Commemorating Kate

“I don’t want to be worshipped. I want to be loved.”  Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in playwright Philip Barry’s 1939 Philadelphia Story

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun”-Katharine Hepburn

One can only imagine what The Great Kate would have to say about her very famous chiseled cheek bones appearing on a US Postage stamp---would she be pleased or flattered?  Why not!

Kate's entry into philatelic history is part of the US postal services ongoing Legends of Hollywood series which has paid tribute to such classic film icons as Bette Davis,Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart. The image of Hepburn on the stamp is a stunning publicity photo from Woman of the Year (1942) shot by famed Hollywood photographer Clarence Bull and reminds us that she was not only the actress that every actress strives to be, but also a great beauty and the woman who,as her niece Katherine Houghton has said, "provided hope and inspiration and courage to a whole new generation of women."

The stamp was issued on May 12 which would have been Kate's 103rd birthday in a ceremony in her hometown of Old Saybrook, CT. In his statement on the release of the stamp Postmaster General John Potter echoed what many feel about the woman who knowingly or not blazed a trail for women in film, and helped redefine a woman's role both on and off the screen
"Katharine Hepburn will be remembered for generations, for both her unparalleled acting ability and being a role model for women who chose to live life on their own terms,"

"I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun." Katharine Hepburn

Ain't No Sun Up in the Sky-The Lady was an Original-In Appreciation, Lena Horne

Before Lena Horne "Black women were only allowed to play maids in the movies, and all of a sudden, the black community had this goddess." Leslie Uggams

I don't remember the first time I heard Lena Horne sing, I have always had her music in my life and her unmistakable voice could make me cheer or reach for a Kleenex. Yet,I am not even sure if it was her singing that I remember as much as her image as she carried herself with such style, intelligence and sheer purpose and no one else sounded like Lena Horne-a mix of cashmere and heart open emotion.


Lena Horne was every inch an original. A glorious presence whose life and career reflected the tumultuous and triumphant times she lived through. She was an icon of style, grace and elegance...her breathtaking beauty and talent gave her a career but Lena Horne knew that career had limitations, limitations that she would spend her life breaking through. Truly a  trailblazer, never afraid to go where she was told she could not-and though her fair skin allowed her to walk through many doors she was not welcome to stay in the room...Lena Horne battled with grace throughout her 92 years the injustices that kept her from those rooms. 

She would not be typecast in traditional stereotypical roles that were all that really existed in those years for black actresses- refusing to play the traditional role of the maid on film  she was relegated primarily to  a torch singer role in musicals, a role  that could be edited in or out depending upon the audience. Seen most often in a sultry evening gown leaning against a post as she sang her film presence appealed to many as she was never portrayed as white or black."They didn't make me into a maid, but they didn't make me anything else, either," Horne wrote in her autobiography. "I became a butterfly pinned to a column, singing away in Movieland." Jerome Kern wanted her to play the mulatto Julie in Showboat but Broadway wasn't willing and Ava Gardner played the role on screen--ironically wearing the makeup that Max Factor developed for Lena to make her skin appear darker on film than it was...again she didn't fit the mold. Not quite black enough...yet not white either but always stunning. Hollywood never totally recognized the potential of Lena Horne and never had the guts to cast her in anything but mainly non speaking roles except in all black cast productions-such as Cabin in the Sky where she debuted what became her signature song Stormy Weather- but she would take her rejection and anger and turn it into activism that would help to pave the way for black actresses and entertainers.

Lena began her career in the 1930s in the chorus line of Harlem's Cotton Club at the age of 16. Within a year she was plucked from the line to appear in a musical review on Broadway. She soon headed for Hollywood where she became the first black actress to secure a long term contract with MGM, and even though Hollywood didn't know what to do with her audiences were brought in by her beauty.  “I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,’’ she once said. “I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.’’ During the war,however, those appearances brought her some fame as she became a pin up girl-The whole thing that made me a star was the war,” Ms. Horne said. “Of course the black guys couldn’t put Betty Grable’s picture in their footlockers. But they could put mine.” While touring for those troops in USO shows Lena Horne refused to appear before audiences that were segregated

In the late 40s she married white bandleader/arranger Lennie Hayton who she said could gain her access and open doors that a black man could not. She was the first Black singer to tour with an all white band refusing to perform for segregated audiences when she appeared in USO tours. Because of her work in Civil Rights and her associations with other "activists" such as Paul Robeson she was blacklisted in the 50s. She would become a cabaret fixture and recording artist-her album  Lena Horne At The Waldorf Astoriawas RCA's best selling album by a female recording artist in 1957. Success would follow through the cabaret and club appearances and her role that she carried so well as a black woman who could speak out as she sang to all audiences helped her find her place. She would return triumphantly to Broadway in her one woman autobiographical show Lena Horne: The Lady And Her Music (Original Cast) running over 14 months and winning a Tony and a Grammy.

Lena Horne was not a natural singer nor a powerful one but a voice that spoke to the soul-mentored by pianist/composer Billy Strayhorn Lena Horne's voice spoke the emotions of the lyrics. She was one of a kind, captivating and able to bridge the gap, blur the lines, between black and white thus allowing a new integration in entertainment.She could have had an easier road pretending to be something other than she was, but Lena Horne chose to be herself- an American original.

“My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I'm like nobody else."

Read and Listen-Lena Horne

The Hornes: An American Family (Applause Books)
Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne
Seasons of a Life
An Evening With Lena Horne: Live At The Supper Club
Stormy Weather: The Legendary Lena (1941-1958)
We'll Be Together Again
Lena: A New Album

Still Sleuthing-Happy 80th Nancy Drew!

Nancy Drew, literature's favorite girl spy turned 80 this week...well actually she turned 98 since she began her series at the age of 18.  She has survived the Great Depression and WWII...she made it through the Cold War and Woodstock and the Disco Era and is still sleuthing today all the while inspiring little girls around the world that they can do anything their heart wishes. Pretty good for a 98 year old!

Independent, smart, determined...yes, plucky, Nancy became a role model in a blue roadster opening up a world where girls could — and did — do anything. She was a new type of "heroine" in fiction marketed to young girls. Only a few years after women had been given the right to vote on April 28 1930, The Secret of the Old Clock the first Nancy Drew Mystery was released launching a series that would become a franchise and a staple on every girl's bookshelf.

In the 80 years since Nancy has been solving mysteries, with her sidekick Snowball the cat, over 200 million copies worldwide in 25 languages have been sold and countless readers have shared  her stories and  been inspired to not only tap on walls or search with a flashlight in hand, but also to believe that it was OK to be adventurous and smart.

Among her many fans are an impressive group of women who may very well have have learned from Nancy at an early age  not only that girls can be bold and fearless but also what girls can achieve-Hillary Clinton, Bette Davis, Beverly Sills,Barbara Walters, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Anna Quindlen, Nancy Pelosi and  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg among them.  Nancy Drew opened their minds to what they could accomplish and they in turn have blazed trails for all girls to follow.


The Nancy Drew Mysteries were actually created by a man, Edward Stratemeyer,  who also created the The Hardy Boys Mysteries and the Bobbsey Twins . Stratemeyer wanted to call his character Stella Strong who would be "a girl of sixteen" and would be "an up-to-date American girl at her best, bright, clever, resourceful and full of energy." There never was a Carolyn Keene, the author is the pseudonym that was used by several ghost writers over the years in the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The core of Nancy's personality can be found,however, in the books written by Mildred Wirt Benson who wrote 23 of the first 30 mysteries. Mildred Wirt Benson developed the character we have come to identify as Nancy Drew with a fiery "go get 'em" spirit.

After Edward Stratemeyer's sudden death his daughters would continue to outline the themes and story lines that Benson would write.  It was Benson,however, who would infuse the mysteries with a character that showed every little girl who curled up in a chair reading the series that they could do anything any boy could do.  Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, Edward's eldest daughter collaborated with Benson until 1953 yet had a different vision of Nancy which was more "refined" and polished reflecting Harriet's finishing school background.  A 1914 graduate of Wellesley College, Harriet insisted that if Nancy had gone to college she would have been a Wellesley girl...by the way Ms. Adams we call ourselves Wellesley Women now.  The role of women in society is not the only thing that has changed in all these years. In the new versions of Nancy Drew the convertible is gone and Nancy drives a blue hybrid...and the newly released commemorative 80th anniversary edition of The Secret of the Old Clock was edited to remove the racial stereotypes that were in the original.

Today in a world filled with multimedia options and gimmicks and flash, Nancy is still a popular girl.  The original stories may seem formulaic and dated but the series is something that Moms and Grandmoms share with their daughters as they share their special memories of hours spent following Nancy Drew solve her latest mystery.  80 years later strong role models for girls are still critical to their self-esteem and development so keep sleuthing Nancy!

Good Nancy Drew reading:




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