May 13, 2010
SERVING LOS ANGELES COUNTY WITH NEWS YOU CAN USE
Vol. XXX, No. 1179 FIRST COLUMN
Barrier-Breaking Jazz Star Lena Horne Dies at 92 BY VERENA DOBNIK AP WRITER
NEW YORK — Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress known for her plaintive, signature song “Stormy Weather” and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, has died. She was 92. Horne died May 9 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin, who would not release details.
Lena Horne
Quincy Jones, a longtime friend and collaborator, was among those mourning her death May 10. He called her a “pioneering groundbreaker.” “Our friendship dated back more than 50 years and continued up until the last moment, her inner and outer beauty immediately bonding us forever,” said Jones, who noted that they worked together on the film “The Wiz” and a Grammy-winning live album. “Lena Horne was a pioneering groundbreaker, making inroads into a world that had never before been explored by African American women, and she did it on her own terms,” he added. “Our nation and the world has lost one of the great artistic icons of the 20th century. There will never be another like Lena Horne, and I will miss her deeply.” “I knew her from the time I was born, and whenever I needed anything she was there. She was funny, sophisticated and truly one of a kind. We lost an original. Thank you Lena,” Liza Minnelli said May 10. Her father, director Vincente Minnelli, brought Horne to Hollywood to star in “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943. Horne, whose striking beauty often overshadowed her talent and artistry, was remarkably candid about the underlying reason for her success: “I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,” she once said. “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.” In the 1940s, Horne was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band to
play at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City. And, when she signed with MGM, she was among a handful of black actors to have a contract with a major Hollywood studio. In 1943, MGM Studios loaned her to 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the allblack movie musical “Stormy Weather.” Her rendition of the title song became a major hit and her most famous tune. Horne had an impressive musical range, from blues and jazz to the sophistication of Rodgers and Hart in such songs as “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” In 1942’s “Panama Hattie,” her first movie with MGM, she sang Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” winning critical acclaim. In her first big Broadway success, as the star of “Jamaica” in 1957, reviewer Richard Watts Jr. called her “one of the incomparable performers of our time.” Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her “the best female singer of songs.” “It’s just a great loss,” said Janet Jackson in an interview on May 10. “She brought much joy into everyone’s lives — even the younger generations, younger than myself. She was such a great talent. She opened up such doors for artists like myself.” Horne was perpetually frustrated with racism. “I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn’t work for places that kept us out. ... It was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world,” she said in Brian Lanker’s book “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.” While at MGM, Horne starred in the all-black “Cabin in the Sky,” but in most movies, she appeared only in musical numbers that could be cut when shown in the South and she was denied major roles and speaking parts. Horne, who had appeared in the role of Julie in a “Show Boat” scene in a 1946 movie about Jerome Kern, seemed a logical choice for the 1951 movie, but the part went to a white actress, Ava Gardner, who did not sing. “Metro’s cowardice deprived the musical (genre) of one of the great singing actresses,” film historian John Kobal wrote. “She was a very angry woman,” said film critic, author and documentarian Richard Schickel, who worked with Horne on her 1965 autobiography. “It’s something that shaped her life to a very high degree. She was a woman who had a very powerful desire to lead her own life, to not be cautious and to speak out. And she was a woman, also, who felt in her career that she had been held back by the issue of race. So she had a lot
See LENA HORNE, page 6
Photos by JOHN KELVIN FIELDS
WOMEN RALLY — The Los Angeles Black Resource Center joined women’s groups and civic leaders at a May 7 rally to bring attention to the issue of African American women being disproportionately unemployed and struggling to find quality jobs. Themed “Celebrating Sisters in the Struggle for Quality Jobs: The Power of Life and the Power for Change,” the rally gave women a stage to share their stories. Local worksource centers were represented at the event to provide attendees with employment information. Pictured: (above) Horoya Kan, a drumming and dance ensemble, performs. (Below) Invited speaker Valerie Shaw, the first African American woman to be president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, addresses the crowd.
Nine Candidates Vie to be Next Inglewood Mayor BY CHICO C. NORWOOD STAFF WRITER
For the past several months, Inglewood has been a city in turmoil. After being charged with felony misappropriation of public funds, using an unauthorized loan for private profit, and conflict of interest, Roosevelt Dorn resigned as mayor. Two months later, City Administrator Tim Wanamaker resigned. Two weeks after that, the city’s chief financial officer, Jeff Muir, called it quits to return to a post he previously held in Culver City. Additionally, Inglewood is facing a roughly $13.4 million structural deficit that threatens to send the city into bankruptcy. On June 8, Inglewood residents will go to the polls to vote for who they want to be the next mayor. Nine candidates want to be mayor and each one believes they have the right stuff needed to put the city back on the road to prosperity. Meet the candidates: Wanda Brown Brown has lived in Inglewood for 31 years and has served as the city’s treasurer for the past 23 years. Brown is a California certified municipal treasurer, certified finance municipal administrator, and certified cash handler via the Association of Public Treasurers of the United States and Canada, and is licensed to sell mutual fund investments and variable contracts. During her tenure as treasure, Brown said she has earned the city more than $72 million in gross investment interest income and manages more than $280 million in
portfolios. Brown believes she is the best person to be mayor because of her education and financial experience. “No individual has ever held the office of mayor with my credentials,” she said in an e-mail. “Nor do any of the mayoral candidates remotely match my experience and credentials. My education and experience in accounting, audit and finance will enable me to make sound financial decisions, which will ensure decisions made are fiscally responsible.” What do you think are the
most critical issues facing the city? “The $13.4 million operating deficit, pubic safety, and economic development.” If elected, how do you plan — or do you have a plan — to address the city’s fiscal crisis? “Unfortunately, because the current City Council has allowed such a large deficit to occur, the City Council has instructed the Acting City Administrator to proceed with a layoff and classification plan throughout the city,” she said. Brown said she believes that See CANDIDATES, page 3
NEWS IN BRIEF THE SOUTHLAND L.A. Utility Gives $73M to Help Ailing City Coffers (AP) — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has approved a transfer of $73.5 million in surplus funds to the city’s dwindling coffers. The utility’s board voted unanimously May 4 to deposit the money in the city’s general fund. The move ended a monthlong drama over the transfer which the DWP withheld after the City Council objected to the rate hike. With the city facing a $200million deficit, the DWP’s refusal prompted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to propose shutting down some services for two days a week. After weeks of dispute, the City Council and DWP agreed to a smaller increase that would boost the average monthly bill by about 5 percent, beginning July 1.
L.A. to Install 10,000 High-Tech Parking Meters (AP) — The city of Los Angeles will replace about 10,000 coin-operated parking meters with machines that will accept coin, credit and debit card payments. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the new installations May 5. Officials estimate that the city, which is facing a $200-million deficit, will collect an additional $1 million to $1.5 million in revenue each year from the new meters. That’s money usually lost to broken coin-operated meters. A Department of Transportation spokesman says the high-tech meters are more reliable and should always operate. Bruce Gilman says more people will also opt to park and pay with the convenience of pulling out their credit cards. See BRIEFS, page 4
www.lawattstimes.com