l frank baum

Lena Horne died on Mother’s Day in May 2010 at the age of 92. If you are of my generation of Lena Horne fans your first encounters with the star was her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South in The Wiz, the 1978 film of the all-black version of L. Frank Baum's children's classic  The Wizard of Oz. But Ms. Horne’s breakthrough on the silver screens was decades before 1978. It began in 1943 when Horne was in the all-black production, Stormy Weather, where she performed the title song that became her signature tune.