Iman in a 1976 Avon advertisement. She is wearing a dress by Giorgio Sant’ Angelo.
Hilda Simms, the pioneer Minnesota-born actress best known for her starring role in the first all-black production of Anna Lucasta on Broadway, in a glam shot circa 1947. You are not going to believe the awesome pictures I have found of her for the book! Photo: Denis De Marney/Getty Images.
Congratulations to Cicely Tyson on her first ever Tony nomination for The Trip to Bountiful! In this 1973 photo, she is trying on a dress in Paris. Ms. Tyson, a two-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee, was nominated for her role in the current Broadway hit The Trip to Bountiful Broadway which also stars Vanessa Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Wopat and Condola Rashad - daughter of Phylicia Rashad and a two-time Tony nominee herself! Photo: Jean-Claude Deutsch/Paris Match/Getty.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born 114 years ago today in Washington, D.C. In this April 1950 photo, he is illustrating part of the reason the name “Duke” was bestowed upon him by childhood friends who admired him for his killer style. He even wore suits and ties in high school and once blew everyone away at a party when he showed up in a shimmy back herringbone suit that was shirred and pleated in the back—a style that no one else was wearing at the time. Photo y Lipnitzki/Roger Viollet/Getty Images.
Dancer Scoogie Brown at Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade’s wedding reception in Westport, Connecticut on June 26, 1955. Ms. Brown was a dancer from Trinidad and Tobago who performed with Mr. Holder and his Trinidad Dance Group. She would gain even more notoriety during the “calypso craze” in the 1950s with her dance partner, Leo Ryers, who was also a member of Mr. Holder’s troupe. Photo: Saul Mauriber, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Ms. Brown also has a bit part in the 1956 film, “Carib Gold” which also starred Mr. Holder, Cicely Tyson, Diana Sands and the great Ethel Waters. The film is linked in the comment section.
Nat “King” Cole is looking as smooth as ever in this 1964 photo session. But the real reason I am sharing this particular picture are the flowers because they remind me that spring is finally (really!) here! Photo: Michael Ochs Archives.
You didn’t think I forgot Billy Dee Williams’s 76th birthday today did you? No, of course you didn’t! Mr. Williams is still acting, still writing, still painting and still fine today and, if you can’t name the film this photo is from, I am going to shed real tears… of laughter. :) Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
