A Lena Horne Kennedy Center Honors medallion
Featuring 3 brass plates strung on 7 ribbons, each a color of the rainbow, the first plate reading "Kennedy Center Honors," the second "Lena Horne," the third "December 2, 1984," with clasp, mounted in an acrylic display case with lettering.
Lena Horne (1917-2010) is justly celebrated as a singer, actress and civil rights leader. She began her career at 16 at Harlem's Cotton Club before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. While she occasionally headlined feature films like Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, she more frequently found herself appearing as a band singer in a featured musical performance that could be easily cut out for exhibition in the deep south. Her film career dried up entirely during the 1950s red scare, and she returned to her performing roots, touring and recording albums that cemented her place as one of the greatest song stylists of the 20th century.
In addition to a long and celebrated career in show business, Horne was a dedicated civil rights activist from her early years. She worked closely with Paul Robeson in the 1940s refused to perform for segregated audiences during World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, she worked closely with Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others, to promote civil rights legislation, and she was a prominent figure at King's 1963 March on Washington.
10 x 18in
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Featuring 3 brass plates strung on 7 ribbons, each a color of the rainbow, the first plate reading "Kennedy Center Honors," the second "Lena Horne," the third "December 2, 1984," with clasp, mounted in an acrylic display case with lettering.
Lena Horne (1917-2010) is justly celebrated as a singer, actress and civil rights leader. She began her career at 16 at Harlem's Cotton Club before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. While she occasionally headlined feature films like Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, she more frequently found herself appearing as a band singer in a featured musical performance that could be easily cut out for exhibition in the deep south. Her film career dried up entirely during the 1950s red scare, and she returned to her performing roots, touring and recording albums that cemented her place as one of the greatest song stylists of the 20th century.
In addition to a long and celebrated career in show business, Horne was a dedicated civil rights activist from her early years. She worked closely with Paul Robeson in the 1940s refused to perform for segregated audiences during World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, she worked closely with Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others, to promote civil rights legislation, and she was a prominent figure at King's 1963 March on Washington.
10 x 18in
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
