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The Making of Unladylike2020
1m 47s
Director Charlotte Mangin discusses what went into making Unladylike2020.
American Masters, committed to producing comprehensive film biographies about the broad cast of characters who comprise our cultural history.
Video description: Marian Anderson was billed as a contralto, the lowest possible female voice, even though she could also sing the high notes of a soprano. "I believed that Marian Anderson was not classified as a soprano is because that would mean that she would be the love interest of a white counterpart, which was not accepted at all at the time," said opera singer Denyce Graves.
The co-directors of "Mae West: Dirty Blonde," Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi, discuss how Mae West inspired them.
The daughter of sharecropper in rural Texas, Bessie Coleman grew up picking cotton and eventually became the first African American woman aviator. Coleman became a media sensation with her daredevil performances, and was hailed as “Queen Bess” and “the world’s greatest woman flier.” Throughout her brief career, Coleman refused to perform in American airshows where audiences were segregated.
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