Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965), a figure of beauty and tragedy, was an American actress, famous for starring in “Carmen Jones” (1954). Lena Horne called her “our Marilyn Monroe”. Whites at the time mainly knew her as “some kind of coloured singer”. She is a hero to Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Angela Bassett and others.
She showed that black women can play more than just prostitutes, maids and slaves, that they have dignity, that they are women first, black second. Hollywood is still slow in learning that, but it began with her.
As a girl in the late 1920s she and her sister Vivian sang and danced on the chitlin circuit, going from town to town in the American South. Even then she was a wonder.
In 1929 times got bad and they headed for California where her mother Ruby played a maid in Hollywood films. Dorothy, Vivian and another girl became the Dandridge Sisters, appearing in Harlem in the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.
Dandridge began to get bit parts in films. She sang “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” in the Marx Brothers film “A Day at the Races” (1937).
Dandridge became a nightclub singer. In time she would sing in Rio, London, San Francisco and New York. She also appeared in soundies: the music videos of the day.
In 1942 she married a dancer, one of the Nicholas Brothers. A year later they had a baby girl. She was born with brain damage. Her husband began to have affairs with other women, as beautiful as she was. They divorced in 1951.
In 1954 Otto Preminger wanted to make the opera “Carmen” into a film with an all-black cast. Dandridge tried out for the lead but Preminger thought she was too sweet and nice. Dandridge came back later wearing a red rose in her black hair, a cut-off black blouse and a red skirt. Preminger said, “My God! It’s Carmen!”
She got the part. It made her name.
She fell in love with Preminger. He did not want her to appear in films that were beneath her. She turned down a part in “The King and I” where she would have played a slave. But good parts for black women were rare. It was three years before she appeared in another film.
She left Preminger when it became clear he would never leave his wife for her. He was white.
In 1959 she married a nightclub owner. It lasted for three bad years. She lost most of her money in his failing business and in the divorce that followed. Then she had to sell her house to pay back taxes.
She was broke. She could no longer pay to take care of her daughter. She had to give her daughter up to become a ward of the state.
Dandridge drank heavily. She was hooked on barbiturates, little pills that made the pain go away. On September 8th 1965 she took too many and died. She was 42.
She was writing the story of her life at the time: she died feeling she had lived in vain.
See also:
Thank you for the brief Dorothy Dandridge bio. She truly paved the way for Dihann Carroll, Lonette McKee, Cicely Tyson, Whoopi Goldberg, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Hudson, and especially Halle Berry.
Americans should be grateful for having Dorothy Dandridge. She’s truly amazing.
Stephanie B.
LikeLike
Brief is right: it was one of the hardest things for me to say in 500 words or less.
LikeLike
Her husband was one of the Nicolas brothers.
LikeLike
Yes, she did marry one of the Nicolas brother. According to the movie, he wasn’t no better then her white husbands who abused her. I remember in the movie, he didn’t show up when it was time for her to give birth to thier baby girl. So she decided to do something stupid by holding her baby (inside her) until her husband got there. She didn’t push. He never showed up. So therefore, when she finally pushed the baby out, her child was deprived of oxygen for to long so the little girl was born retarded. (smh…aint that much love in the world) I did not like Dorothy’s life in hollywood. I did not like how she was treated by those racist assholes and she was one of the most beautiful,talented black women in hollywood. Hell she was waaay better then Marilyn Monroe to me. But we know how that goes.
LikeLike
I like her better than Marilyn Monroe too.
LikeLike
Dorothy Dandridge was one of the most beautiful women in the history of Hollywood—if not the most beautiful. When I dream of a woman of real strength and beauty, I dream of Dorothy. I know that I’m a white person, but I agree with the thrust of this site. Whites in this country are still oblivious to the racism that lingers so subtly throughout our supposedly more racially tolerant culture. Barack Obama had to basically run away from his blackness and spurn the heirs to the civil rights tradition (meaning Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, and the like) in order to get elected… What a travesty this country’s sordid history really is.
LikeLike
I like her better than Marilyn Monroe too.
Response: If I recall, she and Marilyn Monroe were actually good friends with eachother. They knew eachother and I think I remember reading that the two would spend nights together talking sometimes.
Marilyn Monroe was actually supportive of civil rights, she made an off the record remark to a magazine once that “blacks and white were brothers,” or something, but they edited it out because they wanted her to keep a non-political image.
LikeLike
I liked her in “Bright Road,” she had a beautiful singing voice and it was a sweet movie very underrated.
LikeLike
I wanted to post on this but I thought it was too old or wasnt going to keep going…
But Dorathy Dandridge? You aint kidding she was something else. Count me in about liking her more than Marylin.
There is a monster youtube , I wanted to bring in of her , they took off ,when she was very early in her singing career and it is just spectacular.She is sooooo cute (count that in as cute meaning drop dead sexy).
I also cant find a film snippet I saw of her tap dancing with the Nicholas Brothers , and man is she laying it down. What a tapper and singer, two mangnificant talents.
All due respect to Dorathy Dandridge, and Chicago tv in the early 60’s for showing some of her films for a young pre adolecent guy like me to get a crush on her.
LikeLike
No post is ever too old to comment on.
LikeLike
I found this clip again. This is Dorathy before she was more famous as an actress. she is more into her singing career.
And she is so full of beauty in this , she really captures the hipness of the jazz age.
It really blows my mind to see this
LikeLike
This clip is so hip, the lyrics are hilarious, “swing for my supper”, “my father said, swing me a price of bread..”, “my mom and pop raised me on good old rhythmictic..”
And its also a deep look at how incredible black American culture was back then. Dorothy and the band swinging really hard and then a drum solo and some lindy hop.
Any one who has any interest in Dorothy Dandredge would love this clip…she is so hip and cool in this.
LikeLike
To B.R.
I have been playing guitar for about 10 years now, music is basically my life. If someone were to tell me I had to give up music or sex, I would give up sex, without thinking twice, and I’m a 23 year old male. So that should tell you how much a love music.
My question to you is, why do think that the mainstream black music scene in America has given up on playing instruments? I like Hip hop and respect there ability to write lyrics and rhyme, but I think it lacks real musicianship. Why aren’t there more Johny Lee Hooker, or Skip James, or Muddy Waters type musicians in mainstream black music; what happened?
LikeLike
I think the key is to the words “mainstream”.
That is really just some high up no nothing executives putting out the most blandest comercial stuff they can.
There are gargantuan black talents that arnt getting the chance, I know a few personaly.
That being said, there are some black hip hop acts and singers like Beyonce and Ciara, Kellis , older Missy Eliot with Timberland , Neo’s dancing, Ushers dancing and some others that I like.
Where I do miss some harmonic advancement in hip hop, I do love the innovative beats when they came in. The beats have lost some of the edge now , so I miss that.
I want to know why everyone would rather pay a dj now than pay a live dance act or live music act?
dj is the big gig now, I wish I learned how back in New York 30 years ago. I know all about four on the floor..
LikeLike
I hate some of these songs coming out by black female singers (like Rhiana) that some producer made them sing a song that sounds like its trying to aproximate Linkon Park or something.
A word to the wise to all great funk,hip hop and rhythm andblues singers who have gotten famous:
Dont do a country western song to expand your audience, dont do a rock and roll song to expand your audience and dont do a song that sounds like it came from a “Cats” musical…it usualy seems to have the opisite effect and start the downward spiral of a career…
Free advice is worth half the price…..
LikeLike
Well I know the key word is mainstream, that is why I used it. It just seems like young people in America, black or white don’t want to here a good musician they would rather hear a computer program. I just think it is sad, it makes me wish I grew up in a time when music was music and not just a rhythm and beat coming out of a computer.
LikeLike
o dochartaigh
The real deal is you have to search for buried treasure.That is the way it was, and that is the way it is and they way it will be. You cant count on the mainstream to bring you the real talent. 4 or 5 corporations are picking the lowest common denomenator to spend million dollar campains to shove them down our throat , and pay radio and music critics to make them temperary pop history.
What ever you think was great in the past was surrounded by acrers and acers of pop fluff. Watch a bunch of Saturday Night Live old shows and you will see, only a few of the acts had depth, most of them are forgettable one hit white pop stars of the moment , a bunch from England, and they were all the flavor of the month and are not even remembered today.
And the white pop scene is more of the vast waste land than anything, always was , always will be.They dont study the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan in a huge amount of music schools throughout the world. Ive seen the amount of music schools, they are huge, and they are studying jazz, black jazz for the most part, because it was innovating and had great depth that lasts and lasts.
In America, since the first recorded jazz record, whites have been stealing black culture and making money on it and writing their version of the history of it, and, with the exception of a few great talents, have come out with mediocre versions of it.
I can watch lots of the black pop acts when their videos pass on tv now, but, I cant take the white ones, I have to change the channal.I will watch dance oriented white acts, of course that is personal taste, but,the history Ive talked about is valid and also the way I said the corporations work is valid also.
LikeLike
…Im spoiled , too. Im down here in Brazil seeing a lot of live percusion, and , a history of gorgeous songs and beautiful dances. It has its version of pop fluff also, but, it just shows me that the corporation version of what music is , is very limited and manipulated.
I felt a great anger when I got to Brazil and saw the escola da sambas and bateria and passistas. I was angry at the corporations for never really showing us this incredible culture. They bury it to control the market place.
Like I said, you have to dig for treasure.
LikeLike
Speaking of music in Brazil and treasures: Johnny Alf passed away. (Rio de Janeiro, 19 de maio de 1929 — Santo André, 4 de março de 2010)
LikeLike
Abagond – Sorry for ‘hijacking’ the Dandridge thread. Here is a link (in English) for those interested in Johnny Alf.
http://www.answers.com/topic/johnny-alf
LikeLike
I know this is old but I have to say somthing about Dorothy.
She was one of the most beautiful women in hollywood and they treated her so unfairly. Dorothy Dandridge had talent that most of those white women in hollywood coudn’t touch. But because she was black they didn’t give her credit -just like with black actresses now – for anything. She was a true beauty. Hollywood know black women can act thier but off. They know they can run rings around those white women they love to eat up so much. But all they want to see on the big screen featuring black women is being a maid, and a prostitute. And someone in the shadows of a white woman. SMH.
Another thing about Dorothy, I didn’t like how she marry those white men and all they did was used and abused her. I was also saden how one of the Nicolas brothers treated her too. I bet it was worse in her real life. But if it was slighty like the movie what Halle Berry played in I didn’t like her life at all.
LikeLike
A sad life truly but a great American treasure! I’m glad we have made a lot of progress since Dorothy’s days!!!
LikeLike
Well…I agree we’ve made progress but I still see so many of the same stereotypes being done and redone throughout Hollywood every day. Look at Monster’s Ball. Look at what it took for Halle Berry to earn an Oscar as a bw.
LikeLike
Totaly agree about Dorothy, she could also dance very well. Her husband at one time was one of the Nicholas brothers and Ive seen footage I cant find on the internet of her tapping up a storm with them.
What an enormas talent, and so beautiful.That clip I brought in shows her in a really innocent , drop dead gogeous , setting. Notice the sign for a quarter party on the door. This was a clip made in the early 40’s about black American life for black Americans.
Any one here from Chicago used to go to a quarter party? I did, pay a quarter and go in to someones basement and put the jams on the box and dance. Way before diso, this was the parent of disco. Don Cornelius talked about it on that Black Dance In America docu, and how in his era in Chicago in the 50’s , they would do a modified lindy hop we called “the bop”.
Yeah, color, Johny Alf, one of the precourers of bossa nova, great talent.
LikeLike
Dorthy Dandridge was a beautiful woman. Her life story saddens me. She was a black woman who of course never got the respect and dignity she deserved. She dealt with so much racism. She could perform for racist ass whites but if she stuck her toe in a swimming pool the white people would drain it. She had to go in through back doors. Those ragedy ass white men used and mistreated her. Despite all she was put through she still accomplished alot and paved the way for many black actresses. She and her struggles will never be forgotten.
LikeLike
Here’s another take on Dorothy Dandridge from Orville Lloyd Douglas
This is what Mr. Douglas said:
“Dorothy Dandridge was an incredible woman, she was the first black woman ever nominated for a best actress Oscar in the year 1955! Dorothy was nominated for her performance in the film “Carmen Jones.” Carmen Jones made Dorothy an international star but Hollywood did not know what to do with her. In the 1950s, America was still sexually repressed and the idea that white men were sexually attracted to beautiful, talented, black actress was considered dangerous.
Dorothy was also an amazing singer she sang in London, Paris, recorded hit albums, and she had sold out tours.
The quandary for Dorothy Dandridge was, there were anxieties about miscegenation in America during the 1950s. It is well-known that famous white male actors chased Dorothy Dandridge because they were sexually attracted to her. Of course, Dorothy’s interracial affair with the white male director Otto Preminger was a turning point in her life and career. Preminger met Dandridge when he directed the 1954 film “Carmen Jones.” However, Preminger refused to divorce his wife and marry Dorothy due to America’s anxieties about interracial relationships. Dorothy married twice and both her marriages ended in divorce.
Unfortunately, Dorothy became depressed about the lack of quality film roles available for a black actress. Dorothy also had a mentally challenged daughter and she blamed herself for her daughter’s disability.
Dorothy died very young she was only 42 when she passed away in Los Angeles due to a drug overdose. Dorothy Dandridge will never be forgotten because she was a trailblazer, she was a black woman who made a difference.”
_________________________
Back in the 50s, because of racism and sexism, along with anxieties over racial mixing and integration by white people in general, Southern whites in particular, Dorothy Dandridge acting career was limited, despite her exquisite beauty, extraordinary talent and intelligence. That’s the saddest part of all.
La Reyna
LikeLike
Thank you La Reyna.
LikeLike
Thank you Leaveumthinking and La Reyna for your comments about Dorothy.
Its heartbreaking to think what an extrodinary talent like that had to go through with racism in Hollywood in the 50’s and before and after.
These things can never be forgotten.They can not be sluffed off,and they carry over into today.
LikeLike
@Leaveumthinking:
And yet there were some people who most likely peed in the pool, but heaven forbid a beautiful bw dips her toe in it.
LikeLike
dorothy dandridge is a great women of histroy even the of her still given a chance at the roll of carmen jones was a blessing to many women actress today and she will forever be remebered.
LikeLike
[…] first seen here, then chopped & styled by […]
LikeLike
I got into an argument over the internet about Dandridge’s race once. I have noticed that even up til this day, the few Afro-descended women in Hollywood tend to be on the more European side of the spectrum. I wonder how much of an affect this may have on the self-esteem of black females and black beauty standards(when it comes to what blk males are attracted to). I don’t like to make a big deal out of dissecting other peoples blackness, but I really wish I knew just how powerful the media is when it comes to stuff like this.
LikeLike
Dorothy Dandridge is and always will be an original diva. Looking at her stuns me still to this day. She was so damn beautiful,i fell in love all over again. Take my word for it or see for yourself,Dorothy was an original divaliscous woman of her day that died before her time. we all miss you lady d. R.I.P.
LikeLike
Should do a post about what is meant by the “chitlin circuit”. Anyone born after the 1960s or outside the eastern / southern USA might not be familiar with that term.
LikeLike
Oh, yes, please. I’d like to hear all about the “chitlin circuit”.
LikeLike
duckduckgoofs / Call Me Mr Chitterling is banned
LikeLike
@ Jefe
Excellent suggestion. Thanks.
LikeLike
@ abagond:
Hahahaha! I’m tearing up with laughter here. A certain, annoying commentator was playing sock puppets and he gets banned? How wonderful. 😀
I think this pic is appropriate in this case.
LikeLike
I have always loved Dorothy Dandridge’s glamorous look.
LikeLike
Warning: Duck claims he has been posting under other sock puppets unknown to me and will do so in future.
LikeLike
@ abagond:
I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t expect any less coming from the likes of him.
LikeLike
BAH-BOOOM! Another infidel crushed by the Ban Hammer!
LikeLike
Abagond, wow, he actualy let you know that he is going to try to infiltrate with other sock puppets….that is obscesion…
He was starting to get insulting
Dorthy Dandridge is a treasure
LikeLike
duck is truly a disturb individual. SMH
LikeLike
Dorothy Dandridge was a victim of her time. I loved her work, and I will not say anything against Marilyn Monroe because she was a victim too. Most real women can be victims of their time; be it racism, sexism, ageism, etc.
I dont like the idea, nor can I fanthom, why she would hold her child within her just for a lame ass husband. They talk about Dorothy, but he was responsible too. Where was he when his wife was giving birth to HIS child???
Whatever became of their child, Harolyn? Why did Dandridge have to give her up to the state? where was the child’s FATHER who should have taken care of her?
Asshole~
LikeLike
So beautiful ended such a tragedy. Halle Berry did a good job portraying her.
LikeLike
I remember watching the film “This is Dorothy Dandridge” and being angry at the scene where she is falling n love with the shrek like Otto Primeger. I felt that he just wanted her for sex, because I felt deep down he had no intention of leaving his wife. I broke my heart she gave her heart away to these no good white men who didn’t love her. I thought she deserved someone who would reciprocate her love. The whole thing was so tagic to me on so many levels.
LikeLike
*It*
LikeLike
@ Karen: In the film they allude to Dandridge as having some kind of sexual dysfuntion, I thin that’s why her husband left her. She had been molested by her mother’s lesbian lover in the film. Watch the film. Your comments made me remember that scene in the film.
LikeLike
La Reyna: That was spot on.
LikeLike
That picture of her on that particular Issue of Jet magazine{ Oct 31 1957},she looks so classy and dignified ,and she’s not even smiling with teeth like all the other pretty ladies ….its quite mesmerizing…
LikeLike