The Tragic Story Of Nina Mae McKinney, "The Black Garbo"

One look at "The Black Garbo" Nina Mae McKinney, and people saw a star. But Hollywood simply wasn't ready for her.

McKinney, The Black Garbo

Nina Mae McKinney had the face of a goddess and the fate of a Greek Tragedy. Just after she turned 16, she began grinding her way toward fame, working as a chorus girl in the Blackbirds of 1928. Although McKinney merely supported bigger names like Adelaide Hall in the revue, she always seemed destined for better things.

For a brief time, that came true. McKinney had an undeniably stunning face, leading the press to call her the "Black Clara Bow" for her It-Girl looks, and then later the "Black Garbo" after Greta Garbo's impenetrable beauty. So when legendary director King Vidor came to town looking to cast actors for his all-Black film Hallelujah!, she knew it was her shot. She acted accordingly.

Nina Mae McKinney in Hallelujah Getty Images

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Hollywood Starlet Dreams

While casting was going on, McKinney walked back and forth outside the building endlessly. Why? She was making sure she caught Vidor's attention. It worked. She eventually won the starring role in Hallelujah! and wowed audiences with her vivid screen presence and dancing. But that wasn’t all: Her success earned her a five-year contract with MGM, making her the first Black performer to do so. Only, this was really a death sentence.

At the time, miscegenation laws meant that McKinney got desperately few parts and even fewer leading vehicles. When she left MGM and began working in Europe, this improved somewhat, but only to a point. Her turn opposite Paul Robeson in Sanders of the River was a potential big break, for example, until much of it ended up on the cutting room floor.

Nina Mae McKinney: Lost Icon

At her height, McKinney was famous in Black newspapers across America as only "Nina Mae". By the 1960s, she was destitute and forgotten. In 1967, when she passed from a heart attack at the age of 54, her song went largely unsung. As her fellow dancer Fayard Nicholds put it, “She could act, sing, dance and wisecrack with the best of them, but she came along too early and there was no place for her."

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