The Boss

It's Miss Ross's birthday today.

All hail!

The higher the hair...

Today's birthday girl Miss Diana Ross (born 26th March 1944)

Simone Signoret (25th March 1921 – 30th September 1985), whose centenary it was yesterday.

Fanny Ardant (born 22nd March 1949)

Aretha Franklin (25th March 1942 – 16th August 2018)

Gloria Swanson (27th March 1899 – 4th April 1983)

Kelly Le Brock (born 24th March 1960)

Pearl Bailey (29th March 1918 – 17th August 1990)

Chaka Khan (born 23rd March 1953)

Sarah Vaughan (27th March 1924 – 3rd April 1990)

It's Diva Season!

Lock-down hairdo?

With no end in sight, this is what we may all end up having to deal with.

Sparkle, Honey!

...it's Miss Ross's 75th birthday today. All hail!

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born 26th March 1944)

Unlikely conversations, #397 in a series

Groucho Marx and Diana Ross


Eleanor Roosevelt and Lucille Ball


Eartha Kitt and Marilyn Monroe


Gloria Vanderbilt, Pearl Bailey and Truman Capote


Kathleen Turner, Madonna, Martha Graham and Calvin Klein

Oh, to be a fly on the wall...

Unless you show off, you're not going to get noticed

"The great thing about rock and roll is that someone like me can be a star."

"I think performers are all show-offs anyway, especially musicians. Unless you show off, you're not going to get noticed."

Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 25th March 1947)

“Most people don’t understand performers are really sheltered and protected so much sometimes that they don’t get a chance to live their lives.”

“I can be a better me than anyone can!”

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born 26th March 1944)

What is an icon?

Miss Ross. The Boss.

"With the Supremes I made so much money so fast all I wanted to do was buy clothes and pretty things. Now I'm comfortable with money and it's comfortable with me."

"I don't think getting in and out of a limousine has anything to do with being an icon."

"Icon. What is an icon? When someone is iconic it means they have established a certain kind of legacy possibly, and I think it does come with time. I'm not really sure. But I don't think you are born an icon."

"It takes a long time to get to be a diva. I mean, you gotta work at it."

"In the end, you really just need to believe in yourself."

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born 26th March 1944)

Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci...

From the BBC website:

"There was always a ton of people outside waiting to get in - people from all walks of life," says Myra Scheer, an early fan who later became Steve Rubell's assistant.

"Most never got in, but if you caught the eye of Steve or of (doorman) Marc Benecke suddenly a path opened up.

"Beyond the velvet rope was what I used to call the Corridor of Joy. It had ornate chandeliers and everybody there was screaming with joy that they got in. You could hear the pulsating music as you walked through and then you turned left and there was this dance floor. Everybody on that floor had the energy of being a radiant star."

Among them: Margaret Trudeau, Elton John, Marisa Berenson, Diane Von Furstenburg, Debbie Harry, Vladimir Horowitz, Jerry Hall, Margaux Hemingway, Brooke Shields, Ginger Rogers, Cher, Salvador Dali, Richard Gere, Divine, Ivana Trump, Calvin Klein, Amanda Lear, Halston, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Truman Capote, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Grace Jones, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Liza Minnelli, Gloria Swanson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol and of course the ever-present Bianca Jagger...

New York's notorious Studio 54 opened its doors 35 years ago tonight.

Miss Ross

"You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself."

"I don't judge people by their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, so I find it really hard to identify someone by saying that they're a gay person or a black person or a Jewish person."

"I think a responsibility comes with notoriety, but I never think of it as power. It's more like something you hold, like grains of sand. If you keep your hand closed, you can have it and possess it, but if you open your fingers in any way, you can lose it just as quickly."

"Just because I have my standards they think I'm a bitch."

"Hair has always been important."

Diana Ross (born 26th March 1944)

More Diana Ross

She-Bop-a-Lula

She-Bop-A-Lula is a celebration of female music photography. Showcasing the work of 47 photographers, it is the first time that so many female snappers have been exhibited in London.

Read the article in The Independent



In addition to the above, also on show are marvellous shots of Kylie, Madonna, Marianne Faithfull, Dusty Springfield, Dolly Parton, Ute Lemper, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and many more of our beloved divas.

The She-Bop-a-Lula Exhibition is on at the Strand Gallery in London to 1st April 2012, and is definitely well worth a look!

http://www.shebopalula.co.uk