R.I.P. Lena Horne

According to numerous reports, jazz singer and—according to Vogue, anyway—America’s “first black sex symbol” Lena Horne died Sunday night. She was 92.
Horne came up as a chorus girl at the famed Cotton Club before breaking out on her own as a cabaret star, touring in a headlining nightclub revue that eventually found its way to Hollywood. There, the glamorous Horne quickly found herself deluged with film offers, appearing on screen as early as 1938 and eventually landing a long-term contract with MGM—the first black performer to do so. It would prove to be a rocky marriage, as Horne—who refused to play the typical servant roles offered to black females at the time—was mostly relegated to walk-on, stand-alone scenes in the studio’s all-star musicals, and occasionally even found herself edited out completely for distribution in states that could not show films prominently featuring African-Americans. Despite these setbacks, she became famous for her renditions of songs like “Stormy Weather” from the film of the same name, which remained her signature tune throughout her career.
Horne naturally became disillusioned with her role as—as she said in her 1965 autobiography, quoted today in the L.A. Times—“a butterfly pinned to a column singing away in Movieland,” especially after being turned down to reprise her role in the 1951 version of Show Boat, a part she lost to Ava Gardner due to the ban on interracial relationships on film. (She later spoke candidly—and not a little bitterly—about this and similar incidents at MGM in the 1994 documentary That’s Entertainment III.) After ending her time with MGM, Horne drifted away from making movies in the 1950s—a move she said was partially involuntary, and based on her being “blacklisted” during the Red Scare, due to her outspoken views on the treatment of black soldiers during WWII and her friendships with people like Paul Robeson.