BW - EP154—010: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen To Lena Horne star in "You Were Wonderful," 11/9/44

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers By November of 1944 Suspense was pulling a rating of 10.4. There were now more than eight million people tuning in. Roma wines was satisfied as Suspense was providing stiff competition to The Frank Morgan Show running opposite on NBC Thursday nights at 8PM eastern time. On November 9th Lena Horne guest-starred in a Robert L. Richards script called “You Were Wonderful” about the murder of a nightclub singer in South America. Horne is the visiting American singer intent on solving the crime. Lena Horne was born on June 30th, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Both sides of her family were multi-racial with both African and Native American heritage. Her father Teddy was a one-time owner of a restaurant and hotel while her mother Edna was an actress with a traveling theater troupe. As a young girl Lena’s father left the family to move to Pittsburgh, while Lena traveled with her mother around the country before returning to New York City when she was twelve. Lena dropped out of high school at sixteen and joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club. In 1935 she made her first screen appearance as a dancer in Cab Calloway’s musical short Jitterbug Party. She got married in 1937, but soon separated from her husband, first touring with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940 before returning to New York to work at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. She soon replaced Dinah Shore as vocalist on NBC's The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street and recorded with Henry Levine and Paul Laval, in June 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne then left New York City for Hollywood, being hired to perform in a Cotton Club-style revue for Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip. In 1942, when she became the first African-American with a major studio contract, it was with the understanding that she wouldn’t be obligated to portray servants—a condition that handicapped her entrée into mainstream Hollywood movies. She soon appeared in the films Panama Hattie, Cabin in the Sky, Stormy Weather, Thousands Cheer, Swing Feever, Broadway Rhythm, and Two Girls and a Sailor. With the exceptions of Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, Lena’s early screen appearances were often designed as standalone musical numbers that could easily be cut out in prejudice Southern markets unaccepting of African American performers. Horne’s Suspense appearance was big news. Both Spier and his wife Kay Thompson, a friend who worked with her at MGM, pressed the movie studio to allow her to headline the show. Network executives at CBS were concerned that Roma might pull its contract if Southern stations didn’t want to air the program. Thompson agreed to appear as Horne’s uncredited backup singer in three musical numbers, which Thompson arranged. MGM’s publicity department got to work and given the unfortunate day’s climate, Horne’s appearance was heralded as one of the more daring and successful half hours of network drama at the time. She is the first and only African American to headline Suspense. “It was an event of terrific importance to Lena,” noted Movieland magazine, “for the first time a performance of hers was judged on merit alone; she was announced only as the star of the play, without reference to her race.” Spier noted that in the studio, Lena “seemed so poised, so sure of herself and her every speech, so business-like in her approach to the role.” However when she grabbed his hand for encouragement, she was ice cold. Part of it was performance nerves, but a lot of it came from the anxiety of getting the chance to publicly justify her talent. Horne later said, “Bill was marvelous and intelligent. Anyone married to Kay would have to be strong.” It was an especially memorable and proud evening for members of the African-American community who were glued to their radios in record numbers.