From the estate of Lena Horne

The email asked only one question: “Did you get anything in the Doyle New York auction of Lena’s estate last week?”

Instantly, I knew who Lena was, but I was surprised to learn that items from her estate had been auctioned off. And I wasn’t there.  No, I told the emailer, but I would’ve loved to have been there to see the items and get a feel for the auction – even if I didn’t buy anything.

I wondered if the emailer had bidded on anything that I could mention in my blog. This was the answer:

“Well one thing you can report is that a little known collector in Little Rock purchased this Rococo gilt metal and glass chandelier for a jazz club slated to open later this year. Lena played for the troops during WWII at an Army base in Little Rock where she refused to perform for segregated audiences. This was my first time ever participating in any auction. I bid on five items, but this is the one I really wanted … and got!”

The chandelier was among 200 lots of costume jewelry, ephemera, furniture, china, books, clothing and artwork from Lena Horne’s home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to Doyle New York, which handled the auction. Doyle’s website mentioned that the exhibit/preview of the items drew thousands of people and the auction attracted hundreds of bidders, including celebrities and institutions.

 The items were expected to produce an estimated $99,500 to $155,000 but through onsite, phone and internet bids, the total was $315,976. The whole affair had begun a week earlier with a reception that featured such celebrities as Cecily Tyson, Geoffrey Holder, Anjelica Huston, Leslie Uggams and Ruby Dee, according to Doyle.

Horne, who had a long history – pleasant and not-so-pleasant – in Hollywood, died last year. She  was very active in the civil rights movement, and some items at the auction reflected her participation. One group of about 20 items, which sold for $4,688, included memorabilia from the movement inscribed to her. Among them was a  copy of Coretta Scott King’s “My Life with Martin Luther King.”

Like many entertainers, Horne performed for U.S. soldiers during World War II. From 1942-1945, she wooed them at military bases and veterans hospitals on the West Coast and in the South for the USO, according to the archives of the Chicago Defender newspaper.

Along the way, she battled against segregated venues. In the 2009 biography “Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne,” author James Gavin wrote that while she was on a USO Christmas-season tour in 1944, rules were lifted to allow her to sing in front of black and white soldiers.

That is, until she arrived at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, AK, around January 1945. According to the biography, she performed before an audience of white soldiers in a military theater. There was not a black soldier in the bunch. When she asked why not, she was told that they weren’t told she was coming and besides, they weren’t allowed in the theater.

The next day she had a piano set up in their mess hall and performed for them at breakfast. When German POWs were allowed in – which annoyed the black soldiers – she complained and was ignored. She stopped performing and just left. Horne told the writer of the book that she called the Hollywood USO saying she was ending the tour, and then got a ride to the local NAACP office. There, Daisy Bates, who would become president of the Arkansas NAACP in 1952 and a leader in the integration of Central High School in 1957, arranged to get her back to Los Angeles. After that experience, Horne paid her own way and performed only for black soldiers.

Here is a sampling of some of her items sold at auction. All photos from the auction are from the Doyle New York website:

Three works by Langston Hughes, inscribed by the author to Horne. Included “Simple Speaks his Mind (1950).”  $5,000.

Roxanne Assoulin and Deanna Hamro-style rhinestone jewelry. $1,625.

Charles Alston’a “Abstract,” oil on canvas. Alston’s works are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. $20,000.

Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo reversible mink coat. $8,125.

Iron-mounted softwood tansu (Japanese chest), $1,125.

Bug and figural pins, sold for $438). Ceramic pug figures (these were her best-loved dog breed), $1,250.

One of the items that struck me was a 1987 color lithograph by Jacob Lawrence titled “Schomburg Library” (short for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York). I have one of the prints hanging on my wall. Horne’s sold for $4,688.