Carrie Artiemissia Snowden (January 16, 1900 – September 5, 1985), known professionally as Carolynne Snowden, was an American actress, dancer, and singer who broke new ground for black people working in the entertainment industry.

Biography

Carolynne was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, to Frederick Snowden and Nellie Derrick. Early on in her career, she performed on the theater circuit, traveling the country and earning acclaim. She was singing and dancing at New York City's famous

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a 20th-century nightclub in New York City. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown Theater District until 1940. The club operated during the United States' era of P ...

by the early 1920s. By 1925, she had relocated to Los Angeles to perform at the New Cotton Club and at Club Alabam on Central Avenue; she slowly began to get small roles in Hollywood films like '' The Marriage Clause'' and ''

The Merry Widow ''The Merry Widow'' ( ) is an operetta by the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The Libretto, librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein (writer), Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's ...

''. Eventually she signed a five-year contract with

John M. Stahl John Malcolm Stahl (January 21, 1886 – January 12, 1950) was a Russian-born American film director and producer. He is best known for his films such as ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945), '' Imitation of Life'' (1934), ''The Keys of the Kingdom ...

Tiffany Pictures Tiffany Pictures, which also became Tiffany-Stahl Productions for a time, was a Hollywood motion picture studio in operation from 1921 until 1932. It is considered a Poverty Row studio, whose films had lower budgets, lesser-known stars, and overa ...

, which led to a bigger role in 1927's '' In Old Kentucky'' alongside

Stepin Fetchit Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by his stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black ...

. Carolynne left Hollywood around 1933 after her Tiffany contract was up, taking her show on the road and refocusing her efforts on singing and dancing. She died in 1985 in Los Angeles, and was survived by her husband Manfred Montagu and her daughter, Esther Smith.

Selected filmography

* '' A Day at the Races'' (1937) * ''

The Green Pastures ''The Green Pastures'' is a play written in 1929 by Marc Connelly adapted from '' Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. It ha ...

'' (1936) * ''

Strike Me Pink "Strike Me Pink" is a song by American singer-songwriter Debbie Harry, released in 1993 as the second single from her fourth solo album, ''Debravation'' (1993). The song was written by Harry, Anne Dudley and Jonathan Bernstein, and produced by Du ...

'' (1936) * ''

Murder at the Vanities ''Murder at the Vanities'' is a 1934 American pre-Code musical film with music by Victor Young. It was released by Paramount Pictures and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film stars Victor McLaglen, Carl Brisson, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle ...

'' (1934) * ''

Flying Down to Rio ''Flying Down to Rio'' is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although lead actors Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing. Among the featured pla ...

'' (1933) * ''

The Sport Parade ''The Sport Parade'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code sports film, sports drama film directed by Dudley Murphy and starring Joel McCrea, Marian Marsh, William Gargan, Robert Benchley, and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher. It was released ...

'' (1932) * ''

Honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

'' (1930) * ''

Playing Around ''Playing Around'' is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film with songs, starring Alice White, Chester Morris and William Bakewell. It was adapted from the story "Sheba", written by Viña Delmar. The film was produced and distributed by First Na ...

'' (1930) * ''

On with the Show! ''On with the Show!'' is a 1929 American sound ( All-Talking) pre-Code musical film produced by Warner Bros. Filmed in two-color Technicolor, the film became the first all-talking, all-color feature-length film, and the second color film relea ...

'' (1929) * ''

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 ''Fox Movietone Follies of 1929'', also known as ''Movietone Follies of 1929'' and ''The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929'', is an American sound ( All-Talking) Pre-Code musical film released by Fox Film Corporation. This lavishly produced ...

'' (1929) * ''

Innocents of Paris ''Innocents of Paris'' is a 1929 black and white American musical film. Directed by Richard Wallace and based on the play ''Flea Market'', the film was the first musical production by Paramount Pictures. Although the screenplay was regarded as ...

'' (1929) * ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...

'' (1929) * '' The Wedding March'' (1928) * ''Sweet Sixteen'' (1928) * '' Nameless Men'' (1928) * '' The Devil's Skipper'' (1928) * '' In Old Kentucky'' (1927) * ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous ...

'' (1927) * '' Orchids and Ermine'' (1927) * '' The Marriage Clause'' (1926) * '' The First Year'' (1926) * '' The Gilded Butterfly'' (1926) * '' The Marriage Clause'' (1926) * ''

'' (1925)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snowden, Carolynne 1900 births 1985 deaths 20th-century African-American actresses 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American singers African-American female dancers 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women singers American film actresses American musical theatre actresses African Americans in California Actresses from Oakland, California

Biography

Selected filmography

References

Further reading

External links