Dorothy Dandridge

November 9, 1922-September 8, 1965

The sensational sultry of sizzle Dorothy Dandridge galvanized the eyes and hearts of America during her illustrious entertainment reign. While using Baptist churches around the country as the proving grounds to hone in on her craft, under the watchful eyes of her mother Ruby Dandridge. Dorothy and her sister Vivian with the likes of childhood friend Etta Jones toured the United States as The Wonder Children later changing their name to the Dandridge Sisters.

Dorothy’s family moved to California after the Great Depression in hopes of seizing new opportunities, but it wasn’t until 1937 that Dorothy would land her first acting gig. Dorothy began her acting career in the Marx Brothers comedy,  A Day at the Races. It was a small role but Dorothy was not discouraged by this and she continued to pursue her acting career. A few years into her acting career, Dorothy began to witness and experience the unwritten rules of racism in Hollywood.  Dorothy was a beautiful black woman in a very prejudiced industry, within a racist country, Dorothy  didn’t land the acting roles that were readily available to her white women. Dorothy did not make another film appearance  until 1940 in Four Shall Die (1940). Yet still not deterred the role was minimal but her beauty and talent still was on display and could not be denied.

Dorothy’s talent started to get noticed around Hollywood in the 1940’s, as she was landing roles in movies such as Bahama Passage(1941), Drums of the Congo (1942) and Hit Parade of 1943 (1943). Dorothy showed she was a multi-talented actress by singing in films such as Atlantic City (1944) and Pillow to Post (1945).  Dorothy showcased her talents as a singer and brought her headline acts in the nation’s finest hotel nightclubs in New York, Miami, Chicago and Las Vegas. As her career began to take off her race was still the topic of conversation but the topic of race didn’t remain just apart of conversation. While staying at a hotel Dorothy began swimming at the hotel’s swimming pool many of the white hotel attendees spoke to hotel management about their concerns about having a black person swimming in the pool. Hotel management was in fear that Dorothy’s black skin would contaminate the water making it unsafe for white swimmers. In order to appease their irritate customers hotel management drained its swimming pool.

In 1954, Dorothy appeared in the all-black production of Carmen Jones (1954) in the title role. She was so superb in that picture that she garnered an Academy Award nomination, becoming the first African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.