Thirty years after its release, I finally caught Diana Ross’ camp classic, Mahogany (newly released on DVD) – as expected, it was major.
Ross stars as Tracy, a department store secretary from the rough side of Chicago who has a flair for eastern-themed fashion. She acquires a politician boyfriend Brian (a huge mustached Billy Dee Williams), and soon must choose between her frivolous career or walking with her man.
Of course, Tracy’s career ascends once she meets an Andy Warhol - esque photographer and future nemesis Sean McAvoy (the glacial Anthony Perkins) and jets off to Rome sans Brian to become the iconic model “Mahogany.”
On many levels Mahogany made me feel a little despondent about black film today - in the thirty years since its release, there has never been anything else like it. Although it’s practically the movie that killed Diana’s movie career (along with her aged portrayal of Dorothy in The Wiz) there really hasn’t been a movie about a stylish black girl who wins at any cost since this film.
Throughout the film, Tracy overcomes all kinds of obstacles to achieve her goals, - her grimy ghetto neighborhood, the perceptions of class in her relationship with Brian, and touchy Caucasian benefactors who really just want her wet mahogany center - it seems she overcomes by sheer perseverance and sex appeal, which ironically is how Ross’ own career jetted forward.
Considering the popularity of supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks today, it’s amazing they didn’t exist in 1975 when this film was released; it’s almost prophetic that a black woman was able to star in a role that at the time didn’t exist in reality. From her exotic outfits, to her larger than life screen persona, Diana Ross and Berry Gordy created a world in Mahogany that only a few black women have inhabited in reality or on celluloid.
If Mahogany were re-made today, who would you choose to portray designer/model Tracy/Mahogany?
Tags: Mahogany
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