Donyale Luna (1945-1979) was an American fashion model from the 1960s. In March 1966 she became the first black woman ever to appear on the cover of British Vogue. She also appeared in a number of films by Warhol, Fellini and Otto Preminger.
She was beautiful and troubled, tall and strange. Like a shooting star she was here and then she was gone. She died of drugs at 34.
She was 5 foot 10 (1.78 m) and her measurements were 31-21.5-36 (79-55-91 cm), giving her a waist-to-hip ration (WHR) of 0.60. That is extremely low for a fashion model, but this was just before Twiggy changed everything.
She was born Peggy Freeman in Detroit. Her father was a mean man who was murdered when she was 18. She said he was not her true father, but a man who came from Mexico with the name of Luna.
She was discovered in Detroit by photographer David McCabe. Her mother wanted her to stay in Detroit and become a nurse. She went to New York and became a model. When she walked through the doors of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, they called her “an extraordinary apparition”. They put a drawing of her on their cover in 1965. It made her name.
She did not like New York:
There were bad things. People were on drugs or hung up on pot. There was homosexuality and lesbianism and people who liked to hurt.
So in December 1965 she fled to London and Paris, where she made $60 an hour (48 crowns an hour), a good rate in those days.
She was the first black woman on the cover of British Vogue, but her hand covers half her face so that you cannot tell she is black: she could be Italian or Middle Eastern. Reportedly that was done so its regular readers would not be upset.
But it was not just Vogue that had a hard time accepting her race. She did too. She did not like it when people brought up the fact that she was black. In 1968 when asked about breaking down doors as a black actress, she said:
If it brings about more jobs for Mexicans, Chinese, Indians, Negroes, groovy. It could be good, it could be bad. I couldn’t care less.
She lived the high life, hung with the Rolling Stones and discovered LSD. But then she began to act even more strangely. Beverly Johnson said she “doesn’t wear shoes winter or summer. Ask her where she’s from – Mars? She went up and down the runways on her hands and knees. She didn’t show up for bookings. She didn’t have a hard time, she made it hard for herself.” Her modelling days were soon over.
She appeared in some films: “Satyricon” (1969) by Fellini, “Camp” (1965) by Warhol and she played the lead in “Salome” (1972). You can see her on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” for December 12th 1966.
She appeared in Playboy in May 1975 in a picture of her naked taken by her lover, Luigi Cazzaniga. Their daughter still lives in Italy where she is a dancer.
See also:
- The Luna Year – a Time magazine article about her from April 1st 1966.
- black fashion models
- Twiggy
- WHR: waist to hip ratio
- Playboy
- black racism
- crowns
Interesting. I wonder if the movie “Mahogany” was based on her.
LikeLike
Squarepeg,
That’s a good question. I wondered about it too. If Hollywood were to do a biopic of Donyale Luna, I hope Chilli of TLC (Rozanda Thomas) get to play her. She was truly amazing model and muse.
Stephanie
LikeLike
For free one can try our http://www.racialattitudesurvey.com unless one wants his own statistics emailed back. This fee is nominal.
I did the original research at University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research Library while I was in graduate school in 1968. SInce that time it has been reviewed in Mental Measurements Yearbook and appeared as to the basic concept of helping with such litigation by testing corporations fairly. This article was in ENTREPRENEUR Magazine’s Management Smarts May 1997 and in Public Relations Trendwatch’s Tactics a month later.
It is of note that the Racial Attitude Survey has been used by many researchers who often redesign it for their studies. So we felt the need to have a online testing site that we could also have statistics to help give better validity and reliability scores. Also note that one can get a copy using paypal or amazon honor for their own use by going to http://www.novamediainc.com .
Thanks TR
LikeLike