Cultural icon, civil rights pioneer, sex symbol, actress, cabaret singer and Broadway star, the legendary Lena Horne has left an indelible mark on American culture, and the world. Her rise to greatness from a difficult childhood to becoming one of America's leading ladies, reads like a script to a Hollywood success story, and has made her one of the most respected and well-loved figures in history.
At age 16 Lena began working at Harlem's Cotton Club, first as a dancer, then in the chorus and later as a solo singer. Beginning in 1942 Lena Horne appeared in films, broadening her career include movies, Broadway and recordings. She became the first African-American to sign a long-term contract with MGM. Moreover, she had a clause in her contract that prevented her from being cast as a domestic or in jungle native roles. Despite such promise, her film career never really got of the ground. Aside from the all-black productions "Cabin in the Sky" and "Stormy Weather" ("the only movies in which I played a character who was involved in the plot," she said), Lena was relegated to mostly one-scene musical roles which were filmed in such a way that they could be cut from the movie for distribution in the South. However, by the mid-'40s she was one of the first black women to successfully work on both sides of the color line, the highest paid black actress in the country, and the first black movie star on the cover of a movie magazine.
Lena left Hollywood in the early fifties to concentrate on her singing. During the McCarthy era, she was blacklisted for her left-wing associations, but in 1956 she was taken off the list and resumed her career. She found great success during the sixties and seventies, and in 1981, she appeared on Broadway in her own show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music," which became the longest-running one woman show in the history of Broadway. In 1998 she received an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters at Yale University.
This DVD uncovers through video clips and rare photos the life and career of one of America's leading cultural figures. She has had numerous chart hits, and earned honors for her illustrious career on the stage, screen and in the recording studio, including two Grammy Awards and a Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1994. Elegant and wise, Lena Horne personifies both the glamour of Hollywood and the reality of a lifetime spent battling racial and social injustice
