Celebrating Black History Month: Ethel Waters, first African-American lead in a television show

Ethel Waters, born October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania, was the first African-American to star as the lead in television series.  She appeared in Beulah from 1950-1951, when she quit.  She played a housekeeper/cook for the Henderson family.  The show ran for three seasons and Hattie McDaniel stepped in but appeared in only six episodes before she had to quit due to health reasons.  

She was the second African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first African-American to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.  Three of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  

She passed away in 1977.

Celebrating Pride Month: Der Eigene, world's first homosexual magazine, published 1896

Der Eigene, the world's first homosexual magazine, was first published by Adolf Brand in Berlin, Germany from 1896 to 1932.  I looked for a translation of  'eigene' and found several: 'Of  one's own', 'The Unique', 'The Self-Owners' and 'The Exceptional'.

Volume 6 of the periodical contain some  of the earliest material of gay life in San Francisco.

In 1933, with Adolf Hitler in power, the publisher was raided by Nazi forces and all its assets and materials needed to publish were seized. 




https://sfpl.org/?pg=2000135101

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Eigene

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the 20th century's greatest writers

F. Scott Fitzgerald, born this day in 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota, is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby, which did not receive critical acclaim until after his death in December 1940.  Widely regarded as one the greatest American writers of the 20^th century, he wrote only five novels, but the fifth, The Love of the Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. 

When The Great Gatsby was published in April 1925, it received mixed reviews and sold only 20,000 copies in the first year.  He supplemented his income by writing short stories to magazines and sold stories and novels to Hollywood studios, ‘whoring’ as he called it.

He died of a heart attack in Hollywood after attending a movie premiere the night before.  Fitzgerald is buried in the family plot at St. Mary’s Church in Rockville, Maryland.