Kyle C. Barker
Migos VERZUZ Mahalia Jackson
I thought this thread was about Dona Drake… now she was definitely passing. I only just discovered her recently:
You just sent me down a rabbit hole
Two black parents but cacs couldn't tell back then
Dona Drake: At What Price Fame?
When Drake was signed with Paramount in 1941, the studio wrote her official biography to share with the press. It said Drake was born in Mexico City, Mexico, the daughter of Jose and Enocia Novella, who were in the restaurant business. It also said she was of Mexican, Irish, and French parentage. This is all lovely, but it is also 100% bullshyt. Actors are known to fudge here and there about their backgrounds, but Drake took it to new heights. However, she lied about her background in hopes of having a Hollywood career that amounted to more than playing maids, cooks, or other household domestics. As it turned out, Drake was not from Mexico at all. She wasn't even Latin, even though she went as far as to learn Spanish fluently. She was born Eunice Westmoreland in Jacksonville, Florida, to JOSEPH and NOVELLA WESTMORELAND, a black couple. Yes, that's right, Drake had pulled off the most remarkable case of "passing" since glamorous movie star MERLE OBERON claimed she was born in Tasmania, Australia, and that her birth records were destroyed in a fire, and then passed her dark-skinned Sri Lanka-born mother off as her maid to keep the secret of her heritage from her adoring public. Sadly, that's just what you had to do in those days to have any hopes of a meaningful career in Hollywood. However, I still wonder what it must have been like for Mr. and Mrs. Westmoreland to act as if Drake was not their daughter, to be excluded from film premieres, and to keep their daughter's secret for her to have a career. Now that is parental love!
