As we mourn the recent death of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, we take the opportunity to acknowledge and remember several women singers who defined music genres and paved the way for the many other women who followed in their footsteps.
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Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, honoring composer, musician, and singer Carole King, is currently playing on Broadway. This month’s e-newsletter not only features Carole King but another musical sensation as well, Hazel Harrison. Enjoy reading about these two amazing musical women.
Mmmmm! Food! As women, we are generally connected with all aspects of food preparation. In our work, we are continuing to discover additional historical women in every field.
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Ella Brennan, a well-known, well respected New Orleans restaurant owner, nurtured celebrity
chefs, but didn’t believe it appropriate to worship them, “A restaurant is not a church, where you
have to be quiet and kneel,” she said. Brennan, whose family owned more than a dozen different
restaurants, died earlier this year. Thinking of her reminded us to share the story of two other
remarkable women in the food business: Romana Bañuelos and Ruth Fertel.
Young Jean Lee is the first Asian-American woman to have her play performed on Broadway.
This occurred in July when Straight White Men opened. Lorraine Hansberry was the first AfricanAmerican
woman author with a play on Broadway when A Raisin in the Sun opened in 1959. We
featured Lorraine Hansberry and another playwright, Clare Boothe Luce, in enewsletters during
2017, after the announcement that they would both be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of
Fame. In honor of Young Jean Lee, this month we feature playwrights Anita Loos and Wendy
Wasserstein. Let’s learn more about these remarkable women.
Author, playwright and screenwriter Anita Loos is probably best known for her novel, then
Broadway play, then movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She started as a scriptwriter in the silent
film industry in the early 1910s. Her script for The New York Hat earned her $25; it was a short
film starring Mary Pickford and featuring Lionel Barrymore in his film debut. Called by film director
D.W. Griffith “the most brilliant woman in the world,” Loos’s intertitles grace his 1916 epic movie
Intolerance.
In May of 2018, the United States Postal Service issued a Forever postage stamp featuring Sally Ride. Earlier in 2018, a Forever postage stamp had been issued featuring Lena Horne.
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