Lena Horne: The Chosen One 
Legendary actress and singer Lena Horne, June 30, 1917 - May 9, 2010
Once, when Lena Horne was complaining about her life and career, she told Count Basie that she didn’t want to go back to Hollywood and he told her that she had to. She was the "chosen one," like it or not, the one that was pushed to the front of the line and awarded stardom and she had to go back and “do it.” And she did it, too. She blazed an incredible path from housewife to icon over many decades, and we can only be profoundly grateful.She had a turbulent life to say the least. There was a bad first marriage and a painful custody battle. Although the first Black female to be signed to a long term contract in Hollywood (the Nicholas Brothers may have been first Blacks), she had only one acting role during this period, partly due to her father’s insistence that it be in her contract that she could not play domestics.
While under contract she had to fight off her bosses' attentions. Her mother expected her to give her access to producers for her own acting ambitions. Hairdressers at MGM refused to touch her, so the head of the department styled her hair personally. MGM bought a Broadway show for her to do, St. Louis Woman in 1948, but she turned it down finding it offensive. During WWII, Ms. Horne was sent to entertain the troops, but openly spoke of her disgust that the prisoners were treated more respectfully than the Black soldiers.
In the 50s she was blacklisted and subsequently was unable to rent an apartment in New York City. There was one acting role in the 50s, a Broadway musical, Jamaica. It was a hit, and no one spoke of the interracial love pairing of Horne and Ricardo Montalban. Before that and throughout, there were nightclubs. Some she could sing in, but not patronize. Like many, she was received rapturously in Europe and was able to relax there in a way that she could not in the United States.
In her autobiography, actress Betty Garrett refers to herself, Ava Gardner and Lena as the "bad girls of MGM". All neighbors, close friends and all under contract to MGM, Betty was blacklisted, Gardner publicly involved with a married singer, and Lena was interracially married to a Russian Jew, Lennie Hayton, who became her arranger/conductor. Their marriage lasted over 20 years, but she eventually left him, and it ended badly.
Never a successful recording star, Horne had a few popular recordings here and there. It was her live performances that she was known for. Gowned to death by the very best designers, she was said to radiate sensuality and intensity as she sang. Some could feel her anger and tension, too, something no other singers even suggested. Often compared to a tigress, Lena Horne was a sex symbol, but a reluctant one. She was always aloof and untouchable. Rather the opposite of a similar sister sex symbol, Eartha Kitt, who came along a little later.
As the years passed there were no great strides in her career. She did a much discussed duet with her arch enemy, Frank Sinatra, on a TV special where they sang to each other without looking at each other, standing as far apart as possible; the mutual distaste too clear. There was the occasional TV special, but mostly guest star spots on TV variety shows. She was very distressed that her younger peers were given their own series (Barbara Mcnair, Diahann Carroll, Leslie Uggams, even Melba Moore) and she was only singing a song or two on the Dean Martin Show or the Perry Como Show twice a year. Late in the 60s, Richard Widmark insisted on her as his leading lady in "Death of a Gunfighter," and this served as her second speaking role in a film since "Stormy Weather" (1944).
Not soon after this she had her lowest point when three men in her life passed consecutively, her father, her husband and her son.
Her former son-in-law hired her to play Glinda, the Good Witch, in "The Wiz"(1978), but the movie was a failure.
Then, in 1981, she staged one of the biggest and best comebacks in all of show business. She opened on Broadway in a one woman show, a celebration of her life and career entitled, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. Those who had seen and known her before, and those who had not, were all presented with a performance that changed the standard. Whoever that lady was up there, no one had ever seen her before. It was as though she had finally let her guard down, and the audience was allowed to experience the real Lena. The critics fell at her feet. Audiences lined up for years--in New York and then on tour and London--and the awards arrived left and right including a Tony, two Grammys (one in 1982 for the live soundtrack of her show) and a Kennedy Center Honor, to name a few.
Her career slowed down considerably after these achievements. Her health increasingly became an issue, but she managed to record several albums. More recently, she consented to allow her life to become a TV movie, but the production stopped when Ms. Horne asked its star, Janet Jackson, to withdraw due to Jackson's controversial performance during the halftime show at Super Bowl 2004.
We salute Ms. Horne, not just for her talent, but for blazing the trail that opened so many doors, and for suffering and fighting and leaving an image that few can equal.
