Dorothy Dandridge
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2007) |
Dorothy Dandridge | |
|---|---|
 from The Decks Ran Red (1958) | |
| Born | Dorothy Jean Dandridge |
| Years active | 1935-1961 |
| Spouse(s) | Harold Nicholas (1942-1951) Jack Denison (1959-1962) |
Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922–September 8, 1965) was an American actress and popular singer. The first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, she was also the first African-American woman to appear at the Las Vegas Frontier[citation needed] and the Waldorf-Astoria,[citation needed] as well as the first to be featured on the cover of Life.[citation needed] Dandridge went on to appear on the Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson shows and received good reviews for her nightclub appearances at the Cafe de Paris[citation needed] and the La vie en Rose.[citation needed]
Early life and career
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Dandridge's mother, Ruby Dandridge, was an ambitious small-time local performer whose ambition was a successful stage and screen actress. She created an act for her two young daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, under the name of "The Wonder Children." The daughters toured the Southern United States for five years supervised by Ruby Dandridge's lesbian partner, Geneva Williams, while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland Ohio. During this time, they toured non-stop and rarely attended school.
With the start of the Great Depression, work dried up, as it did for many of the Chitlin' circuit performers. Ruby Dandridge moved to Hollywood, where she found steady work playing domestics in small parts on radio and film. During this time, Williams continued to train and rehearse the girls, who were renamed "The Dandridge Sisters" and booked into such venues as the Cotton Club and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Dandridge's first on-screen appearance was a bit part in a 1935 Our Gang short. In 1937 she appeared in the Marx Brothers feature A Day at the Races.
Dandridge did not receive another role until 1940, when she played a murderer in the race film Four Shall Die. All of her early parts were stereotypical African-American roles, but her singing ability and presence brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. During this period, she starred in several "soundies", film clips designed to be displayed on juke boxes, including "Paper Doll" by the Mills Brothers, "Cow Cow Boogie", "Jig in the Jungle", "Mr. & Mrs. Carpenter's Rent Party."
Carmen Jones
In 1954, director and writer Otto Preminger announced that he would be filming an adaptation of the Broadway play Carmen Jones, with an "all-Negro cast."[citation needed] Dandridge met Preminger to discuss the lead role, but he rejected her for the role because he thought her too sweet and too nice for the part.[citation needed] When he offered her the part of Cindy Lou, Dandridge went to Max Factor in Hollywood, where she bought a cut-off black blouse and red skirt that matched the red rose she put in her hair.[citation needed] This time, after seeing her, Preminger exclaimed, "My God! It's Carmen!"[citation needed] She was cast, along with Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Diahann Carroll, and Joe Adams. Dandridge's voice was dubbed by Marilyn Horne.
Carmen Jones grossed $60,000 during the first week and $47,000 in the second upon release in 1955.[citation needed] The film received favorable reviews, and Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming only the third African American to receive a nomination in any Academy Award category (after Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters). Grace Kelly won for her performance in The Country Girl. At the ceremony, Dandridge presented the Academy Award for Film Editing to Gene Milford for On the Waterfront.
Hollywood Research, Inc. trial
Dandridge was one of the few Hollywood stars who testified at the 1957 criminal libel trial of Hollywood Research, Inc., the company that published all of the tabloid magazines of the era. She and actress Maureen O'Hara, the only other star who testified, were photographed shaking hands outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom where the well-publicized trial was held. Testimony from O'Hara, as well as from a disgruntled former magazine editor, revealed that the magazines published false information provided by hotel maids, clerks and movie theater ushers who were paid for their tips. The stories most often centered around alleged incidents of casual sex. When the jury and press visited Grauman's Chinese Theatre to determine whether O'Hara could have performed various sexual acts while seated in the balcony, as reported by the magazine, it was discovered that this would have been impossible. The result was damaging to the tabloid press.
Dandridge's testimony further strengthened the case. Alleged by one tabloid to have fornicated in the woods of Lake Tahoe with a white bandleader in 1950, she testified that racial segregation had confined her to her hotel room during her nightclub engagement in the Nevada resort city. This proved beyond any doubt that Hollywood Research had committed libel at least once. The verdict curtailed invasive tabloid journalism until many years after Dandridge's death.
Comeback
By 1965, Earl Mills managed to get Dandridge bookings in Tokyo, the Mocambo in New York, and the New York Basin Street East, as well as two Mexican film roles. She also did a show in Puerto Rico, and another in New Mexico. All of the performances were sold out. Her salary for both appearances was $10,000, plus $75,000 for the two films and a $20,000 advance for her autobiography.
Personal life
Dandridge married dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas on September 6, 1942, and gave birth to her only child, Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas, on September 2, 1943. Harolyn was born brain-damaged, and the couple divorced in October 1951. Dandridge openly discussed her daughter on The Mike Douglas Show in 1963.
Dandridge began an affair with Carmen Jones director Otto Preminger during filming, which lasted four years.[citation needed] During that period, she was under serious consideration for the featured role of Tuptim in the 1956 production of The King and I; the reasons for her not being cast are not known.[1] She ended the affair upon realization that Preminger had no plans to leave his first wife to marry her.[citation needed]
Dandridge married Jack Denison on June 22, 1959. On their honeymoon, Denison told Dorothy that he was losing his restaurant because of financial problems and persuaded her to perform there.[citation needed] When that wasn't financially successful, he became violent with her and began milking her bank accounts.[citation needed] After the divorce, Denison got half of everything Dandridge owned. She also discovered that the people who were handling her finances had swindled her out of $150,000, and that she was $139,000 in debt for back taxes. Forced to sell her Hollywood home and to place her daughter in a state mental institution in Camarillo, California, Dandridge moved into a small apartment at 8495 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood, California. Alone and without any acting roles or singing engagements on the horizon, Dandridge suffered a nervous breakdown. Shortly thereafter, Earl Mills started arranging her comeback.
Death
On September 8, 1965, Dandridge lay in bed in her West Hollywood apartment talking by phone with her longtime friend Gerry Branton.[2] Dandridge was scheduled to fly to New York the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East.[3] Branton recalled more than 20 years later, in a Washington Post interview, that Dandridge had sung Barbra Streisand's song People into the telephone receiver.[4] Dandridge remembered all the lyrics and gave "a good, strong performance."[5] Several hours after her conversation with Branton ended, Dandridge was found dead by her manager, Earl Mills.[6] Two months later a Los Angeles pathology institute determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant.[7] She was 42 years old.
On September 12, 1965, a private funeral service was held for Dandridge at the Little Chapel of the Flowers; then she was cremated and her ashes were entombed in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Los Angeles newspapers reported before the funeral that Peter Lawford was scheduled to deliver the eulogy.[8] He backed out and attended the service without saying anything.[9]
Legacy
Many years passed before the entertainment industry acknowledged Dandridge's legacy. Starting in the 1980s, stars such as Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, and Angela Bassett acknowledged Dandridge's contributions to the role of blacks in film. In 1999, Halle Berry took the lead role of Dandridge in the HBO Movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy Dandridge has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6719 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
Films
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | The Big Broadcast of 1936 | as member of the Dandridge Sisters | |
| Teacher's Beau | uncredited | ||
| 1936 | Easy to Take | as member of The Dandridge Sisters | uncredited |
| 1937 | It Can't Last Forever | Dandridge Sisters Act | uncredited |
| A Day at the Races | Performer in the 'All God's Children Got Rhythm' number | uncredited | |
| 1938 | Going Places | Member of Singing/Dancing Trio at Party | uncredited |
| Snow Gets in Your Eyes | member of the Dandridge Sisters Vocal Trio | uncredited | |
| 1940 | Irene | member of the Dandridge Sisters | uncredited |
| Four Shall Die | Helen Fielding | ||
| 1941 | Bahama Passage | Thalia | |
| Sundown | Kipsang's bride | uncredited | |
| Sun Valley Serenade | Specialty act | ||
| Lady from Louisiana | Felice | aka Lady from New Orleans | |
| Easy Street | |||
| Yes, Indeed! | |||
| Laazybones | |||
| 1942 | Lucky Jordan | Hollyhock school maid | uncredited |
| Night in New Orleans | Sal, Shadrach's girl | uncredited | |
| The Night Before the Divorce | Maid | uncredited | |
| Ride 'Em Cowboy | Congoroo | uncredited | |
| Drums of the Congo | Princess Malimi | ||
| 1943 | Hit Parade of 1943 | Count Basie Band Singer | aka Change of Heart (USA: reissue title) |
| Happy Go Lucky | Chorine | uncredited | |
| 1944 | Since You Went Away | Black Officer's wife in train station | uncredited |
| Atlantic City (1944) | Singer | aka Atlantic City Honeymoon (USA: reissue title) | |
| 1947 | Ebony Parade | as Dorothy Daindridge | |
| 1951 | The Harlem Globetrotters | Ann Carpenter | |
| Tarzan's Peril | Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba | ||
| 1953 | Bright Road | Jane Richards | |
| 1954 | Carmen Jones | Carmen Jones | Academy Award nomination BAFTA Award nomination |
| 1957 | Island in the Sun | Margot Seaton | |
| The Happy Road | aka La Route joyeuse (France) | ||
| 1958 | The Decks Ran Red | Mahia | aka La Rivolta dell'esperanza (Italy) |
| Tamango | Aiché, Reiker's mistress | ||
| 1959 | Porgy and Bess | Bess | Golden Globe nomination |
| 1960 | Moment of Danger | Gianna | |
| 1961 | The Murder Men | Norma Sherman | archive footage |
Television
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Pillow to Post | Herself - vocalist | uncredited |
| 1951-1953 | The Colgate Comedy Hour | Herself - vocalist | |
| 1952 | Songs for Sale | Herself | Episode dated 13 June 1952 |
| 1952-1961 | Toast of the Town | Herself - vocalist | 7 episodes, aka The Ed Sullivan Show |
| 1953 | Remains to Be Seen | Herself | |
| 1954 | Light's Diamond Jubilee | Herself | |
| The George Jessel Show | Herself | Episode #1.25 | |
| 1956 | Ford Star Jubilee | vocalist | You're the Top |
| 1962 | Cain's Hundred | Norma Sherman | Blues for a Junkman |
Sources
- Dandridge, Dorothy & Conrad, Earl. Everything and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy. Abelard-Schuman; 1st edition (1970). ISBN 0200716905. HarperCollins, New Ed edition (2000). - ISBN 0060956755.
- Mills, Earl. Dorothy Dandridge: An Intimate Portrait of Hollywood's First Major Black Film Star. Holloway House Publishing, 1999. ISBN 087067899X.
Footnotes
- ^ Carlos Rivas (interview). The King and I: 50th Anniversary Edition DVD, Disc 2: Special Features, 2006.
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
- ^ Gorney, Cynthia. "The Fragile Flame of Dorothy Dandridge; Remembering the Shattered Life Of a Beautiful 1950s Movie Star." Washington Post, February 9, 1988, p. E2
External links
- Dorothy Dandridge at IMDb
- More Detail Biography & Photo Gallary of Dorothy Dandridge
- Dorothy Dandridge at TV.com
- Dorothy Dandridge biography & photos
- Template:Find A Grave