Dorothy Dandrige - 1st Black Megastar & Marilyn’s SECRET muse!

you go for me and I'm taboo but if you're hard to  get a go for you and if I do then you are through boy my baby that's the end of you never know it  she is powerful and so stunning I suggested while you're on this ship you were having a little less  revealing does it bother the captain about you well would you like to know I love you that's awesome there's only one  that does that's me myself I want a brown gown with a laptop with  a hip flip a lace waist in the shopping hey friend welcome to my channel Karine  Alourde where we Deep dive and break down the most iconic stars in history if you're  not yet subscribed please be sure to do so and turn your notifications on so you never miss  an upload now let's get into this video today we are talking about my favorite icon of all time  you guys already know how much I love me some Dorothy Dandridge okay Dorothy Dandridge was a  tough cookie she was met with hostility because of her race and because she refused to accept  humiliating roles as she made her way through Hollywood in the 1940s while also navigating  the hardships of the Great Depression still she was able to deliver a few visually stunning and  energetic films which hint at the stardom she may have achieved had Hollywood known how to handle  such a beauty like hers right her attractiveness was quite breathtaking to me she is one of the  most beautiful women in the world the black press referred to her Immaculate luminous skin is honey  and Cafe Ole and she was dubbed the black Marilyn Monroe but actually Marilyn Monroe is the white  Dorothy Dandridge as they were close friends in real life and Maryland often took pointers from  dangerous mannerisms and style many people draw parallels between Monroe and Dorothy due to their  sex appeal tragic unexplained deaths at young age and dissatisfaction with how Hollywood handled  them the Washington Post even went so far as to say that and Dorothy Dandridge Hollywood made  a black Marilyn Monroe Dandridge was one of the first black students at the actors laboratory  according to the book Dorothy Dandridge the life and the Legacy a progressive dramatic acting  school the actors laboratory Prides itself in training its students to push the boundaries  of the art and apparently Marilyn Monroe was a fellow student and classmate of Dorothy at the  laboratory many historians now claim that the two were friends and frequently attended the same  parties during their time at the university the media did not broadcast their friendship because  of the times it wouldn't have been a good look for Marilyn's career or Dandridge within the black  community and to show you how bad had the times were for right people to be friends with black  people or interracial marriages Dorothy Dandridge went through this whole lawsuit with this tabloid  magazine that printed out this false story about her sleeping with a band member who was white  while she was performing at a nightclub and it met danger to her career it met the end of her  career it was getting her canceled before there was cancer culture it was just so bad that she  went in this lawsuit and had to prove that it was a lie that that in fact never happened and and  they were banned from printing any more stories but that's how bad it was so there's a lot of  Secrets we won't know and Dorothy Dandridge also had an alleged relationship with Marlon Brando  which we'll be doing a video for him also which was like the mega star the biggest star of the  golden age of Hollywood's era right that also was not publicized a lot of things were not  publicized from her relationship with Peter Lawford her friendship with Ava Gardner so many  other tidbits that you just won't know it was just some cruel times right Dandridge knew how to  command attention simply by walking into a room Dandridge however refused to play demanding roles  like Savages slaves and mammies since these were expected of black actors in the 1950s Dandridge  said if I was white I would have captured the world end quote after singer and Dancer Dorothy  G and Dandridge was a legend in the United States and recognition of her performance in Carmen Jones  she received the first nomination for best actress ever received by an African-American actress a  singer Dandridge appeared at the Cotton Club in the Apollo Theater early in her career she was a  member of the Performing group The Wonder children and later the Dandridge sisters they appeared in a  number of films usually without receiving any sort of credit dendridge was praised for a performance  as enticing Carmen Jones I love that movie so much which made her one of the first African-American  sex icons in Hollywood Dorothy Dandridge made history when she graced the cover of Life Magazine  on November 1st 1954 her performance was called bewitching by Walter Winchell and maintains the  appropriate hedonistic note throughout by variety Dandridge made history when she debuted at the  Empire Room of the Waldorf Astoria on April 11 1955. when she became a Smash Hit the hotel began  booking more black artists including Joe Williams Pearl Bailey and Lena Horne which I did videos  for them also so she opened the door for a lot of her peers 1959 Dandridge was nominated for a  Golden Globe award by poor game Bess as such she now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame  Beyonce was compared to Dorothy Dandridge and the blackish episode sink or swim from February  2016. the comparison was made because both women were huge stars in their own era that's just to  show you her star power if she was in today's time she would have been like the Beyonce of that  era okay now as far as her favorite things before we get into her childhood and you know some of  the tragic details of her life she was short in stature just five five and weighing only  115 pounds her favorite color was black her Hobbies consisted of reading photography learning  traveling dancing and singing though she had no she didn't complete her formal education because  her parents you know her mom was a stage mom she loved to learn and she loved to read and she often  took photos of herself surrounded by books and reading also with her Library much like Marilyn  Monroe Dorothy Dandridge was a wonderful cook she enjoyed entertaining and favored a traditional  African-American soul food diet she loved collard greens potato salad and fried chicken she also  experimented with French recipes her favorite to cook were greens and chitlins now let's get into  her childhood she was born on November 9th 1922 in Cleveland Ohio Dandridge was born to entertain her  mother Ruby and musician father Cyril her dad was a minister and cabinet maker just before she was  born her parents got divorced Ruby me Dorothy's mom started a singing and dancing act called the  Wonder children her mom also had a girlfriend guys and lover Geneva Williams who orchestrated the  whole thing okay the children were reportedly harshly disciplined by Williams who was known to  have a short fuse and according to some accounts Geneva also misused the girls romantically like  she physically you know during the five years that Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland the  sisters traveled extensively throughout the South like many other artists on The chitlin circuit  the Dandridge found themselves with little to no work during the Great Depression Ruby uprooted  her family and headed west to Hollywood where she quickly found work as a domestic servant on  radio and film and after relocating to the area in 1930 Dorothy enrolled at McKinley Junior High  the Wonder children were renamed the Dandridge sisters in 1934.

for years the Denver sisters  performed at New York's Cotton Club in Apollo Theater she appeared in the big broadcast of the  1936 with bilbojangles Robinson a day at the races with the Marx Brothers and they can't last forever  with the Jackson brothers as part of the Dandridge Sister four shall die was dangerous film debut the  race film portrayed her as a murderer and hurt her cinematic career she rejected traditional black  rose as which stated and so because of this this limited her opportunities by a lot there weren't  many roles for what she wanted to play in 1941 she appeared in lady from Louisiana in Sundown  she continued to appear occasionally in films and on the stage throughout the rest of the 1940s  while also performing as a band singer in films with some good company in May 1951 Dandridge had  a spectacular opening at the mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood this success seemed a new turn to  her career and she appeared in New York and at a Cafe De Pali in London with equal success a Metro  golden mayor Studio agent observed Dandridge at the mo Campbell in December 1952 and suggested  to production Chief Dora Cherry that she could play a club singer remains to be seen a picture  already in development Dandridge starring role as Jane Richards and Bright road was cast by dorshari  who promoted the trailer the picture was Dandridge first role with Harry Belafonte and they went  on to play in several other worlds like Carmen Jones and Island in the Sun Etc she continued to  perform in nightclubs and then on early television variety shows like Ed Sullivan's Tulsa the town  as far as Charity having developed an interest in activism because of the racism she encountered  in the industry Dandridge became involved with the National Urban League and the National Association  for the advancement of colored people now as far as her personal life Dandridge met Harold Nichols  a dancer and Entertainer while they were both performing at the Cotton Club on September  6 1942 they tied the knot at a ceremony in Hollywood their marriage was strained from Nichols  womanizing and lack of attention and it eventually ended but before it ended and on September 2nd  1943 Dandridge gave birth to her only child a daughter named heroin Suzanne Nichols Nichols took  off to play golf while she was within labor so he abandoned her without a car at his sister's house  without any transportation Dandridge refused to go to the hospital without him and she was terrified  to deliver without you know her husband there with heroin's labor taking so long and because of  the delays doctors had to resort to using forceps to help her into the world this probably was the  cause of the brain damage that required heroin's ongoing care for the rest of her life Dandridge  felt guilty because she hadn't gotten her daughter to the hospital sooner and she blamed herself for  her daughter's illness unable to express herself verbally heroin also failed to be able to identify  her mother Dorothy prior to her appearance on the Mike Douglas show in 1963 dendrick kept quiet  about her daughter's illness after meeting on the set of Carmen Jones she carried an affair  with the film director Otto perminger for the next four years and he was married during that  time premature served as an informal mentor to the actress and helped her advance in her career  after her breakthrough in his picture Carmen he insisted that she only take leading roles in  the future Dandridge ended up being sorry that he took his advice because she missed out on so  many opportunities and he really held her back when she felt pregnant in 1955 with his child she  was coerced by the studio into having an abortion when she learned that premenger would not be  leaving his wife for her she ended the romance Carmen Jones he was just very harsh very matter  of fact and it was said that he actually loved Dorothy and wanted to be with her but because of  the laws of land it would have ended his career if he just left his you know white wife to be with  this black woman and she felt so rejected because of that and that also spiraled her into depression  and drinking it really started Weighing on her and I can't even imagine Dandridge tied the knot  with Jack Dennison on June 22nd 1959 and in 1962 after a period of financial difficulties and  claims of physical violence they got a divorce Jack Dennison used her for all of her money  paying off his debts and entering into field businesses Etc and basically left for Penning list  so he had this restaurant and Dorothy was used to singing in these big lavish clubs you know getting  so much money from that but he limited her to only singing at his little restaurant I barely got  good business yeah people came in but she wasn't getting the same amount of money that she was  getting in those bigger clubs and before you know it those bigger clubs just stopped reaching out  to her and stopped requesting her because she was just performing at this man's restaurants which  really failed her career so he used her a lot he was just a top tier Dusty man and Dandridge  also found out that the people managing her accounts had stolen 150 000 and that she owed  139 thousand dollars in back taxes so she lost her Hollywood mention and could no longer afford  the care necessary for her daughter had to commit her daughter to the Camarillo state hospital for  the criminally insane in California which was a horrific place this would forever scar Dandridge  and left her with immense depression guilt and sadness Dandridge landed in a studio on Fountain  Avenue in West Hollywood that's where she was staying in the studio apartment and this was all  for this guy Jack Dennison I don't I don't know comment below you guys's thoughts but according  to many other think pieces and articles that I've read which I can say in my opinion I agree  to but of course we don't know I believe that she did marry him even though all the signs were  there because he was one of the first white men he was the first white man to publicly claim her and  want to marry her and she had felt slighted from Peter Lawford who was this other white British  man that loved her was in love with her but he cared about his career more than proclaiming  her to Otto preminger and she just got tired of being rejected and Jack Dennison claimed her  but at the same time he was there for the wrong reasons that's so sad so Dandridge Star had Faded  by 1963 when she was forced to play in a nightclub to pay off legal fees she declared bankruptcy and  retreated into isolation emerging as a lounge act in Las Vegas in 1964 they tried to get her back  on the big screen again in 1965. Dandridge was set to play the lead female role in a movie about  Bandit Johnny Ringo after signing a new contract in Mexico in a conversation that took place on  September 8th 1965 Dandridge called her friend and accessed during law Dandridge was supposed to  take a flight to New York the following day to get ready for her performance at Batson Street East  during their lengthy talk Brenton said Dandridge went from being optimistic about the future  to singing the entirety of People by Barbra Streisand to then saying whatever happens I know  you will understand later that night Dandridge manager Earl Mills discovered her bare body  in her apartment an accidental overdose of the antidepressant and mipromine was ruled in the  cause of death by a Pathology Lab in Los Angeles that embolism from a right foot fracture five days  prior led to her death Dandridge was cremated and her ashes replaced in the freedom Mausoleum at  foreston Memorial work after a private Funeral Service performed there on September 12 1965.