Dorothy Dandridge, Donald Bogle
Dorothy Dandridge, Donald Bogle
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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Dorothy Dandridge
A Biography

Author: Donald Bogle

Narrator: Donald Bogle, Matthew J. Turner

Unabridged: 26 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 10/12/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Available once again, the definitive biography of the pioneering Black performer—the first nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award—who broke new ground in Hollywood and helped transform American society in the years before Civil Rights movement—a remarkable woman of her time who also transcended it. “An ambitious, rigorously researched account of the long-ignored film star and chanteuse. . . . Bogle has fashioned a resonant history of a bygone era in Hollywood and passionately documented the contribution of one of its most dazzling and complex performers.""—New York Times Book Review
In the segregated world of 1950s America, few celebrities were as talented, beautiful, glamorous, and ultimately influential as Dorothy Dandridge. Universally admired, she was Hollywood's first full-fledged Black movie star. Film historian Donald Bogle offers a panoramic portrait of Dorothy Dandridge’s extraordinary and ultimately tragic life and career, from her early years as a child performer in Cleveland, to her rise as a nightclub headliner and movie star, to her heartbreaking death at 42. Bogle reveals how this exceptionally talented and intensely ambitious entertainer broke down racial barriers by integrating some of America's hottest nightclubs and broke through Tinseltown’s glass ceiling. Along with her smash appearances at venues such as Harlem’s famed Cotton Club, Dorothy starred in numerous films, making history with her role in Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, playing opposite Harry Belafonte. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress—the first Oscar nod for a woman of color.But Dorothy’s wealth, fame, and success masked a reality fraught with contradiction and illusion. Struggling to find good roles professionally, uncomfortable with her image as a sex goddess, coping with the aftermath of two unhappy marriages and a string of unfulfilling affairs, and overwhelmed with guilt for her disabled daughter, Dorothy found herself emotionally and financially bankrupt—despair that ended in her untimely death.Woven from extensive research and unique interviews, as magnetic as the woman at its heart, Dorothy Dandridge captures this dazzling entertainer in all her complexity: her strength and vulnerability, her joy and her pain, her trials and her triumphs.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Donald Bogle

Donald Bogle is one of the country's leading authorities on African Americans in Hollywood. He is the author of the groundbreaking Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films; the acclaimed biography Dorothy Dandridge; and Brown Sugar: Over 100 Years of America's Black Female Superstars. He teaches at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa

Dorothy Dandridge was known as the "african American Marilyn Monroe! Bogle does a wonderful job!......more

I believe Ms. Dandridge's outcome in her life and career would have been different if she had a better support system. Thrown out to do whatever her mother told her to do, just get on stage, any stage, made Dorothy shy and quiet. She was very talented but her skin color was always the deal breaker.......more

Goodreads review by Sophia

Donald Bogle does an excellent job in chronicling Dorothy Dandridge's life. Readers see how Dandridge grew up and was pushed to become a performer as her mother wanted. Throughout the book, we see Dandridge struggle with being a black female Hollywood performer. As Bogle tells her tales, the realiza......more

Goodreads review by Karmen

Appreciate Donald Bogle's continued research on Dorothy. In this book you will find out more about Dorothy from her relatives, friends, co-stars and acquaintances. Many are open about what it was like to be in her presence. As I read this I can picture Dorothy right in front of me. So much reference......more