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Good Morning:<br>
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Today in the foyer of the Student Union, in front of the East Cafeteria
- Brenton Duncan, will be showing videos related to Black History. If
you have some time please drop by.<br>
<br>
Today our spotlight is on:<br>
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<td class="greensmall"><span class="biggreenheader">Dandridge,
Dorothy (1922-1965)</span> </td>
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<td class="boldorange" align="left" valign="bottom" width="417">Biography<br>
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<td class="bio" valign="top">Singer, actress. Born November 9,
1922, in Cleveland, Ohio. Dandridge’s mother, the actress Ruby
Dandridge, urged her two young daughters into show business in the
1930s, when they performed as a song-and-dance team billed as “The
Wonder Children.” Dandridge left high school in the late 1930s and
formed the Dandridge Sisters trio with her sister Vivian and Etta
James. They performed with the Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra and at the
famous Cotton Club in Harlem, where Dandridge—who had a mixed racial
heritage—early on confronted the segregation and racism of the
entertainment industry.
<p>As a teenager, Dandridge began to appear in small roles in a
number of films, including the Marx Brothers film <i>A Day at the Races</i>
(1937) and <i>Drums of the Congo</i> (1942). In 1945, she married
Harold Nicholas of the dancing Nicholas Brothers (with whom she
performed in the 1941 Sonja Henie musical <i>Sun Valley Serenade</i>);
during their turbulent six-year marriage, Dandridge virtually retired
from performing. A daughter, Harolyn, was born with severe brain damage
in 1943; as Dandridge was unable to raise her herself, she placed the
girl in foster care. </p>
<p>After her divorce in 1951, Dandridge returned to the nightclub
circuit, this time as a successful solo singer. After a stint at the
Mocambo club in Hollywood with Desi Arnaz’s band and a sell-out 14-week
engagement at La Vie en Rose, she became an international star,
performing at glamorous venues in London, Rio de Janeiro, San
Francisco, and New York. She won her first starring film role in 1953’s
<i>Bright Road</i>, playing an earnest and dedicated young
schoolteacher opposite Harry Belafonte.
</p>
<p>Her next role, as the eponymous lead in <i>Carmen Jones</i>
(1954)—a film adaptation of Bizet’s opera <i>Carmen</i> that also
costarred Belafonte—catapulted her to the heights of stardom. With her
sultry looks and flirtatious style, Dandridge became the first
African-American to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Though many believed she deserved to win, Dandridge eventually lost the
award to Grace Kelly (<i>The Country Girl</i>). Still, after the
phenomenal success of <i>Carmen Jones</i>, Dandridge seemed well on
her way to becoming the first non-white actress to achieve the kind of
superstardom that had accrued to contemporaries like Marilyn Monroe and
Ava Gardner. In 1955, she was featured on the cover of <i>Life</i>
magazine, and was treated like visiting royalty at that year’s Cannes
Film Festival.
</p>
<p>In the years that followed her success with <i>Carmen Jones</i>,
however, Dandridge had trouble finding film roles that suited her
talents. Her only other great film was 1959’s <i>Porgy and Bess</i>,
in which she played Bess opposite Sidney Poitier. She turned down the
supporting role of Tuptim in <i>The King and I</i> because she refused
to play a slave. It was rumored that she would play Billie Holliday in
a film version of <i>Lady Sings the Blues</i> directed by Orson
Welles, but it never panned out. In the racially disharmonious 1950s,
Hollywood filmmakers could not seem to create a suitable role for the
light-skinned Dandridge, and they soon reverted to subtly prejudiced
visions of interracial romance. She appeared in several poorly received
racially and sexually charged dramas, including <i>Island in the Sun</i>
(1957), co-starring Belafonte and Joan Fontaine, <i>Tamango</i>
(1959)—in which she played the mistress of the captain of a slave
ship—and <i>Malaga</i> (1960).
</p>
<p>While making <i>Carmen Jones</i>, Dandridge became involved
in a heated, secretive affair with the film’s director, Otto Preminger,
who also directed <i>Porgy and Bess</i>. Their interracial romance, as
well as Dandridge’s relationships with other white lovers, was frowned
upon, not in the least by other African-American members of the
Hollywood filmmaking community. She married her second husband, Jack
Denison, in 1959, and lost the majority of her savings when his
restaurant failed in 1962. He left her soon after. </p>
<p>As her film career and marriage failed, Dandridge began
drinking heavily and taking antidepressants. The threat of bankruptcy
and nagging problems with the IRS forced her to resume her nightclub
career, but she found only a fraction of her former success. Relegated
to second-rate lounges and stage productions, Dandridge’s financial
situation grew worse and worse. By 1963, she could no longer afford to
pay for her daughter’s 24-hour medical care, and Harolyn was placed in
a state institution. Dandridge soon suffered a nervous breakdown. On
September 8, 1965, she was found dead in her Hollywood home, an
apparent suicide from a drug overdose. </p>
<p>Her unique and tragic story became the subject of renewed
interest in the late 1990s, beginning in 1997 with the release of a
biography, <i>Dorothy Dandridge</i>, by Donald Bogle, and a two-week
retrospective at New York City’s Film Forum. In 1999, the actress Halle
Berry won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dandridge in an acclaimed
HBO movie, <i>Introducing Dorothy Dandridge</i>.
</p>
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<p>© 2000 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.</p>
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Until Tomorrow....<br>
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