn Monroe and the Mocambo in Hollywood. In 1955, Ms. Monroe persuaded the owner of the Mocambo to hire Ella Fitzgerald (the Mocambo did not book Black artists). Ms. Fitzgerald on Ms. Monroe to Ms. magazine in 1972: “I oweMarilyn Monroe a real debt…it was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him - and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status - that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman - a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”
Happy 68th Birthday to the One, the Only, Diana Ross! #THEORIGINALBOSS
Photo (circa 1980s) by Douglas Kirkland/Corbis.
Michael Jackson and Diana Ross at the 1981 Academy Awards.
Whitney Houston with Arthur Mitchell, Cicely Tyson and her mother, Cissy Houston on December 9, 1988. Photo courtesy of Robert Garland of the Dance Theater of Harlem.
Dorothy Dandridge was born on this day in Cleveland, Ohio, 89 years ago in 1922.
Educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown on her wedding day in 1912. Founder of the historic Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina, Ms. Brown was also one of the invaluable suffragists who worked for black women to have the same equal rights black men and white women were fighting for in the early 20th century.
She was also the great aunt of singer Natalie Cole. In fact, she raised Natalie’s mother Maria and her sisters (her brother’s children) when their mother died in childbirth. Ms. Brown died in 1961.
