tintomatotop

dorothydandridge:

Lena Horne often referred to Dorothy as “OUR Marilyn Monroe”. Dorothy and Lena occasionally saw each other at an after hours joint called Brother’s. While these were always friendly, the two black goddesses would never become close friends. They were constantly compared, and Dorothy hated that. Our World, a national black publication, ran a feature titled “Dorothy Dandridge Learns to Dance”. This article stated “she [Dorothy Dandridge] has the voice, looks and sophistication to rival Lena’s. And she has something Lena Horne lacks, pretty legs. What’s more, they’re dancer’s legs.” The media created a “rivalry” between Dorothy and Lena. YES, it was the MEDIA that pitted these two legendary women against each other. The media wanted it to appear that only one Black goddess could reign at any given time. In a 1951 interview with the Los Angeles Daily News, Dorothy stated “there is no feud between Lena and I. I don’t know her too well, but I think that she is an absolutely beautiful woman. I don’t know why there is this feeling of similarity, because actually we don’t look anything alike. We have absolutely no features that are the same. We may be a little bit similar in color. I don’t believe, of what I have seen Lena do on television and I’ve never seen her in a nightclub, that I work anything like Lena.”