Chris Rock’s “Good Hair” Is Back: My 40 Second Hollywood Debut

Invitation to 2009 DC Screening of Chris Rock’s “Good Hair”

Chris Rock’s comedy doc, “Good Hair”–and my 40 second Hollywood debut–are back on HBO for a summer run from July 12 through August 19.

Check out the  trailer and the schedule for HBO West, East and Latino on July 12, 17 and 27 and August 9, 14, 16 and 19

In 2008, I was invited to sit down with Rock at HBO’s New York headquarters to talk about my great-great-grandmother, Madam C. J. Walker, an early twentieth century pioneer of the modern hair care and cosmetics industries.
 
      During my hour long interview we covered everything from the history of black women and hair to the dwindling number of black-owned hair care manufacturers. In the movie, though, you’ll see that all my carefully accumulated expertise ended up being condensed into two 20 second soundbites. But, hey, as a long time producer myself, I’m just glad I didn’t end up on (more…)

Woodlawn Cemetery–Burial Place of Madam Walker–Designated National Historic Landmark

Burial site of Madam C. J. Walker and A’Lelia Walker at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx

June 30, 2011:  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that The Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx–where entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker and her Harlem Renaissance arts patron daughter, A’Lelia Walker, are buried–has been designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest recognition accorded to the nation’s most historically significant properties.

There are two other National Historic Landmarks associated with the legacy of the Walker women: The Madam Walker Theatre Center, a cultural arts organization in Indianapolis, and Villa Lewaro, the home Madam Walker built in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York in 1918. Villa Lewaro was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Walker Theatre was added to the National Register in 1991.

Madam Walker died on May 25, 1919 at Villa Lewaro, where her funeral was held on May 30. Among the pallbearers were New York Age publisher Fred Moore, composer J. Rosamond Johnson, and Alpha Phi Alpha founder Vertner Tandy, Villa Lewaro’s architect.

Pallbearers for Madam Walker’s 1919 Funeral (Madam Walker Family Archives/www.aleliabundles.com)

A’Lelia Walker,who held a private ceremony for her mother at Woodlawn on June 3, 1919, was herself buried there in August 1931. (more…)

Lyric Tenor Roland Hayes’s January 1924 Chicago Concert

Roland Hayes 1924 Chicago Concert (Madam Walker Family Archives of A'Lelia Bundles/www.aleliabundles.com)

I learned to read music on a Chickering baby grand piano that had belonged to my great-grandmother, A’Lelia Walker, but it really was my mother, A’Lelia Mae Perry Bundles, and my grandmother, Mae Walker Perry, who had musical talent. As the only legally adopted daughter of A’Lelia Walker and granddaughter of entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, Mae had been afforded many privileges, including harp lessons and enrollment at Spelman College.

Several years ago, I discovered this  program from lyric tenor Roland Hayes’s January 15, 1924 program at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall among Mae’s personal belongings. It now is part of  my Madam Walker/A’Lelia Walker Family Archives. At the time of the concert, Mae recently had moved to Chicago. Like others in the city’s black community, she had looked forward to hearing Hayes sing selections–including Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” black British composer (more…)

A’Lelia Walker’s Sterling Silver Flask

A'Lelia Walker's Sterling Silver Flask (from the Madam Walker/A'Lelia Walker Family Archives of A'Lelia Bundles www.aleliabundles.com)

Now that I’m into the serious writing phase of my new biography of A’Lelia Walker (1885-1931), my great-grandmother and the only daughter of entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker, I’ll be posting more stories about the discoveries I’ve been making.

I’m truly fortunate to have inherited a trove of letters, clothes, furniture and other personal items that belonged to the Walker women. Among them is this flask.

A’Lelia Walker rarely missed a Howard-Lincoln football game between 1918 and 1931. This rivalry –as legendary among African Americans as the Harvard-Yale competition was to Ivy Leaguers–brought thousands of alumni and friends together each Thanksgiving Day, alternating between Philadelphia (the closest big city to Lincoln’s rural Pennsylvania campus) and Washington, DC. (more…)