Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge
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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. She was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category and the third Black American to receive a nomination in any Oscar category overall (after Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters). In the 1950s, Dandridge was the first African American female to appear at the Las Vegas Frontier and the Waldolf-Astoria, as well as the first to be featured on the cover of Life. Despite racial intolerance and having to "enter through the back-door", Dandridge went on to appear on the Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson shows and received dazzling reviews for her nightclub appearances at the Cafe de Paris and the La vie en Rose.

Beginnings

Dandridge's mother, Ruby Dandridge, was an ambitious, small-time local performer who would become 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 which toured in the South for five years supervised by Ruby's lesbian partner, Geneva Williams, while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland Ohio. Biographies on Dandridge document this period as the beginning of Dorothy's sexual abuse by Williams. During this time they toured non-stop, and Dorothy 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, Geneva 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 Theatre in Harlem, New York. Dorothy's first on-screen appearance had been a bit part in a 1935 Our Gang short; in 1937 she appeared in the Marx Brothers feature A Day at the Races, singing a solo in the production number "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm." in her authobiography Everthing and Nothing, Dorothy claimed she had Mexican, British, African american and Native American roots in her family.

Going solo

Dandridge did not receive another role until 1940, when she appeared in the race film Four Shall Die, in which she played a murderer. All of her early parts were stereotypical African American roles, but her singing ability and sensual elegance brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. During this period, she starred in several "soundies", video films 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

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Dorothy Dandridge's groundbreaking Life cover, November 1, 1954.

In 1954, Austrian director and writer Otto Preminger announced that 20th Century Fox had given him permission to direct the legendary broadway play Carmen, with an "all Negro cast". Dandridge thought the lead role of Carmen would be a breakthrough for her but when she arrived with her manager and friend Earl Mills to meet Preminger, he rejected her for the role because he thought she was too sweet and too nice for the part. When he offered her the part of Cindy Lou, Dandridge took action, going to Max Factor in Hollywood where she bought a cut-off black blouse and a red skirt which matched with the red rose she put in her hair. This time after seeing her Preminger exclaimed, "My God! It's Carmen!". She was cast along with Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Diahann Carroll and Joe Adams.

When Carmen Jones was released in theatres in 1955 it grossed $60,000 during the first week and $47,000 in the second. The movie received dazzling reviews which created Oscar buzz for Dorothy Dandridge's performance.

On March 26, 1955 Dorothy and her sister, Vivian Dandridge, arrived at the Pantages for the Academy Awards during which Dorothy presented the Best Film Editing award to Gene Milford for on On the Waterfront. In addition to Dorothy the Best Actress Award nominees were Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jane Wyman. Dandridge lost to Grace Kelly for her performance in The Country Girl.

Personal Life

Dandridge married well-known 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 with no remedy to be found, and the couple divorced in October 1951. Dandridge became romantically involved with Otto Preminger during the filming of Carmen Jones, an affair which lasted four years. Controlling and possessive, he advised her not to sign a contract for four films which had been offered to her and which would have built on the acclaim she had garnered as Carmen, thereby sabotaging her career. She ended the affair upon realization that Preminger had no plans to leave his first wife to marry her

Dandridge married Jack Denison on June 22, 1959. On their honeymoon Denison told Dorothy he was losing his restaurant because of financial problems and persuaded her to perform there. When this wasn't financially successful he became violent with her and began milking her bank accounts. 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 Carmillo, California, Dorothy moved into a small apartment at 8495 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood. Alone, and without any acting roles or singing engagements on the horizon, Dandridge suffered a nervous collapse.

Comeback

By 1965 Earl Mills managed to get Dorothy 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: she was back in the big picture. Her salary for both appearances was $10,000, plus $75,000 for the two films and a $20,000 advance for her autobiography.

Victory over tabloid journalism

Dandridge was one of the few Hollywood stars who answered a subpoena to testify at the 1957 criminal libel trial of Hollywood Research, Inc., the company which published all of the tabloid magazines of the era. She and actress Maureen O'Hara, the only other star who agreed to testify, were photographed shaking hands outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom where the well-publicized trial was held. Testimony from O'Hara, as well as a disgruntled former magazine editor provoked giddy tension as it became clear that the magazines' fascination with casual sex had made them vulnerable to false information provided by hotel maids and clerks who were paid for stories. 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 damaging to the tabloid press. Dandridge, however, contended with out an even more serious allegation made against her when she took the witness stand.

Alleged by one tabloid to have fornicated in the woods of Lake Tahoe with a white bandleader in 1950, she reminded the court that racial segregation had confined her to her hotel room during her nightclub run in the Nevada resort city - she could have been arrested simply for leaving the hotel to buy food, cosmetics, or for any other reason. This proved beyond any doubt that the Hollywood Research company had committed libel at least once. The verdict curtailed invasive tabloid journalism until many years after Dandridge's death. She had done herself a favor, probably without realizing it, in that nobody took advantage of the ambiguous circumstances of her death when it was still fresh. There are no known photographs of the death scene or of the removal of her body from her West Hollywood, California apartment.

While those who have endured similar ordeals point out that Dandridge's devastating experience with having a brain-damaged child was probably the straw that broke her back emotionally, it's interesting to note that the actress openly discussed the issue of raising a mentally handicapped child on The Mike Douglas Show, videotaped in her hometown of Cleveland, in 1963. As is the case with nearly all TV talk shows from that era, the video and audio are gone, however a newspaper wire service report of Dandridge's remarks on the program survives.

Death

In September 8,1965 Dandridge was found dead in West Hollywood from an overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. She was only 42. Biographers believe that she may have suffered from bipolar disorder and that her death was the result of accidentally taking pain medication (for a broken ankle) in conjunction with the other medications. A friend, Geri Branton, said decades later that the ankle injury, sustained while Dandridge was working out at a Los Angeles gym was not serious, and Earl Mills stated that Dorothy was healing and was scheduled to have the cast removed prior to fulfilling scheduled engagements. The Sheriff and Coroner's comment was: "Dorothy Dandridge? She was some kind of a colored singer."

There was little impetus in 1965 for anyone to investigate the actress' untimely death and the coroner pronounced the death accidental overdose. On September 12,1965 a private funeral service was held for Dorothy at the Little Chapel Of Flowers in Glendale.

Legacy & Impact

After Dandridge's Death, Hollywood overlooked the legacy that she had left behind. In later years however stars such as Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson and Angela Bassett cherished Dorothy Dandridge's memory. 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. Dorothy Dandridge left a life long legacy to African American actresses and in 1984 she finally received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame; Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were there to accept on her behalf. She was considered for the lead role in the film based on Cleopatra by director Rouben Mamoulian, which eventually went to Elizabeth Taylor. In the cartoon strip "The Boondocks", Grandpa often has daydreams about going fishing with Miss Dandridge as an escape from the boondocks.

Trivia

She has a great niece that lives in Auburn Hills, Mi, that was a porn screen actress that went by the name Fantasy and bears a striking resemblence to her. Since then she has stop to pursue modeling and marriage.

Filmography

Films

• Moment of Danger (1960) .... Gianna
• Porgy and Bess (1959) .... Bess
• The Decks Ran Red (1958) .... Mahia
• Tamango (1958) .... Aiché, Reiker's mistress
• Island in the Sun (1957) .... Margot Seaton
• Carmen Jones (1954) .... Carmen Jones
• Bright Road (1953) .... Jane Richards
• The Harlem Globetrotters (1951) .... Ann Carpenter
• Tarzan's Peril (1951) .... Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba
• Atlantic City (1944) .... Singer
• Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) .... Count Basie Band Singer
• Drums of the Congo (1942) .... Princess Malimi
• Bahama Passage (1941) .... Thalia
• Sundown (1941) (uncredited) .... Kipsang's Bride
• Sun Valley Serenade (1941) .... Specialty act
• Lady from Louisiana (1941) .... Felice
• Four Shall Die (1940) .... Helen Fielding
• The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935) (as The Dandridge Sisters) .... Member of the Dandridge Sisters

Television

• Cain's Hundred .... Norma Sherman (Blues for a Junkman , 1962)
• Ford Star Jubilee (You're the Top , 1956)

Uncredited roles

• The Happy Road (1957)
• Ebony Parade (1947) (as Dorothy Daindridge)
• Since You Went Away (1944) (uncredited) .... Black Officer's Wife in Train Station
• Happy Go Lucky (1943) (uncredited) .... Chorine
• Lucky Jordan (1942) (uncredited) .... Hollyhock School Maid
• Night in New Orleans (1942) (uncredited) .... Sal, Shadrach's Girl
• The Night Before the Divorce (1942) (uncredited) .... Maid
• Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942) (uncredited) .... Congoroo
• Sundown (1941) (uncredited) .... Kipsang's Bride
• Easy Street (1941)
• Yes, Indeed! (1941)
• Laazybones (1941)
• Irene (1940) (uncredited) .... The Dandridge Sisters
• Going Places (1938) (uncredited) .... Member of Singing/Dancing Trio at Party
• Snow Gets in Your Eyes (1938) (uncredited) .... One of the Dandridge Sisters, Vocal Trio
• It Can't Last Forever (1937) (uncredited) .... Dandridge Sisters Act
• A Day at the Races (1937) (uncredited) .... Performer in the 'All God's Children Got Rhythm' number
• Easy to Take (1936) (uncredited) .... The Dandridge Sisters
• Teacher's Beau (1935)

Sources

Dorothy, Dandridge & Conrad, Earl. Everything and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy, HarperCollins, 2000 - ISBN 0060956755
Mills, Earl. Dorothy Dandridge: An Intimate Portrait of Hollywood's First Major Black Film Star, Holloway House Publishing, 1999 - ISBN 087067899X

External links

• Biographical sketch
• Findadeath
• Dorothy Dandridge at IMDb
• Dorothy Dandridge's Gravesite