Black Actress Dorothy Dandridge example essay topic

... a Horne in Cabin in the Sky to Lola F alana in The Liberation of L.B. Jones" (Penney 7). In Hallelujah, "Chick represented the black woman as an exotic sex object, half woman, half child. She was the black woman out of control of her emotions, split in two by her loyalty and her own vulnerabilities. Implied throughout the battle with self was the tragic mulatto theme... In this stereotypical concept the white half of her represented the spiritual; the black half-animalist ic" (7). Hallelujah was considered the " 'ace of all-black pictures'...

The film had a strong plot, but unfortunately the message was... blacks should stay in their place. Though McKinney received much praise for her role as Chick she did not generate leading roles in the American film industry. "She was relegated to assuming routine black characters or to partaking in independently produced, low budget all black movies, as was the pattern for most of the outstanding African-American actors and actresses of the era... McKinney acted in a few other films in the 1940's.

Her most notable role was in Pinky. McKinney was also a stage actress and performed at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Barred from opportunities and stardom in Hollywood, she soon departed the United States and took her great talents to Europe... in Greece she was known as the Black Garbo... she also starred with the great actor Paul Robeson in the film Sanders of the River" (South Carolina 2). Later in McKinney's life the great star returned to the States and died in New York City in 1967. Dorothy Dandridge is amongst Hollywood's beauties in the 1940's and 1950's.

Though she receives much recognition today as the most beautiful and talented actresses of her time, but at that time she was seen as just another Black actress. Followed in the footsteps of the great Nina Ma McKinney, though they possessed the beauty and the charisma as other female actresses of their time their color was still seen first. Like many actors and actresses of her time Dandridge career went through many highs and lows because of her race. Dandridge's career began as a singer with her sister Vivian, they were known as the Wonder Children and later the group became a trio by the name the Dandridge Sisters. She played in many movies in the 1940's such as: Yes Indeed, Sing for My Supper, Jungle Jig, Easy Street, Cow Cow Boogie, and Paper Dolls to name a few. She was not recognized until her performance as Carmen in Carmen Jones.

Her co-stars were Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and Dia hann Carol. She was the first Black to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress (African-American Almanac 248). Dandridge's role as Carmen lead to more opportunities for African-Americans in films. Dandridge was the first African-American woman to be held in the arms of a white man in the film, Island in the Sun. She was also the first African-American to have an interracial kiss in The Decks Ran Red (Pioneer Actress 2). Though the film Carmen Jones allowed Dandridge to have a lead role she the character was the stereotypical mulatto woman with a high sex drive and filled with deceit.

Penney writes, "The irony that overshadowed Dandridge's career was that although the image she marketed appeared to be contemporary and daring, at heart it was based on an old classic type, the tragic mulatto. In her important films Dorothy Dandridge portrayed doomed, unfilled women. Nervous and vulnerable, they always battled with the duality of their personalities. As such, they answered the demands of their times.

Dorothy Dandridge's characters brought to a dispirited nuclear age a razor-sharp sense of desperation that cut through the bleak monotony of the day. Eventually- and here lay the final irony- she may have been forced to live out a screen image that destroyed her" (10). Dorothy Dandridge broke many barriers during her career. She opened the doors for black romance in films.

She crossed over the racial lines with interracial relationships on and off screen. Later in Dandridge's career she found it hard to get work. She filed for bankruptcy and later committed suicide. Dandridge made it possible for African-American women to be seen as beautiful and not exotic and sexual. In conclusion, many African-Americans actresses were blackballed by the industry. They were not able to achieve the success that they were entitled to because of the era that they were living in.

These stars were oppressed because of the color of their skin and not because they did not possess talent. They were limited to roles that did not allow them to be the damsels or have leading roles. And if they were cast as the lead the film stereotyped the Blacks as shiftless, deceitful, or ignorant. These are just a few of the great African-American women in film that made it easier for African-American women to get into the industry.

Though today African-American people are still seen shiftless, drug addicts, gang bankers, killers, whores, and criminals, but now they have more access to the industry because now African-Americans are able to write and direct films that depict them in a better light. Film today has changed for the past from mammies. Now African-American women are teachers, doctors, lawyers, business tycoons and what have you. Yet, they are still oppressed because they are only able to produce what the movie studios say that they can produce. Today there are films like Soul Food, Love and Basketball, Rosewood, Bamboozled, and many more that have messages and have African-American women in lead roles and not being in the background. These great stars allowed Black girls to see their own kind on a big screen and feel that they are beautiful too.

Work Cited The African-American Almanac, 1997. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 10&16. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987". Ethel Waters".

Online. 10 March 2005. Available: . web jazz. com / waters. html". Honoring Black History Month".

Pax Stars. Online. 10 March 2005. Available: . web "Nina Mae McKinney".

South Carolina African American History Online. Online. 11 March 2005. Available: . web "Pearl Bailey". Black History: Virginia Profiles.

Online. 13 March 2005. Available: . web Carol. "Black Actors in american Cinema".

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Online. 12 March 2000. Available: . web "Pioneer black actress Dorothy Dandridge has a famous cast of modern-day admirers". Online. 12 March 2005.

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