Josephine Premice…Broadway Star and Black Socialite

If your a fan of A Different World, you may remember the episode where while working for an art buyer, Whitley goes behind her bosses back and bids on an art piece. What you may not know is that the boss in the episode is played by Josephine Premice, who also guess stared on The Cosby Show and The Jeffersons.

Josephine’s career spans further than her featured roles on influential black shows as she is noted as one of the largest Calypso performers during the 40s and 50s, as well as a Broadway performer.

The Haitian born singer, actress, and dancer received a degree from Columbia University, but changed her plans to have a career in Anthropology to instead pursue her career in entertainment.

She performed in a Calypso musical Caribbean Carnival and performed in productions such as A Hand Is On The Gate and on Broadway in Jamaica, both of which lead to Tony Award nominations. In her performance in Jamaica, which also stared Lena Horne and one of my personal all time favorites Ossie Davis, her performance was quoted as being ”a razzle-dazzle lead performer who was hot flame to Horne’s cool fire”.

During one of Josephine’s performances of Jamaica, a friend of Lena Horne, Timothy Fales, the white son of a Wall Street Banker and descended of Mayflower settlers, fell for and married Josephine. The wedding was tabloid news with headlines such as”Negro Singer Married to Socialite Ship Exec“.

The couple moved to Rome for a 6 year hiatus before returning to the states where they lived in a large apartment on the Upper West Side of New York that they turned into a salon for entertainers and socialites. Despite living a posh life filled with dinner parties with Jackie Onassis and Harry Belafonte, Josephine’s time in Europe left her almost forgotten in the shadows of other stars at the time, like Diahann Carroll and her Jamaica co-star, Lena Horne.

It wasn’t until her daughter, socialite Susan Fales-Hill released her memoire, Always Wear Joy, that her Mother, the elegant but forgotten Broadway star that would primp just to go to the grocery store was honored.

In her book, Susan describes life growing up with “grand divas” and describes women like her Mother as empowering because “they had jewels, they had furs. They bought the things themselves. If a man did buy them for them, it was because the women were objects of total adulation.”

What’s most interesting to me about Josephine’s story is how although she was so glamorous, she was often yet rejected by casting agents for her dark skin and “unconventional looks”. I just started reading Always Wear Joy so I’ll be interested to read more on her struggles as a black entertainer.

There isn’t a lot of information available on Josephine, who passed away at 74 in 2001 online, so for more on Susan Fales-Hill, click here.

Also here is a clip from the A Different World episode I mentioned with Josephine.

Naomi Campbell and Stefano Pilati cover I-D Magazine

Crazy as she is, one of my all time favorite models Naomi Campbell has been in so many hot spreads lately I can’t keep up. I love this cover of her for the August issue of I-D magazine with Yves St. Laurent’s creative director, Stefano Pilati.

Last year Pilati made some “interesting” comments about his “difficulty” in putting black models on the runway due to their proportions. The comments to me makes it ironic that he is the creative director for Yves St. Laurent, who is recognized for putting women of color on the runway and even helped Naomi land her first cover of French Vogue.

(Image Source)

Yung Berg Doesn’t Like “Black Butts”….In Other News….Who Is Yung Berg?

Yung Berg, the little rapper that sounds like he repeated “Suffering Succotash” one too many times as a child has gone and pissed off a whole lotta people with this comment while appearing on the radio:

“I’m kinda racist … I don’t like dark butts …. You know how some women prefer light skin men or dark skin men. It’s rare that I do dark butts – that’s what I call dark skinned women … I [don't date women] darker than me.

I love the pool test. If you can jump in the pool exactly like you are and you don’t come out looking better than you looked before going in the pool – then that’s not a good look.

Any woman that uses brown gel to set down her baby hair is not poppin’” (Source)

Oh Berg, I would love for you to do a pool test too. The test would be to see if you can stand in the 3 foot end of a pool and not have your head underwater. Everyone is completely entitled to their own preferences in those they date. With that said, I have my own, like preferring that the men I date can say “If Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter picked” without spitting over my face like Al Pacino. Berg cannot accomplish this task.

Seriously though, although his comments are unbelievably offensive, I can’t really be mad at Yung Turd’s comments because I would never expect him to have the mental capacity to come up with an articulate way to explain his preferences aside from what I’m sure took him hours to come up with of….”I don’t like dark butts”.

UPDATE: Click here for his apology, which we all knew was coming.  Hmmm….in the words of Jay…We don’t believe you we need more people.  Twinkle toes your breaking my heart. My page has been getting crazy hits on this fool so let me know what you think about his comment.

The Skin Your In….

“My caramel brown skin represents me but also my history and those who came before me and will come after. They were all shades and beautiful. I honor, love and take pride in my skin because of them.” ~Sanaa Lathan

A 20 minute documentary narrated by Sanaa Lathan called Vaseline Skin Stories debuted this past weekend at the Essence Film Festival. The documentary features narratives of people across the World as they express how their skin relates to their lives and answers the question “what does your skin mean to you?”

This reminds me of the short documentary A Girl Like Me from a few years ago but instead takes the direction that skin “unites us”.

I thought about the Vaseline Documentary a few days ago when I came across this amazing Flickr page that highlights black history through magazines. I can’t even express how much I love looking at old images, not only because it reminds me of my Grandmother’s collection of old magazines and pictures, but because I love imagining the stories behind a simple picture. Make sure to click the link for magazine scans from issues of various magazines including Jet and Hue.

I love that the pictures are subtly sexy and truly show each woman’s beauty while remaining classy.

Fall 2008 Couture Collections

I’m a little late but still had to do a post on the Fall Couture Collections. I have always loved coutoure shows because of the details, creativity and overall inspirations that are often behind many looks from couture shows.

My favorite so far is by Christian Dior, who was inspired by Lisa Fonssagrives, who is often credited as the first supermodel.

A few looks from the Chanel Collection.

I love these looks from Christian Lacroix.

Two of my favorite looks at Elie Saab.

Lace was incorporated into a lot of shows, including Givency. And of course I had to post Sessilee and Jourdan Dunn.

Jourdan looks amazing in the Jean Paul Gaultier show.

A Few More Spreads From Vogue Italia’s All Black Issue

The all black issue of Vogue Italia “should” be available in the States on July 10th. I hope that it will not be hard to find because I have to have this issue.  I haven’t been this excited for a magazine…..since I was one of those pen pal people in Right On! Magazine in like 5th grade(don’t judge me lol).

I love Naomi’s spread but Sessilee killed it!

(Image Source)