Hallelujah, Nina!

Hi Ladies,
More SYB Black History Month trivia! As many of you know, I'm a total film geek (seriously, I can recall who won the major Oscars in 1934 faster than I can remember my social security number). As such, I can tell you that Dorothy Dandridge was not the first black movie star. Neither was Lena Horne. The actress with that distinction was actually Nina Mae McKinney, a staggeringly gorgeous and talented Triple Threat from South Carolina.

As a teen in the Roaring 1920's, she sang and danced her way through Harlem's chicest nightclubs, eventually landing a role in the Broadway musical, "Blackbirds." Legendary Hollywood director King Vidor happened to be in the audience one night, and quickly cast her in his groundbreaking 1929 film,Hallelujah!" --which was the first all-black sound musical in cinema history (making 17-year-old Nina the very first black actress to perform in a talkie!). She played "Chick," the honky-tonk vixen who lures a sweet sharecropper into a tawdry life of sin! Miss MicKinney was so fab that MGM offered her a 5-year contract, hailing her as the "Black Garbo" and the "Sepia Stunner," but sadly, The Suits had no idea what do do with her (too sexy, too black, too TOO). She ended up playing domestics and wild jungle women in crazy racist Tarzan-esque B movies. So, in the '40s, she pulled a Josephine and hightailed it to Europe, where she promptly became a hit in fancy Parisian cafes (surprise!). She died in 1967, at only 54--but a decade later, she was inducted into the Black Filmakers Hall of Fame.

Ladies, I think it's truly a tragedy that this wildly charismatic, talented-to-death performer has disappeared into obscurity, don't you? I think we should make it a point to spread the word about Nina, and make sure her legacy lives on! Don't laugh, but I SO joined her Myspace page, which has rare footage of Nina Mae performing!


I believe Nina would want us to get to the beauty, so here we go. Lately, my highlights have been feeling quite brassy, dull and uninspired. Stylists are always raving about color conditioners, but in all my beauty years I've never really believed the hype (slash, I've never noticed a difference from the ones I've tried). Desperate, I buckled down and tried Aveda Clove Color Conditioner ($16), which is formulated to coax out all the original shine and twinkle from faded, brunette-toned highlights. I don't know if it's the coffee extract or the organically-grown cloves that made my honey-ish streaks pop, but I don't really care--it actually WORKED! Don't get me wrong, the effect is definitely subtle...but I know the difference. Not only is my color totally regenerated, my hair feels softer than ever. And the conditioner somehow warmed up the old-dye-job brassiness that I find so unattractive. Aveda rocks.

xoxo,
Tia