Nat King Cole Archives - I Love Old School Music

Eartha Kitt Recalled Time Natalie Cole’s Mom Reportedly Sent Her A Nasty Letter And Why

ilosm — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 17:50:44 +0000

[top inset photo] Nat King Cole with wife Maria Cole; [bottom inset photo] their daughter, Natalie Cole [r] Eartha Kitt

If you thought our Old School celebs didn’t have their fair share of drama, think again. Our beloved ‘Cat Woman,’ Eartha Kitt, allegedly recalled a time when she got checked by the legendary Nat King Cole’s wife (Natalie Cole’s Mom), Maria Cole.

According to the biography, “Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams,” Eartha Kitt once talked about Mrs. Cole’s extreme possessiveness over her husband, when it came to other women.

Eartha and Nat had a purely platonic friendship while working together on their film, St. Louis Blues. They were portraying the characters, “Go-Go” and composer, “W.C. Handy.”

Once filming for the movie was wrapped, Nat simply showed his appreciation to Eartha by sending her some roses and a friendly thank-you note that stated “Handy misses Go-Go.” Eartha wrote a short friendly not back to thank him, which stated “Go-Go also misses Handy.”

Embed from Getty Images

When that note got into the hands of Mrs. Cole, she allegedly was not a happy camper. So she allegedly did what any woman wanting to put another woman in her place over her man, would do- she politely read Ms. Eartha like nobody’s business…LOL! Eartha Kitt said this about Maria Cole: “She [Maria] sent me a beaded cashmere sweater as a thank-you gift with a note pinned to it that must have poisoned the pen that wrote it.’

Maria Cole’s note read: “I don’t know if you think of yourself as some kind of temptress siren but the film is over and Go-Go (you) is gone, let’s leave it that way.”

As you can see, Mrs. Cole didn’t play that! It was a good thing there was no social media back then, because we probably would have been seeing plenty of celebrity women revealing their ‘inner NeNe Leakes’ attitudes back in the day. That just makes us love these Old School celebs even more though- it shows that they were real people, just like the rest of us.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

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Natalie Cole Explained Her Light Skinned Mother’s Unfortunate Complex Against Dark Skin

ilosm — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 21:26:03 +0000

Natalie Cole

The late Natalie Cole, once gave the world an honest look at her mother’s and family’s perception of dark skinned African Americans, including her dad, Nat King Cole, in her book, “Angel on My Shoulder: An Autobiography by Natalie Cole.” After reading more about Natalie’s skin complexion issues within her own family, we respect the body of work she’s graced us with…and through it all, she did it with class.

Cole On Her Mom’s Complexion Issues

Music icon, Nat King Cole (L) with son, Nat; wife, Maria Cole; and daughter/singer, Natalie Cole

Natalie said her light skin mother, Maria Cole and her family’s, colorism isolated her from other African Americans during childhood. In her autobiography, Natalie recalled growing up in Los Angeles’ exclusive Hancock Park section, where the Coles were the only Black residents.

Natalie on her Mother’s reaction to her playing with other African American children growing up:

“When I got friendly with the Black people who worked for us, MY MOTHER was appalled. She wanted us to interact with a different society-outside the house.”

Before we go any deeper into this story, it’s important to point out that this is not something Natalie’s mother and family, should SOLELY be judged for. Why? Because although they were at fault, we all know this is a far more deep rooted issue within the African American culture, that goes WAY beyond the Coles. Natalie Cole wrote this in her book, to forever shed light on a topic that plagues too many families.

Natalie Cole’s parents: Nat King Cole and Maria Cole

Natalie’s mother married a dark skinned man, Nat King Cole. You may have heard of him – the silky smooth voice of “Unforgettable,” “Nature Boy,” “Smile,” “Too Young,” “The Christmas Song” (Chestnut Roasting On An Open Fire), “Mona Lisa” and “Ramblin’ Rose” – and, in 1956, became the first Black ever to host his own network TV show, NBC’s The Nat King Cole Show. Yeah, that guy. So why would Maria Cole’s family have such a dislike for dark skin African Americans?

Natalie also claimed her mother’s family felt that her father, was too Black for them:

Natalie Cole’s mom, Maria Cole

“For a dark-skinned man such as my father to acquire a light-skinned woman such as my mother was a real important prize.Your status moved up. That doesn’t mean that her family was all that happy about her marrying my father. He was too Black for them,” wrote Natalie Cole.

Natalie’s Grandmother was very socially conscious, and according to Natalie:

“She [Natalie’s Grandmother] didn’t want my mother to get involved with anyone with too many Black characteristics, because then your children would look funny. It wasn’t just my mother, it’s the way many Black people were raised.”

While it’s easy to simply point fingers and say, ‘Natalie Cole’s momma and family are wrong for doing her like that,’ we have a bigger battle to fight- the universal ‘complexion disease.’ That type of dark skin/light skin tension is a socio-psychological sickness that is not simply just a choice. It’s also a deep brainwashing that many of us have been inflicted by in various ways, ever since it was embedded into our psyche’s, dating back to slavery. Clearly, the Coles were inflicted by it as well. However, we applaud the “Our Love” singer for her willingness to openly shed some light on such a painful topic, by sharing her through her own personal experiences with it.

May Natalie Cole; her son, Robert Yancy; and her parents- Maria and Nat King Cole, all continue to rest well.

The post Natalie Cole Explained Her Light Skinned Mother’s Unfortunate Complex Against Dark Skin appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Natalie Cole’s Sister & Niece Reunited As Shocking Family Secret Surfaced

I Love Old School Music — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 01:31:36 +0000

Natalie Cole (L); Natalie’s niece, Caroline Clarke with her mother and Natalie’s sister, Carole “Cookie” Cole

The late Natalie Cole’s sister, Carole “Cookie” Cole, who sadly passed away in 2009 from lung cancer, has a 53 year old daughter whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Carole’s daughter, Caroline Clarke, later became very successful in her own right. She’s a popular journalist for her in-laws’ company, Black Enterprise, and in 2002, she decided to search for her birth parents to find out their medical history. That’s when things got real and the Cole family secret started to unfold. Caroline wrote about this in her memoir and the details are below.

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At 37, Caroline Clarke was a successful journalist and happily married mother of two who thought she knew everything she needed to know about her life. Then she discovered her grandfather was the unforgettable Nat King Cole.

She also realized that as a teenager, she’d unsuspectingly spent a night under the luxurious roof of her grandmother’s (who was really her biological aunt) penthouse apartment at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Boston, as a guest of the daughter of the late, Nat King Cole when she was 17 years old. The girl, who was actually her biological aunt unbeknownst to both of them, was one of her best friends in college.

Clarke suddenly remembered the odd questions that Cole’s widow, Maria Cole, had asked her that night. When was her birthday? What was the name of the Manhattan hospital where she was born? Had she been adopted immediately as an infant?

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Cole had her reasons, as Clarke, now host of the syndicated TV show “Black Enterprise Business Report,” would learn in pursuing the hard-to-believe, but entirely true story she tells in “Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles and a Whole Lot of Mail.”

Clarke uncovered that on Christmas Day 1964 she had been born into Hollywood royalty, but her identity was a shameful secret that could only be kept by placing the baby in the arms of strangers. Later, she found out that her grandmother (Natalie Cole’s mother and Nat King Cole’s wife, Maria Cole), was a fierce guardian of the family’s reputation and wouldn’t risk her husband’s career being tarnished by the scandal of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

Clarke didn’t believe it when she first heard it. Black families didn’t give up their babies in that era — particularly when they had the means to support them.

The woman at Spence-Chapin Adoption Services had been supplying personal details about Clarke’s biological mother — though not her name. Clarke’s mother had told the staff stories of her life with her show-business parents, who traveled the world.

Clarke told the social workers “It sounds pretty far-fetched, don’t you think? You’re painting a picture of very serious wealth here. These are black people. In 1964. Maids, mansions, chauffeurs, prep schools, and debutante balls . . . what are the chances that this is all true?”

In fact, at the time the Coles…

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These Identical Twins Are Sisters Of THIS Female 70s/80s Soul Legend!

I Love Old School Music — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 14:25:49 +0000

These twin sisters have a few stars in their family. One of them is a very well known singer of the 70’s/80’s soul era, who is also their big sis.’ That’s about the only hint we’ll give up on this one ILOSM fam.’ See if you got this one right this time…

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Nat King Cole On His Complexion: White Media Was “Afraid Of The Dark”

I Love Old School Music — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:00:25 +0000

The trailer above is for the new Nat King Cole documentary that’s about to hit the market and it’s exposing some very harsh truths about the life of Mr. Cole that many of us probably didn’t know.

For example, I learned that Nat King Cole basically funded the massive Capitol Records building that is still in operation today. According to Nat’s colleague, singer, Tony Bennet, the profits that Capitol Records were making back then were coming mostly from the sales of the tremendous amount of hits Nat was creating for them, thus paying for the new Capitol Records building back then. Another very common topic that plagues not just the African American community, but communities all across America, is the dark skin complex. Nat King Cole was extremely popular with the Caucasian audience…they LOVED the brotha, but unfortunately he was “too dark” for him to be on their TV screens and live in their neighborhoods during that time.

Nat king Cole and family

It turns out that Nat and his family were subjected to hardcore racism in their all White neighborhood, but the same neighbors who didn’t want he, his wife, nor little Natalie Cole and her sis’ there, were the same people who had his records in their record collection. Look at the irony in that.

Another thing I learned was that when Nat, who was the FIRST Black person with a TV show, recorded his shows, he was always “made over” to look about 5 shades lighter so that the White viewers were not turned off by seeing their favorite artist’s dark skin in their living rooms on the TV screen. Wow! As Nat once put it: “Madison (Avenue) is afraid of the dark” hence the title of the documentary.

Unfortunately this is a topic that not only affected his career, but it also trickled down to his personal life. Some of you may recall the article we wrote a while back about Natalie Cole publicly revealing how her Mother and some of her Mom’s family members had a dark skin complex and felt that Nat was too dark for her Mom to marry. Check out that article here and let us know your thoughts on this one.

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Natalie Cole Explains Her Mother’s Complex Against Dark Skin

I Love Old School Music — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:31:04 +0000

The late, Natalie Cole, gave us an honest look at her Mother’s perception of dark skinned people, including her dad, Nat King Cole. After reading more about Natalie’s skin complexion issues within her own family, we respect the body of work that Natalie Cole has graced us with…through it all, she did it with class!

Natalie said her mother, Maria Cole and her family’s ways isolated her from other Blacks during childhood. Natalie recalled growing up in Los Angeles’ exclusive Hancock Park section, where the Coles were the only Black residents.

Natalie on her Mother’s reaction to her playing with other African American children growing up:
[pull_quote_center]“When I got friendly with the Black people who worked for us, MY MOTHER was appalled. She wanted us to interact with a different society-outside the house.”[/pull_quote_center]

Before we go any deeper into this story, we think it’s important to point out that this is not something that Natalie’s Mother and her family, should SOLELY be judged for, because although they are at fault, we all know this is a much more deep rooted issue within the African American culture that goes WAY beyond them. Mrs. Cole and her fam’ were simply just products of that deep rooted issue. So while it’s easy to say “they are wrong for that” and walk away, we have a much bigger battle to fight to overcome the this universal ‘complexion disease.’ This dark skin/ light skin tension is a socio-psychological sickness, not simply just a choice, and many of us have been inflicted by it in various ways, ever since it was embedded within our psyche’s dating back to slavery.

We applaud Natalie for her willingness to openly shed some light on this topic through her own personal experience with it.

Flip the page to see what else Natalie said about this.

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