Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Hornewas an American Award–winning jazz and pop music singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned over 70 years appearing in film, television, and theater. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of 16 and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the 1943 films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Because of the Red Scare...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth30 June 1917
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.
It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.
I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.
music became my refuge and then my salvation.
I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.
I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was a great place because it hired us, for one thing, at a time when it was really rough [for Black performers].
I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.
You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.
I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.
I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.
My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!