Nina Mae McKinney

Nina Mae McKinney (June 12, 1912 – May 3, 1967) was an American actress and singer who worked internationally during the 1930s and in the postwar period in theatre, film and television, after beginning her career on Broadway and in Hollywood. Dubbed "The Black Garbo" in Europe because of her striking beauty, McKinney was both one of the first African-American film stars in the United States and one of the first African-Americans to appear on British television.

Life and career

Early life McKinney was born June 12, 1912, in Lancaster, South Carolina, to Georgia Crawford and Hal Napoleon McKinney. Shortly after McKinney's birth, her mother often hid from her abusive husband in the house of Colonel Leroy Springs (of Springs Industries), for whom she worked as a domestic.

By 1920, Crawford relocated to Savannah, Georgia, to work as a cook for Cynthia Withers, her daughter Irene, and other white lodgers. McKinney stayed behind on Gay Street in the Gills Creek neighborhood with her 70-year old paternal grandmother, Mary A. McKinney. Hal supported the family financially as a delivery man for a local drugstore. Meanwhile, Georgia had married James Edwin Maynor and migrated north to New York. Eight-year-old McKinney followed them shortly afterward, but was sent back down south to stay with her Uncle Curtis and his family in Gills Creek when her father went to prison. In 1923, Hal escaped from his chain gang and was never recaptured.

In 1923, McKinney went to live with Colonel Springs as a live-in domestic. Her duties included delivering and collecting parcels from the local post office. To entertain herself as she made the trips, she did stunts on her bicycle. She began acting in small scale school productions at the Lancaster Training School. They divorced in 1938.

Early career (1927–1929) In January 1928, Lew Leslie's Blackbirds Revue played at Les Ambassadeurs Club. McKinney probably joined after her 16th birthday as a chorus girl in the Blackbirds Beauties under the name Nina Mae McKinney. The show itself was renamed Blackbirds of 1928 and moved to the Liberty Theatre, where it ran for 518 successful performances, she first had just a minor role in the film.

On March 20, 1929, McKinney, Haynes and Victoria Spivey appeared on Radio-KHJ. She performed songs from Blackbirds: "I Must Have That Man" and "Diga Diga Doo".

On May 20, 1929, McKinney was engaged to James Marshall, director of Harlem's Lafayette Theatre, and signed a five-year contract with MGM, the first African American performer to do so.

McKinney returned to New York and worked as a domestic for Springs again, who was caring for his ailing wife. McKinney appeared at the Embassy Theatre on August 20 for the premiere of Hallelujah!, which was an immense success. McKinney was the first African-American actress to hold a principal role in a mainstream film, which had an African American cast. Vidor was nominated for a directing Oscar and McKinney was praised for her role. Vidor told audiences "Nina was full of life, full of expression, and just a joy to work with. Someone like her inspires a director."

Europe (1930–1938) By late-January 1930, McKinney had grown tired of MGM. She had begun failing to appear for promotional appearances, especially if her name was not in lights above the marquee. That spring, her new manager, Al Munro, sports writer of The Chicago Whip, arranged a tour of the Midwest for her. She was to appear in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. In late March, she left for Chicago to appear in a vaudeville show, Circus at the 35th Regiment Armory. The following month, she moved on to the Metropolitan Theatre for two weeks. During this tour, on April 9, McKinney appeared on two of Reverend A.W. Nix's Black Diamond Train to Hell sermons (Part 5 and 6), which was recorded at the Brunswick Recording Library. Horrible reviews followed McKinney, declaring her a money-hungry, star struck girl who had grown to despise her own race. McKinney claimed to have filed a libel suit during 1930 against a white reporter, Elisabeth Goldbeck, who stated that McKinney had "repudiated her race" in an article that composed for the Motion Picture Classic magazine.

In January 1934, jazz pianist Garland Wilson and McKinney departed for a tour of the Cote d'Azur, beginning in Nice, France, which ended up being a successful five-month project. The partnership enjoyed a success-filled month in Prague immediately afterwards. On March 2, she arrived in Budapest and appeared at the Parisian Grill-Bar for another month. She arrived in Athens, Greece, to open on April 7 at the Femina Cinema, where she was billed as the Black Garbo

Her funeral was at the Little Church Around the Corner.

The film historian Donald Bogle discusses McKinney in his book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, And Bucks—An Interpretive History Of Blacks In American Films (1992). He recognized her for inspiring other actresses and passing on her techniques to them. He wrote "her final contribution to the movies now lay in those she influenced."

Broadway credits

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1929 Hallelujah! Chick 1929 Manhattan Serenade Herself Short subject 1930 They Learned About Women Specialty singer Uncredited 1931 Safe in Hell Leonie, the hotel manager 1932 Pie, Pie Blackbird Miss Nina with the Nicholas Brothers, Eubie Blake, and Noble Sissle. 1932 Passing the Buck 1934 Kentucky Minstrels Herself with Debroy Somers and his band 1935 Sanders of the River Lilongo, African chief's wifewith Paul Robeson. 1935 Reckless Specialty singer 1936 The Lonely Trail Dancer Uncredited 1936 Broadway Brevities: The Black Network Herself Short subject 1938 Gang Smashers Laura Jackson, cabaret singer 1938 On Velvet Herself Short subject 1939 The Devil's Daughter Isabelle Walton 1939 Straight to Heaven Ida Williams 1940 Swanee Showboat Herself Short subject 1944 Dark Waters Florella 1944 Together Again Maid in nightclub powder room Uncredited 1945 The Power of the Whistler Flotilda, Constantina's maid Uncredited 1946 Mantan Messes Up Nina 1946 Night Train to Memphis Maid 1947 Danger Street Veronica 1949 Pinky Rozelia, jealous girlfriend 1950 Copper Canyon Theresa Uncredited 1954 Mistica Minga Uncredited