Lena Horne

See also: Horne

Lena Mary Calhoune Horne (born the June 30th 1917 with New York -) is an American singer of Jazz, Popular song and an actress of musical films. She will be called " the tigresse" because of its cat-like silhouette.

It makes its beginnings in the music in 1934 as dancer in the troop of the Cotton Club, celebrates cabaret of Harlem where it becomes singer three years later, accompanied by the orchestra by Charlie Barnet. Lena Horne is then pointed out on Broadway and starts a cinematographic career.

After a false start in a musical film speaking about 1938, entitled " The Duke is Tops", Horne is the first Afro-Américaine woman to sign a contract of long life with a studio of Hollywood, the Subway-Goldwyn-Mayer. It made there its beginnings in 1942 in Panama Hattie and becomes famous in 1943 for its interpretation of Stormy Weather in film of the same name. It appears then in many musical comedies of the MGM, however it will have only little first role because of its skin color, by fear of the boycott in States of the South, where the cinemas refused to give films thus distributed. The only notable exception is Cabin in the Sky (1943), although one of the parts of its body is cut there because regarded as too suggestive by the critics. It misses playing the part Julia LaVerne in the version of 1951 of Show Boat which falls finally to Ava Gardner.

Horne marries Lennie Hayton, an American Jew. Hayton is one of the first leaders, arrangers of the MGM. The marriage perdure until the death of Hayton in 1971, spite of an hostile environment. Indeed, the directing executive S of the studios disapprove this inter-racial union and the couple is put at the round of applause. In its biography Co-written with Richard Schickel, Horne tells the enormous pressures and the insults which they had to undergo.

In the Fifties, the couple is marked d'" anti-américaines" activities; what will be worth in Lena Horne a crossing of the desert enamelled of some discs that she manages all the same to record for RCA. It is in 1957 and thanks to the review Jamaïca that it joins again with success. She will connect with turnings and a certain number of reviews until in the Années 1970.

She makes a return in the Années 1990 with two albums recorded for the label Blue Note.

Films

The Duke is Tops (1938; Million Dollar Pictures)
Panama Hattie (1942; MGM)
Cabin in the Sky (1943; MGM)
Thousands Cheer (1943; MGM)
Stormy Weather (1943; 20th Century Fox)
I Dood It (1943; MGM)
Two Girls and has Sailor (1944; MGM)
Swing Fever (1944; MGM)
Broadway Rhythm (1944; MGM)
Boogie-woogie Dream (1944; Official Films shorts subject)
the Rain which sings (Till The Clouds Roll By) (1946; MGM)
Mantan Masses Up (1946; Toddy Pictures)
Ziegfeld Madnesses of Vincente Minnelli (1946; MGM)
Studio Visit (1946; MGM shorts subject)
My life is a song ( Words and music ) (1948; MGM)
Duchess off Idaho (1950; MGM)
Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956; MGM)
Death off has Gunfighter (1969; Universal Studios)
The Wiz (1978; Universal Studios)
That' S Entertainment! III (1994; MGM)

Albums

It' S Coils (1955; RCA)
Stormy Weather (1956; RCA)
At the Waldorf-Astoria (1957; RCA)
Jamaica Cast Recording (1957; RCA)
Give the Lady What She Wants (1958; RCA)
Porgy & Bess (1959; RCA) - with Harry Belafonte
Songs by Burke and Van Heusen (1960; RCA)
At the Sands (1961; RCA)
Lena one the Blue Side (1962; RCA)
Lovely & Alive (1963; RCA)
Lena Goes Latin (1963; Charter)
Sings Your Requests (1963; Charter)
Here' S Lena Now! (1964; 20th Century)
Feelin' Good (1965; UA)
Lena in Hollywood (1966; UA)
Merry from Lena (1966; UA)
Drunk (1966; UA)
Lena & Gabor (1970; Skye)
Nature' S Baby (1971; Buddah)
Lena and Michel (1975; RCA)
Lena: In New Album (1976; RCA)
The Lady and Her Music (1981; Qwest) - Grammy Award, better pop singer or of variety
The Men in My Life (1988; Three Cherries)
We' L Be Together Again (1994; Blue Notes)
An Evening with Lena Horne (1995; Blue Notes) - Grammy Award, better singer of jazz
Being Myself (1998; Blue Notes off)
Seasons My Life (2005; Blue Notes; recorded in 1999)

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