Boy, hush yo' moulf'! Talkin' bout is it pretty? It's Dorothy Dandridge, fool. Of course, it's pretty! A lost photo of Dorothy Dandridge has just been found again, and my friend asked was it pretty? The nerve of him!
My initial turn-on to Dorothy Dandridge was not through the movies, and it happened when I was just a child. When I was just a little boy, I discovered a photo in my father's wallet of a most devastatingly beautiful woman. For some reason, I hoped that this woman would turn out to be a relative that I'd never met before. We had some true divas in the family, so that thought wasn't particularly far-fetched, but none of them looked like this! My mother told me that I was looking at the great Dorothy Dandridge. She also laughed, and told me that I was not the first member of my species to act a fool at the sight of her.
I'd heard of the legendary debates my father had in his youth with my uncle Lawrence over who was the prettiest - Dorothy Dandridge or Lena Horne? I knew of Lena (and loved her) but I'd yet to actually see Dorothy. I was only about ten years old, and words like ethereal, and phrases like "delicate beauty" hadn't entered my vocabulary, and I don't know if I would have been able to describe how I felt (or what I thought) at the time or not. Looking back, I see that I was as captivated by the same spell of Dandridge's allure as my father had been so many years before me. I couldn't stop looking at her and I didn't quite know why. She was so damned mysterious, and the experience was at once pleasurable....and haunting and disturbing, too!
I knew I had to OWN the photograph! Somehow, I had to get my father to give it to me. Usually a generous man, he would not part with it - at least not right away. So, I got bold and decided to TAKE IT! I vividly recall the time when I took it out of his wallet so that I could take it to school. This old photo of a long-dead, beautiful black woman the kids had never heard of caused just the kind of commotion in class that I knew it would. My sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Katie Hipsher - the first black teacher I ever had, confiscated it and made me worry all day that she wouldn't give it back. I told the kids Dandridge was my aunt and they believed me, but when I told Mrs. Hipsher the same thing, she looked at me like YOU MUST THINK I'M A FOOL! She laughed at me, gave it back and I went straight home and slipped it back where it belonged.
I knew it really belonged to me! But, it would be YEARS before I could call the photo my own. I was well into my young adulthood before my dad actually gave it to me. And then - HE TOOK IT BACK! And that's when the photo went missing in action. He took it back and hid it from me so I would not take it back from HIM, and ended up hiding it from the both of us - FOREVER!
In this day and age, one can go online and find anything. Trust me, I've probably seen thousands of photographs of Dorothy Dandridge, but I have NEVER seen this one ANYWHERE - other than in my father's wallet so many years ago. This particular image presents Dandridge as a very young startlet in her early 20's, fresh after going solo from the Dandridge Sisters. It was taken in the early 1940's, and it is just a stunning image from decade to decade. Just the other day at a book sale, I found it reprinted in an obscure book of poetry from 2004. It's still super rare, and I am proud to present it, share it, and have it again. It was a $3.00 well spent!
What a great find. Dorothy was incredible.
Posted by: Brandon | April 22, 2011 at 12:25 PM
La Dandridge was only 42 when she died in 1965, 46 years ago. I was 20 at the time. Just think Dorothy would be 89 years old if she were alive today. The early tragic deaths of Dorothy, Marilyn, and Dean has kept them forever young.
Thanks for the beatufiul picture of a very young Dandridge.
Posted by: Samuel Augustus Jennings | April 22, 2011 at 04:50 PM