Stormy Weather for Lena Horne
New America Now, 
, Sandip Roy Posted: May 11, 2010
Editor's Note: After Lena Horne died on May 9, President Obama remembered the "progress she forged for our country." When Halle Berry became the first African American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress, she thanked Lena Horne for helping pave the way. At a time when "mammies" and maids were the only roles available for black women in Hollywood, Lena Horne was the epitome of style and glamour. She was impossibly beautiful and gorgeously gowned. But as James Gavin recounts in his biography of Lena Horne, she constantly reinvented herself. From a Cotton Club chorus girl to a civil rights activist, to the good witch Glinda in The Wiz, to starring in a Gap commercial, Lena Horne transformed herself into an American cultural icon. James Gavin recounts the amazing up-and-down story in Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne.
James Gavin spoke with Sandip Roy in 2009. Stormy Weather just came out in paperback.
Click on the links below for more information.
MP3
Related Links
Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne
James Gavin Official Website
New America Now: Stormy Weather, I Got Thunder, Paula West
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User Comments
lee holliday on Apr 08, 2010 at 11:05:37 said:
i was born in 1932 and have followed mrs horne. all through the civil rites years.
-->since i was a kid an i am now 78 years old
an in 1996 i saw the lady an her music at
the nederlander theater on 41st an 7th an all these years icould never get a signed
picture of ms horne. but to thi day i still love her an i have all her recordins. thanks