For being Alluring! Amusing! Bewitching! Impressive! And Inspiring!
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Corey @ I'll Keep You Posted... does not claim any credit for the images that may appear on this site at any time. All visual content is copyright to its respectful owners if not in the public domain.
ABOUT ME:
Historian. Genealogist. Writer. Why not? Ask what you want to know!
What are YOU doing this New Year's Eve? I know I won't be out in the streets that's for sure. One of the greatest disappointments of my life was discovering that Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve was all smoke, mirrors and hype, and that no matter how hard I tried - and I certainly would try - I'd never be able to find that level of hysteria and excitement in the Greater Cincinnati area of my youth.
How well I remember as a little boy watching my mother get dressed to go out for New Year's Eve with her friends making sure she had all her little pointy party hats and feather boas. My father just lay on the sofa watching both of us already having discovered the bogus truth a long time ago.
Eventually, the time came when I just couldn't wait anymore to get out and shake my groove thang with Peaches & Herb only to find a bored, jaded, often lonely and disillusioned bunch of thrill seekers drowning in their own beer and tears. Is this what I overdressed and tricked my parents and the bar owners to get in underaged for? On second thought, maybe that's why they let me out and let me in - to burst my bubble!
I understand my experience isn't your experience nor was it my mother's. I recently asked her if she really had as much fun on New Year's Eve as it seemed and she gave me an unequivocal YES! My experiences were totally opposite and a decade later, New Year's Eve would find me shaking and quaking in the Holy Ghost but that's another story, too. Suffice it to say that I won't be in church either!
But this crowd looks like they're having a good time supposedly at the Cotton Club around 1938. But this isn't 1938, and I can't go back in time with my low-down hoochie coochin' ass to beg Cab Calloway for one more round of Hi De Ho, now can I? I wonder if anyone at this party ever asked IS THIS ALL THERE IS?
Tonight, so many years later, I'll find myself laying contentedly on the sofa just like my dad used to do. I won't be alone. I've got my own husband and we'll be eating and drinking and watching Dark Shadows and Bewitched and Sherlock Holmes and kissing and praying and being quiet and thanking God and calling friends and relatives and then calling it a night. Or at least I think we will. Is this all there is? Yes and it's more than enough!
Who was any more gangsta than the First Family of Detroit? The Gordy's were the high rollers and the big shot callers, baby! And the story goes that this photo is actually from a Christmas card that Motown mogul, Berry Gordy sent out during the late 60's or very early 70's. I could be wrong but to me, that looks more like Berry's brother Robert as he presents the next generation of hard hitters. Left to right: Berry IV, son Terry, daughter Hazel, nephew Gregory Gordy and Diana's brother Chico Ross on the floor. Yeah, the Gordy's (and their many ingrafted family members) were not to be messed with!
Neither are the folks who read and follow this blog!
I'd like to wish you all a very happy holiday season whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Something Else or nothing at all! As 2011 winds up, I'd like to thank you for an exciting year. There have been times when I've felt the stress of running a blog but it's been more joy than pain, I assure you. Thank you for the comments, emails, kindnesses, love and encouragement - all of which have been your greatests gifts to me.
There will be a run of new posts after the holidays and then we'll see what happens next. For now, much love and light from me to you!
My old friend Trent aka The Bronze Buckaroo gave me this photo when he authored the wonderful but now-defunct blog, The Wandering Caravan. It was probably one of his many wonderful Ebay finds because he couldn't tell me anything in particular about it. Like all of us, he was probably wondering where this old- school queen was going all dolled up?
Perhaps he's going to see Della Reese carry on as only she could at the Apollo Theater? Maybe he'll stay to watch the Jewel Box Revue? He could be in the Jewel Box Revue for all I know! But who dresses up like this to go out anymore? An old-school sissy - that's who! Alot of us can probably do without the eyeliner and rouge today (or is it that it's just more expertly applied) but now it's all about jeans, expensive sneakers that only last for a season and "designer" T-shirts. Yesterday, it was all about ELEGANCE!
And who better to serve elegance? Yep, an old-school sissy!
He looks like the type who stood in front of the mirror beating his face for hours while listening to Dinah Washington or Dakota Staton on the stereo. Of course, he had a glass of Seagrams or rum and coke but when it came time for showtime the mood changed! Brotha fell out the front door doing the Cissy Strut!
He probably ended up at the club for few drinks with friends to let his hair down ..... well, so to speak! He eventually took off that hot sport coat and came up out of that silk tie and did the Sophisticated Sissy with the best of them! And why not? After a whole week of being both gay and black in 1963, wouldn't you?
You know who they are even if they aren't mentioned in the film credits. I'm talking about the many young, gifted and black actors who worked as extras in vintage movies like Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky. I'm talking about people like Lennie Bluett and Vivian Dandridge. For instance, I just saw Vivian Dandridge in Val Lewton's I Walked With A Zombie (1943), and was literally transfixed by her one minute of screen time.
So, when I read that Ray Sneed had told a local New Orleans newspaper (in 1948) that he'd been in Stormy Weather, I wondered how he meant that? I didn't see him! But that's okay! Stormy Weather was filled to the brim with the young, talented and the beautiful.
When he told the same newspaper that he was appearing at a local nightclub called the Dew Drop Inn and that there was "nothing feminine" about his appearance, there was no mistaking exactly what he meant. The Inn was infamously known for its gender bender & gay oriented entertainment. They even had a transgender emcee named Miss Patsy Vidalia. The former graduate student of the American School of Ballet, then known as the "Ballet Master of Atlanta University" wanted us to know that his act was "purely masculine" and "most graceful", thank you very much! The writer of the article just smirked and hyped the brotha as a DON'T "MISS" at the Dew Drop and did so with an added emphasis. *For the record, The Dew Drop Inn also employed some of the biggest names in black entertainment.
I'm sure the boys at the Dew Drop must have loved them some Ray Sneed! I know I do now! He was lithe, sensuous and sexy with a dancer's build. Watching him, I see everything from the origins of vogue to Michael to Usher in his gazelle-like movements. Here are moves that I've seen my own daddy do when he had a little too much to drink and I'd say "Daddy, show us the dances you used to do when you were young."
In his cute jumpsuit, Ray Sneed was one handsome brotha with his tight butt and bouncin' package. He was light on his toes and very graceful, indeed. I think he was very talented and I enjoy watching him for all of those reasons. That's all I know about Ray Sneed and his Dance Creation as he is billed in the short musical film Jivin' in Bebop (1947).
The film also starred the great blues singer Helen Humes (not in this clip) and legendary jazz great Dizzy Gillespie whose early bop orchestra provides the score. I suggest that you fast forward to 5:45 if you want to skip Gillespie's antics and the mediocre tap dancing of Ralph Brown. After Sneed's performance there is an additional treat as the mysterious "shake" dancer known as Sahji (see here:MADELEINE "SAHJI" JACKSON) takes the stage. Neither performance ever set the world on fire but they're both enjoyable for what they're worth. And is that a young Quincy Jones on trumpet (extreme far left) with Dizzy's band?
This past weekend Reginald Van Lee married his longtime partner Corey McCathern in what can only be called a dream extravaganza of a wedding. Since I don't know them personally, I wasn't invited to the wedding. In fact, I've never heard of them until now so of course, that canceled out any attempt I could have made to crash their wedding. Maybe if I were actually there, I would be able to write from the proper context to match the over-the-top fabulosity of a 3.2 MILLION dollar wedding. Ah, Fabulosity! I remember when a certain supermodel coined that word and wrote a book about how to attain it. Apparently she didn't know Reginald Van Lee and Corey McCathern either, because they just wrote the final chapter on the subject! There aren't many who can go over the top to the rainbow the way these two Same Gender Loving brothas did and still keep it as elegant and tasteful. But any couple who can rent out the National Building Museum in DC, and hire DIANA ROSS as a wedding singer deserves to have the WEDDING OF THE CENTURY!
Yes, I'm tickled pink that these are two BLACK MEN!
Reginald Van Lee (R) has a laundry list of credentials behind his name. He is the current chairman of the board of directors of the Washington Performing Arts Society, and is an executive vice-president with the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton.
He has received the Black Engineer of the Year Award, the prestigious Spirit of Cabrini Award as well as many other honors for his achievements in outstanding community service. Consulting Magazine named Van Lee as one of the Top 25 consultants in the world and he has been recognized as one of New York's Finest Philanthropists.
A little less has been reported about Corey McCathern but he is the taller husband. Supposedly, he is originally from Louisville, KY (which I find particularly endearing) and is a former personal trainer who owns a wonderful restaurant in Italy where he currently resides. Well, my name is Corey and I'm from Kentucky, too, but that's as close to this side of fabulous that I'll ever get!
But I can dream, can't I? And isn't that the point?
I wonder if Corey McCathern was one of those little boys who dreamed of growing up, getting married and having a HUSBAND? My how times have changed. This is what dreams are made of! And Corey McCathern is living it! But where do you go for a honeymoon when you're Corey McCathern & Reginald Van Lee? Where do you settle down? I'm told they have elegant apartments everywhere like at the Watergate in DC, the Corinthian in New York, a beach house in the Hamptons and a mansion in Texas.
When the call went out to celebrate a 10 year anniversary it ended up a lavish celebration that lasted three days and culminated in a dream wedding. 750 guests were told to adorn themselves in their finest "cocktail couture" and to convene at 6:00pm at the National Building Museum in DC. Celebrities and socialites alike freely mingled among other friends and family members of the two husbands to be. Kathleen Battle, Michael Eric Dyson, Lynn Whitfield, Rhonda Ross-Kendrick (pictured) and former Ebony Fashion Fair model & commentator Audrey Smaltz & wife Gail Marquis (Gail Marquis and Audrey Smaltz - Vows ) were also seen in the crowd.
The ceremony took place on a specially made bridge built over the center fountain.
Up above their heads, the smartly attired guests heard music in the air as sumptuous blue satin curtains ascended to reveal a chorus of more than 100 singers gathered aloft the second floor balcony.
Gordon Chambers probably sang his beautiful The Only One as the wedding procession filed onto the specially made bridge bedecked and bedazzeled with stunning floral arrangements.
Reginald Van Lee peered nervously from behind the curtains as Susan Taylor (and husband Khephra Burns) read encouraging words.
At the other end of the dais, Broadway star Vivian Reed caressed the couple & their guests with two very touching love songs.
The wedding was officiated by Justice Vanessa Gilmore of Houston, Tx.
With the wedding vows cemented, a cocoon of gold metalic butterfly shaped confetti showered the room.
From room to place to place settings, it only became a more grand affair with elaborate table decorations and breathtaking centerpieces like the floating floral tree with dangling birdcages.
A custom made dance floor!
Two wedding cakes ... this one a Louis Vuitton luggage-cake! EAT IT!
After dinner, toasts and cake cutting the newlyweds addressed their guests with what I'm sure were words of thanksgiving but then I'm told the microphone was handed to Corey McCathern-Lee as he announced One. More. Thing. MISS DIANA ROSS!
Guests were stunned as La Ross took the stage for a 3-song, 15-minute mini-concert. This must have been the true icing on the cake because you know you rate when you can hire The Original Diva to be your wedding singer!
I want to get married, too!
Although it may be Reginald & Corey's truth, I would love to have this level of fantasy in my life - just for a day. I've always been a dreamer and I've got the man but getting him to the altar is altogether another dream. LOL!
A few of the photos used here are from a gorgeous commemorative video by Paul Morse. I'd like to thank Reginald and Corey for this level of truth, fantasy, hopes and dreams. I'd like to wish them all the future happiness in the world! Who better to officially usher us into the 21st Century than TWO BROTHAS! Smooches!
Adddendum: I would especially like to thank Reginald Barnes, Matthew Simmons and Richard Montgomery for making these photographs available for everyone's enjoyment. It is always my intention to give proper credit where it is due and make the necessary corrections when possible. Thank you for your support and generosity!
