Research Catalog
The blues walked in
- Title
- The blues walked in / Kathleen George.
- Author
- George, Kathleen, 1943-
- Publication
- Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2018]
- ©2018
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | Sc E 18-811 | Schomburg Center - Research & Reference |
Details
- Description
- viii, 294 pages; 24 cm
- Summary
- "In 1936, life on the road means sleeping on the bus or in hotels for blacks only. After finishing her tour with Nobel Sissel's orchestra, nineteen year-old Lena Horne is walking the last few blocks to her father's hotel in Pittsburgh's Hill District. She stops at a lemonade stand and meets a Lebanese American girl, Marie David. Marie loves movies and adores Lena, and their chance meeting sparks a relationship that will intertwine their lives forever. Lena also meets Josiah Conner, a charismatic teenager who helps out at her father Teddy's hotel. Josiah often skips school, dreams of being a Hollywood director, and has a crush on Lena. Although the three are linked by a determination to be somebody, issues of race, class, family, and education threaten to disrupt their lives and the bonds between them.Lena's father wants her to settle down and give up show business, but she's entranced by the music and culture of the Hill. It's a mecca for jazz singers and musicians, and nightspots like the Crawford Grill attract crowds of blacks and whites. Lena table-hops with local jazzmen as her father chaperones her through the clubs where she'll later perform. Singing makes her feel alive, and to her father's dismay, reviewers can't get enough of her. Duke Ellington adores her, Billy Strayhorn can't wait to meet her, and she becomes all the rage in clubs and Hollywood for her beauty and almost-whiteness. Her signature version of Stormy Weather makes her a legend. But after sitting around for years at MGM as the studio heads try to figure out what to do with her, she isn't quite sure what she's worth. Marie and Josiah follow Lena's career in Hollywood and New York through movie magazines and the Pittsburgh Courier. Years pass until their lives are brought together again when Josiah is arrested for the murder of a white man. Marie and Lena decide they must get Josiah out of prison-whatever the personal cost."--Provided by publisher.
- Subjects
- Horne, Lena
- Singers
- Racism
- Lebanese Americans
- Female friendship
- Singers > Fiction
- Manners and customs
- African American singers > 20th century > Fiction
- Racism > Fiction
- Biographical fiction
- Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
- Fiction
- 1900-1999
- Lebanese Americans > Fiction
- Pittsburgh (Pa.) > Social life and customs > 20th century > Fiction
- Female friendship > Fiction
- Historical fiction
- United States > Race relations > 20th century > Fiction
- Young women > Fiction
- African Americans > Fiction
- Horne, Lena > Childhood and youth > Fiction
- Bildungsromans
- Genre/Form
- Bildungsromans.
- Biographical fiction.
- Fiction.
- Historical fiction.
- Call Number
- Sc E 18-811
- ISBN
- 9780822945246
- 082294524X
- LCCN
- 2018288722
- OCLC
- 1014457332
- Author
- George, Kathleen, 1943- author.
- Title
- The blues walked in / Kathleen George.
- Publisher
- Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2018]
- Copyright Date
- ©2018
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Local Note
- Schomburg copy with dust jacket.
- Chronological Term
- 1900-1999
- Research Call Number
- Sc E 18-811