United States History

Diahann Carroll

Tia Moore February 19, 2013 4th Period

Actress and singer Diahann Carroll, born as Carol Diann Johnson, was born on July 17, 1935 in New York City to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk. She attended Manhattan's School of Performing Arts and worked as a nightclub singer and model before making her Broadway debut in The House of Flowers in 1954. By the time Carol was in junior high school, her family lived in a house that they owned in Harlem. Her father worked as a subway conductor at the Department of Transportation of the City of New York, and her mother devoted all of her attention to caring for her beloved daughter. Carol received abundant and strict parental attention, and she did her homework and took piano lessons faithfully. In many interviews about her childhood, Diahann recalls her parents’ support for her and that they enrolled her in singing, modeling and dancing. By time she was 15 she was modeling for Ebony Magazines. She was 6ft. and had a lean build body. After Carroll graduated, she attended New York University and majored in sociology. Carroll used of her time for voice lessons, rehearsals, modeling, and singing jobs. At the end of her first term in college, she withdrew from her classes, intending to use two years to explore the possibility that she could make a career as a singer. Although she tried to win roles in Broadway musicals, parts for black singers in the early 1950s were thin. Instead, she sang in mountain resorts in the Catskills, and she toured small towns on her own, singing in nightclubs. At 18, Carroll returned to New York City, and began to sing at the Cafe Society Downtown in Greenwich Village. She began to wear slinky gowns, to go along with the torch songs she was singing, and her glamorous wardrobe soon became a part of her stage personality. She also explored the possibility of acting, traveling to California to audition for a part in the movie Carmen Jones, an all black version of Bizet's opera Carmen. Although she didn't get the lead, she was cast in a small sidekick role. Carroll was married four times. The first time it was to record producer Monte Kay. They had a daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford. She was born September 9, 1960. When she got older she became a freelance media journalist. In 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman. Several weeks later, she filed for divorce, charging Glusman with physical abuse. In 1975, she married Robert DeLeon, a managing editor of Jet magazine. Two years later, DeLeon was killed in a car crash. Carroll's fourth and final marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, saw a legal separation in 1991. They divorced in 1996. Before they divorced, she released her autobiography, entitled Diahann. The work chronicled her career and her love life up until that point. Early in the next year after the autobiography, she wed for the fourth time, when she and Damone tied the knot in Atlantic City, while completing a joint singing engagement there. A happy Carroll declared in a Los Angeles Times’ interview, "We're having a wonderful time, off stage and on. Come to think of it,” Said Carroll, “this is probably the only time I should have gotten married.” After her last divorce, Carroll decided to cut back on her professional engagements. She limited her acting to occasional appearances on television and curtailed her nightclub dates. In April of 1992, Carroll reunited with her husband, and by November of that year, the two had made plans to perform together again. In January of 1994, she also announced that she was putting together a new act to be performed in Atlantic City, and she accepted guest spots on two television shows. In the fall of that year, she accepted her third regular television job. Also, joining the cast of the Western series Lonesome Dove. As she approached age 60, she continued to work while other women, blacks, and actors over the age of 40 found it difficult to sustain their careers. Throughout her long careers her capacity to continue working as a singer, even in times of crisis, had served her well. As Marilyn Beck commented of Carroll in The Sun-Sentinel, "Where she's been is to hell and back, to the heights and depths, since she broke into the business." Carroll herself noted to the UPI's Hollywood reporter, "I like to think I opened doors for other women, although that wasn't my original intention." Indeed, Carroll's ability to survive and preserved has made her career an example for other singers and actors. She has won many awards such as The Tony award in 1962 for No Strings, the Emmy award nomination in 1968 for Julia, Golden Globe award, "Best Newcomer on Television," in 1968 for Julia, Academy Award nomination in 1974 for Claudine, and the Emmy award nomination, "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," in 1989 for A Different World. She also has published two books called, Diahann! , Little Brown and Company in 1986.

Years later, Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer. With no family history of breast cancer, and no physical symptoms, Diahann was diagnosed with a small, non-invasive tumor in her right breast through a routine mammogram. She was shocked by the news but approached the problem with determination that one can’t help but think has helped her overcome many of the challenges she has confronted. “The initial reaction I think for many of us is almost the kind of shock that you don’t recognize because you know you have to keep up your daily routine, your behavior, and your responsibilities. You realize it, but it doesn’t allow you to make a true emotional connection with the fact that you’ve heard the words malignant cancer.” said Carroll. She survived and is still alive till this day.