About this item
From Donald Bogle, the award-winning author of Hollywood Black and leading authority on Black cinema history, this is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive and lavish biography of Hollywood's first African American movie goddess.. Lena Horne's life and career are truly remarkable in American film history. She was the first Black performer to become a true star - to receive the kind of glamour treatment at the fabled MGM that the studio had previously given to the likes of Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, and Ava Gardner. At the same time, Horne dealt with endless indignities, not the least of which was the fact that her roles in films was often as a musical performer, which allowed her numbers to be easily stripped out of films without affecting the narrative when played to audiences that would find her presence undesirable.
About the Author
Donald Bogle is the author of the groundbreaking Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, a classic study of Black movie images; as well as the acclaimed biography Dorothy Dandridge; the bestselling Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood; and Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. Mr. Bogle's newly updated Brown Sugar: Over 100 Years of America's Black Female Superstars has been adapted for a highly successful four-part documentary series for PBS. He teaches at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in New York City.
