3 weeks ago · 4 notes

Singer Georgia Carr with Stan Kenton after a Detroit, MI performance of “The Biggest Show of ‘52”. It was Ms. Carr in the picture with Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Monica Lewis and Mr. Kenton, not Thelma Carpenter. Thanks to Derrick Lucas for contacting Mr. Cole’s former manager, Dick LaPalm, but clearly Mr. LaPalm was mistaken. And thank you Toni Callender for your comment and giving me the opportunity to correct the original post - and the excuse to share the lovely Georgia Carr with VBG fans. Photo: University of North Texas Digital Library.

Singer Georgia Carr with Stan Kenton after a Detroit, MI performance of “The Biggest Show of ‘52”. It was Ms. Carr in the picture with Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Monica Lewis and Mr. Kenton, not Thelma Carpenter. Thanks to Derrick Lucas for contacting Mr. Cole’s former manager, Dick LaPalm, but clearly Mr. LaPalm was mistaken. And thank you Toni Callender for your comment and giving me the opportunity to correct the original post - and the excuse to share the lovely Georgia Carr with VBG fans. Photo: University of North Texas Digital Library.

1 month ago · 155 notes · Reblogged from vintageblackglamour

“I was a fly chick when I was young.” ~ The artist Ladybird Cleveland (now Strickland) to a reporter in 2012 in a story about an exhibition of her paintings. Ms. Strickland, the mother of legendary fashion model Pat Cleveland, was photographed here by Carl Van Vechten on September 21, 1954. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

“I was a fly chick when I was young.” ~ The artist Ladybird Cleveland (now Strickland) to a reporter in 2012 in a story about an exhibition of her paintings. Ms. Strickland, the mother of legendary fashion model Pat Cleveland, was photographed here by Carl Van Vechten on September 21, 1954. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

2 months ago · 448 notes · Reblogged from vintageblackglamour

Dancers Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder (followed by Ms. de Lavallade’s sister, Elaine de Lavallade and Emery Lewis) on their wedding day, June 26, 1955. The wedding was hosted by theater legend Lucille Lortel at her estate in Westport, Connecticut and notables like Diahann Carroll, Josephine Premice, and Carl Van Vechten. Mr. Van Vechten’s assistant at the time, Saul Mauriber, took this photograph. Via:Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Dancers Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder (followed by Ms. de Lavallade’s sister, Elaine de Lavallade and Emery Lewis) on their wedding day, June 26, 1955. The wedding was hosted by theater legend Lucille Lortel at her estate in Westport, Connecticut and notables like Diahann Carroll, Josephine Premice, and Carl Van Vechten. Mr. Van Vechten’s assistant at the time, Saul Mauriber, took this photograph. Via:Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

2 months ago · 225 notes · Reblogged from vintageblackglamour

Afro-Puerto Rican jazz singer, cabaret performer, and Queen of Filin Lucy Fabery, b. 1931. Although called “La Muñeca de Chocolate” (“The Chocolate Doll”) for her dark-skinned beauty, this label ”is actually the antithesis of Lucy; a doll is something static and inert, and she vibrates even when sitting still.” Luis Rafael Sánchez writes, The memory of anyone who ever heard Lucy Fabery automatically records the magnetic strangeness of her voice. And then the diffuse spasms of her body; spasms that strip spectators of their serene detachment. Listening to the wonderful sound of Lucy Fabery, seeing the singer Lucy Fabery elevate physical movement to the level of a concert by a full orchestra, we see the truth expressed by [Alejo] Carpentier when he writes, “The Caribbean sounds, resounds.” 

Afro-Puerto Rican jazz singer, cabaret performer, and Queen of Filin Lucy Fabery, b. 1931. Although called “La Muñeca de Chocolate” (“The Chocolate Doll”) for her dark-skinned beauty, this label ”is actually the antithesis of Lucy; a doll is something static and inert, and she vibrates even when sitting still.” Luis Rafael Sánchez writes,

The memory of anyone who ever heard Lucy Fabery automatically records the magnetic strangeness of her voice. And then the diffuse spasms of her body; spasms that strip spectators of their serene detachment. Listening to the wonderful sound of Lucy Fabery, seeing the singer Lucy Fabery elevate physical movement to the level of a concert by a full orchestra, we see the truth expressed by [Alejo] Carpentier when he writes, “The Caribbean sounds, resounds.” 

2 months ago · 500 notes · Source · Reblogged from alivesoul

The Supremes - Someday We’ll Be Together 

3 months ago · 0 notes

Four Tops - Reach Out (I’ll Be There) 

3 months ago · 1 note

Dorothy Dandridge, on the set of “Carmen Jones” at the RKO lot in Hollywood in 1954. In the film, the police were military police in tan uniforms, so my guess is that these gentlemen were real policemen (security on the set?) I found the photo (perhaps taken by a studio photographer) via Tumblr on a Dorothy Dandridge tribute blog (dorothydandridge.tumblr.com) where it was submitted by a fan.

Dorothy Dandridge, on the set of “Carmen Jones” at the RKO lot in Hollywood in 1954. In the film, the police were military police in tan uniforms, so my guess is that these gentlemen were real policemen (security on the set?) I found the photo (perhaps taken by a studio photographer) via Tumblr on a Dorothy Dandridge tribute blog (dorothydandridge.tumblr.com) where it was submitted by a fan.

4 months ago · 1,293 notes · Source · Reblogged from vintageblackglamour

4 months ago · 8 notes

Nat “King” Cole, at home in 1957 with his wife, Maria, contemplates a snack. Photo by: Frank Carroll/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images.

Nat “King” Cole, at home in 1957 with his wife, Maria, contemplates a snack. Photo by: Frank Carroll/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images.

4 months ago · 238 notes · Reblogged from vintageblackglamour