Bücher von Stephen Bourne

In 1942 Lena Horne became the first black star to sign a long-term contract with M-G-M, one of Hollywood's top studios. M-G-M transformed her into a movie goddess. Film historian Keith Howes describes Stephen Bourne's Lena Horne: The MGM Years as a tribute that "Reads like a dream. I love the way Stephen effortlessly encases Lena in the M-G-M glamor factory. Deep dives into her contemporaries adds to the book's richness. Smooth as silk, as lyrical as a nightingale, Stephen has taken Lena out of that dream, off that cloud, and made her safe in our hearts. Forever. It's a great tribute to a great lady. Vibrant, all-encompassing and deliciously detailed." Stephen Bourne's many books include Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, Butterfly McQueen Remembered and BearManor Media's Nina Mae McKinney: The Black Garbo.

In 1942 Lena Horne became the first black star to sign a long-term contract with M-G-M, one of Hollywood's top studios. M-G-M transformed her into a movie goddess. Film historian Keith Howes describes Stephen Bourne's Lena Horne: The MGM Years as a tribute that "Reads like a dream. I love the way Stephen effortlessly encases Lena in the M-G-M glamor factory. Deep dives into her contemporaries adds to the book's richness. Smooth as silk, as lyrical as a nightingale, Stephen has taken Lena out of that dream, off that cloud, and made her safe in our hearts. Forever. It's a great tribute to a great lady. Vibrant, all-encompassing and deliciously detailed." Stephen Bourne's many books include Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, Butterfly McQueen Remembered and BearManor Media's Nina Mae McKinney: The Black Garbo.

From her stage debut in 1922 to her final professional appearance in 1996, Elisabeth Welch was an important figure in the world of popular song. In 1923 she launched the Charleston and throughout the Jazz Age, she was associated with some of the great names of the Harlem Renaissance, including Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, and Ethel Waters. On Broadway she popularized Cole Porter's scandalous song "Love for Sale." After settling in London in 1933, she introduced the classic torch song "Stormy Weather" to British audiences, and that same year she began a career in English musical theatre (Cole Porter's Nymph Errant) that lasted sixty years. In 1930s Britain, Ivor Novello wrote songs for her, Paul Robeson was her leading man in films, and she enjoyed popularity as a cabaret star of London's cafe society. Remaining in her adopted country for the duration of the war (1939-45), Elisabeth entertained the troops and the British public, alongside such theatrical giants as Sir John Gielgud. In the post-war years she reigned supreme in sophisticated revues in London's West End. In 1979 Elisabeth's appearance in Derek Jarman's film version of William Shakespeare's The Tempest (in which she sang "Stormy Weather") won her a whole new legion of fans. At the age of 81, she returned to the Broadway stage and her performance in Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood earned her a Tony nomination. In Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, author Stephen Bourne celebrates the stage, screen, and radio career of this sophisticated African American actress and singer, who always defied categorization. Spanning almost a century of popular music, she did not fit the definition of jazz, torch, pop or ballad singer but defined her art quite simply as "telling a story in song." Whatever she sang, she demonstrated that she had no peer in the art of interpreting songs by the likes of Cole Porter, Noël Coward, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Includes more than 25 photos.

Although she was arguably the most influential female blues and jazz singer of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a major Black figure in 20th century theatre, cinema, radio, and television, she is now the least remembered. In Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, Stephen Bourne documents the career of this monumental figure in American popular culture, offering new insights into the work of this forgotten legend. Supplemented by fourteen photographs, this biography leaves little doubt as to why-for decades-no other Black star was held in such high regard.