LENA HORNE

Kerry Washington … Naomie Harris … Sanaa Lathan … Angela Bassett … Hallie Berry ... Kimberly Elise …

To name but a few current actresses. Each talented. Attractive. Successful.

And black.

Not so many years ago, fewer perhaps than we’d care to think, this many women of color dominating movie screens would have been unheard of. 
 

Not just unheard of. In fact, impossible.

Consider Lena Horne.

When this extraordinarily talented singer, actress was signed by MGM in the early 1940s, her future must have looked bright, indeed. Here she was, being directed by the likes of Vincente Minnelli. Appearing in films opposite Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Cyd Charisse.

But she was also black.

And therein lies a story Which Lena Horne’s daughter, Gail Buckley, discusses in depth this Sunday, 9/30, at 8 pm ET, on ICONS Radio Hour. Ms. Buckley explores her mother’s career, from her early days at The Cotton Club to all-black films in the late thirties and her years at MGM in the forties.

Did we forget to mention the House Un-American Activities Committee? 
 

Gail Buckley doesn’t.

Nor does she forget Humphrey Bogart’s response when neighbors showed up at his door asking for his signature on a petition to stop Lena Horne from buying a home in their Hollywood neighborhood. Rick Blaine come to life.

Kerry Washington … Naomie Harris … Sanaa Lathan … Angela Bassett … Hallie Berry ... Kimberly Elise …

On the shoulders of giants, none more important than Lena Horne.