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Dorothy Dandridge: Roles
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After the divorce, Denison got half of everything Dandridge owned. She ... discovered that the people who were handling her finances had swindled her out of $150,000, and that she was $139,000 in debt for back taxes. Forced to sell her Hollywood home and to place her daughter in a state mental institution in Camarillo, California, Dandridge moved into a small apartment at 8495 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood. Alone and without any acting roles or singing engagements on the horizon, Dandridge suffered a nervous breakdown.
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Frustrated by her inability to find challenging roles in feature films, Dandridge returned to live performance. During a tour, she met in Las Vegas restauranteur Jack Dennison, whom she married in 1959. Three years later Dandridge divorced him and found herself bankrupt after a series of bad investments. She tried to resurrect her failing career, but found little opportunity, making only a few television appearances. She died in her West Hollywood apartment on 8 September 1965.
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Dandridge did not receive another role until 1940, when she played a murderer in the race film Four Shall Die. All of her early parts were stereotypical African-American roles, but her singing ability and presence brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. During this period, she starred in several "soundies", video films designed to be displayed on juke boxes, including "Paper Doll" by the Mills Brothers, "Cow Cow Boogie", "Jig in the Jungle", "Mr. & Mrs. Carpenter's Rent Party."
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One of the most strikingly beautiful and charismatic stars ever to grace Hollywood, Dorothy Dandridge blazed a number of significant trails during her short but noteworthy career as the first African American actress to achieve leading-role status. Yet hers was ... a deeply troubled life, marked by the scars of a miserable childhood, a string of failed personal relationships, numerous career setbacks, and ongoing struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. Racism was also one of the demons with which she had to contend, for Dandridge came of age in an era when the entertainment world was rife with demeaning racial stereotypes.
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By 1965, Earl Mills managed to get Dandridge bookings in Tokyo, the Mocambo in New York, and the New York Basin Street East, as well as two Mexican film roles. She ... did a show in Puerto Rico, and another in New Mexico. All of the performances were sold out. Her salary for both appearances was $10,000, plus $75,000 for the two films and a $20,000 advance for her autobiography.
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Leading roles for black actors in Hollywood were very scarce so when Dorothy heard that an all black production of Carmen Jones was being planned, she knew this was the role she had dreamed of. Carmen Jones was an Americanized version of the Bizet opera with new lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. The lead character, Carmen, is a sultry vixen whose independent inclinations to love her men and then leave them lead to her violent demise.
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