Imagine. You're the only black superstar at the largest movie-making company on the planet.
Some black performers resent you because, as you later admit, you married the studio's powerful and white Music Director to advance your career. As for the white performers, many flat-out ignore you, knowing that your scenes will be cut from movie theatre prints below the Mason-Dixon line, so how important can you be?
Such was the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't life of Lena Horne, who became a powerful civil rights advocate in her later years, yet tearfully admitted to "60 Minutes'" Ed Bradley, "I don't have many friends." Still, she must have done something right. We're still talking about her decades after her death, and still listening to her music, too.
Lena's just one of many singers in "George And Ira Gershwin In Hollywood," a lively compilation CD of Gershwin tunes which also brings us the likes of Dixie Lee, a popular song bird, dancer and actor (and Bing Crosby's first wife) (she divorced him shortly after, citing "cruelty") (which isn't that surprising).
Also along for the ride is Georges Guetary, the dashing Greek-born French singer. He was also a Tony Award-winning Broadway actor and worldwide nightclub star who nearly stole the show in "An American In Paris" - his only Hollywood movie appearance.
At the time, his ancestry was considered "erotic," what with his Greek ancestry and Cairo upbringing. For decades after - until he was 82 - he made female hearts go pitter-patter in sold-out operettas and one-man shows all over Europe and beyond. MGM was lucky to nab him once, singing one of the Gershwins' best fanfare songs.
Today, I also bring you a singer with a delightful name: Dorothy Carless. I say delightful, because I originally read her name as "Dorothy Careless." But Carless is fun, too, and I imagine her hailing a can curbside, waving a dainty handkerchief, because she is, of course, carless (a withered gag, yes, but I make no apologies).
I knew virtually nothing about her when I snapped up her 1956 LP "The Carless Torch" - a Krazy Carless Cheerful Exclusive! - but have since learned that she was British, a skilled pianist and moderately popular. And that's it.
Yet I bring her to your attention not because her voice is outstanding - though it is pleasant and polished - but to pose a question: was she soused when she record this LP? Or maybe hungover? There's no slurring of words, but the way she pauses, or staggers, on certain notes - like she's recovering from a bender and just has to park it somewhere - made me giggle. In other words, it's the perfect LP to play the morning after when you're barely able to make your way to the coffee machine, and for that reason alone, it deserves a special place in every respectable household.
Now for a contrast: little has been written about Miss Careless Carless, but you could probably outfit a small bookstore with all that's been scribbled about the one, the only, Miss Pearlie Mae, aka Miss Pearl Bailey.
She was a stand-out singer, an actress, an activist - blah-blah-blah, we all know that - but does this really explain why she was one of the most popular performers of the 20th century? I don't think so. She had that certain "something-something" that can't quite be defined.
She crossed over, as they say, with her LP sales and on Broadway, but Hollywood, scared little rabbit that it was, even during her later years, mostly looked the other way. It's a shame, because if you've seen "Carmen Jones," then you know how dazzling a screen presence she was.
Her role is small, that of Carmen's best friend Frankie, but every time she appears, the entire movie screeches to a halt like a firetruck slamming on the breaks. She's so powerful, so charismatic, and so naturally at ease, she practically burns a hole in the screen. That's a star. That's the "something-something." And Hollywood - and all of us - truly missed out. Luckily, we'll always have her tunes.
And don't you know, The Secret Song File wants you to bathe in the lush, orchestral, surprisingly tuneful, soundtrack. She also has a question (and a hint!): "What is a week-end?"
Sage advice: "Don't be defeatist, dear. It's very middle class."
Gossip downstairs with a comment or two, if you like!
