Wezlynn Tildon

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Wezlynn Tildon
Wezlynn Tildon, from a 1934 newspaper photo; a smiling Black teenaged girl, wearing a dress with a large white bow on the front
Wezlynn Tildon, from a 1934 newspaper
BornSeptember 19, 1918
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
DiedAugust 15, 1993 (aged 74)
Texas
Other namesWezlynn Tilden, Wezlyn Tilden, Weslene Tildon
Occupation(s)Actress, columnist

Wezlynn Margaret Develle Tildon (September 19, 1918 – August 15, 1993), sometimes billed as Wezlyn Tilden, was an American newspaper columnist and radio actress.

Early life and education[edit]

Tildon was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the daughter of J. Wesley Tildon Jr. and Bertine Washington Tildon. Her father was a physician.[1] Her uncle was Toussaint T. Tildon, director of the Veterans Hospital at Tuskegee.[2]

Tildon was raised mostly in Chicago,[3] but was a debutante in Harlem in 1939,[4][5] and was billed as "Harlem's Glamour Girl" in newspapers.[6][7] She graduated from Wadleigh High School for Girls in 1936, in the same class as composer Arlein Ford Straw.[8] She graduated from New York University in 1942; at NYU, she was president of the Dramatic Art Club, and the only Black drama student in her year.[9] She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.[10] She also attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[2]

Career[edit]

Tildon was junior society columnist for The New York Age newspaper,[11][12] and worked for the Treasury Department as a young woman.[13] In Chicago, she was a stage actress,[14] and a member of the W. E. B. Du Bois Theater Guild[15] and Skyloft Players.[16] She was in the cast of Here Comes Tomorrow (1947–1948),[17] the first all-Black radio soap opera to be broadcast in America.[18] She starred in several episodes of the radio drama anthology series Destination Freedom from 1948 to 1950,[19][20] playing historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, contralto Marian Anderson, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, and dancer Katherine Dunham.[21] She was also in the regular cast of the first program broadcast over the National Negro Network, The Story of Ruby Valentine (1954), a daily soap opera.[13]

Tildon wrote several songs, radio scripts, and stage plays, including The Cup (1948).[22] She also taught acting classes at the New Era Professional College in Chicago.[23] In 1954, she was "fan mail secretary" at the Today show.[24]

Personal life[edit]

Tildon died in 1993, at the age of 74, in Texas.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Foster, Laurence, ed. The Alumni Directory of Lincoln University (1946): 113.
  2. ^ a b "Wezlynn Tildon's father succumbs". Los Angeles Tribune. 1947-08-16. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Mother and Deb". New Pittsburgh Courier. 1934-12-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-02-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "People". Time. 1939-07-03. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  5. ^ "Mother and Deb". New Pittsburgh Courier. 1934-12-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-02-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Harlem's Glamour Girl". Omaha World-Herald. 1939-06-23. p. 25. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Harlem's Glamour Girl No. 1". Daily News. 1939-06-23. p. 236. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Graduated". The New York Age. 1936-07-04. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Two Young Women Seniors Receive Honors from New York University". Opportunity. 20 (6): 185. June 1942.
  10. ^ "Wezlynn Tildon Voted No. 1 Girl of New York University's Senior Class; Nita Edwards Wins Award". The New York Age. 1942-05-23. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Wezlynn Tildon Says". The New York Age. 1937-07-31. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Wezlynn Tildon Says". The New York Age. 1940-06-15. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Ellett, Ryan. Encyclopedia of Black Radio in the United States, 1921–1955 (McFarland & Company 2012): 48, 146-147, 152-153.
  14. ^ "'Story of Ruby Valentine' starring Juanita Hall, Premieres on National Negro Network Jan. 25th". Jackson Advocate. 1954-01-23. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-02-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Tracy, Steven C. (2011-11-01). Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance. University of Illinois Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-252-09342-5.
  16. ^ "Hail Langston Hughes' Poems at Fete Today". Chicago Tribune. 1947-06-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Reviews of Winning Programs". Billboard. November 20, 1948. p. 6.
  18. ^ "Marshall Field Outlet Starts Air's First All-Negro Serial" Billboard (March 15, 1947): 5.
  19. ^ Durham, Richard; Macdonald, J. Fred (1989). Richard Durham's Destination freedom : scripts from radio's Black legacy, 1948-50. Internet Archive. New York : Praeger. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-275-93138-4 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Dunning, John; Dunning, John (1998). On the air : the encyclopedia of old-time radio. Internet Archive. New York : Oxford University Press. pp. 196–197. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.
  21. ^ MacDonald, J. Fred (1978). "Radio's Black Heritage: Destination Freedom, 1948-1950". Phylon. 39 (1): 66–73. doi:10.2307/274433. ISSN 0031-8906. JSTOR 274433.
  22. ^ Library of Congress Copyright Office (1948). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. p. 111.
  23. ^ "New Era Professional College (advertisement)". Chicago World. 1949-06-11. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "TV Fan Mail Secretary". Ebony. 9 (7): 5. May 1954 – via Internet Archive.
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