Stars & Icons

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Stars & Icons5

Bill Robinson and Lena Horne in Stormy Weather (1943)

Theme Overview

Hallelujah (1929), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Stormy Weather (1943), Carmen Jones (1954), and Porgy and Bess (1959) are iconic all-Black-cast musicals directed by white directors and produced by Hollywood studios. The performances by artists such as Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, the Nicholas Brothers, and Ethel Waters in these classic films are often the first things to come to mind when we think of Black cinema, African American performers, and Black Hollywood.

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