Lunch Break Video: Enjoying some of the late, great Lena Horne who was born 94 years ago today

They don’t have stars like Lena Horne anymore.

Her great beauty and immense talent could not be denied even though she was never featured in a leading role of an MGM musical because of her race and the fact that films featuring her had to be re-edited for showing in states where theaters could not show films with black performers.

She appeared in Stormy Weather, Ziegfeld Follies, Cabin in the Sky, Words and Music and Till the Clouds Roll By before growing disenchanted with Hollywood and focusing on her nightclub and recording career. She returned to film in glorious fashion as Glinda the Good Witch in the 1978 musical The Wiz.

She went on to become a smash on Broadway with her one-woman show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. The first video is her signature tune Stormy Weather and the second is her appearance on the 1981 Tony Awards where she performed her later anthem If You Believe.