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Creator
Horne, Lena
Call number
Sc MIRS Horne 1990-04
Physical description
5 audio_recordings. 3 video_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Lena Horne audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Lena Horne (June 30, 1917- May 9, 2010) was a singer, actress, dancer, and civil rights activist. The collection consists of three moving image recordings featuring Horne, including two promo reels for the broadway musical Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music and the short film Boogie-Woogie Dream; and five commercially released vinyl records.

Biographical/historical information

Singer, actress, dancer, and civil rights activist Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917- May, 9, 2010) was born in Brooklyn, New York. Horne began her career in 1933 performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In 1935, she joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra as a singer, and later the Charlie Barnet Orchestra. She toured extensively in the United States and Europe. In the early 1940s, Horne performed at New York's Café Society before moving to Hollywood. There she signed a contract with MGM Studios, becoming the first African American to sign with a major studio.

Horne's film debut was in The Duke is Tops (1938, re-released in 1943 as The Bronze Venus, with Horne given top billing). She later starred in Boogie-Woogie Dream (1941), featuring pianists Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. She appeared in other films including her two biggest roles in Stormy Weather (1943) and Cabin in the Sky (1943). Horne announced her retirement in March 1980, but starred in a one-woman Broadway show called Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981. At the time, it was the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history and won many awards, including a Special Tony Award (1981) and two Grammy Awards (1982).

Horne was one of the most popular African American performers of her time. In 1984, she received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime contribution to the arts, and, in 1989, she won a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Horne died from heart failure at the age of ninety-two in New York City.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of three moving image recordings featuring Horne, including two promo reels for the broadway musical Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music and the short film Boogie-Woogie Dream; and five commercially released vinyl records.

The Lena Horne audio and moving image collection is arranged in two series:

  • SERIES I: PERFORMANCES
    1944-1984

    The series includes three moving image recordings in which Lena Horne appears, arranged chronologically. They include two promo reels for the Broadway musical Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981) and the short film Boogie-Woogie Dream (1941).

  • SERIES II: COLLECTED VINYL RECORDS
    1979-circa 1984

    The series includes five commercially released vinyl records collected by Horne, arranged alphabetically by album title. Two of the records have inscriptions to Horne from the artists, which is indicated in the items' descriptions.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Lena Horne and Sherman Sneed (manager), 1990.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Nathan Evans. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Lena Horne collection, Sc MG 326.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Lena Horne photograph collection, Sc Photo Lena Horne Collection.

See the Art and Artifacts Division for the artifacts.

See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division for books from this acquisition.

Related Material

Horne Family research collection, Sc MIRS Horne 1989-97.

The Hornes: An American Family (1986) by Gail Lumet Buckley, Sc E 86-286.

Lena Horne portrait collection, Sc Photo Horne, Lena.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Access restrictions

At the time of publishing, one 16mm film is not available pending digitization.