Donyale Luna (1945-1979) was the first black supermodel, cover girl and the first model of ethnic origin to appear on Vogue, appearing on the March 1966 issue.
Born Peggy Anne Freeman on Jan. 1, 1945, Luna was described by a relative as “a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream.” Her mother wanted her to be a nurse, but after being discovered by British fashion photographer David McCabe, Luna became the first black woman to be featured on a U.S. fashion magazine: the January 1965 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
According to her birth certificate, Luna was born to Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman, but she insisted her biological father’s last name was Luna and her mother was Mexican. Her reportedly abusive father was murdered when she was 18 and after meeting McCabe, she moved to New York City. Described as having “the tall strength and pride movement of a Masai warrior”, Luna was under exclusive contract to famed photographer Richard Avedon.
Time Magazine published “The Luna Year” in 1966 following the Vogue cover. The article revealed that Luna’s mother was against her move to New York. “She told me, ‘He’s trying to get you to New York to make a bad girl of you.’” It also detailed her toll instant success took on her: “A month after hitting New York, she married a young actor, divorced him after ten months and now will not even give his name.”
“I love New York,” she said. “But there were bad things. People were on drugs or hung up on pot. There was homosexuality and lesbianism and people who liked to hurt.”
“For reasons of racial prejudice and the economics of the fashion business,” said Avedon in the April 1975 issue of Playboy (for which Luna also posed), “I was never permitted to photograph her for publication again.” Luna then fled to Europe.
She was happier there, filling her days with work & eating and her nights with discothèques. The 6’2″ model also appeared in several movies. One critic described Luna as “pure diva, presenting a delicious mobile excess of mannerism”.
Her success, however, could not shield her from her problem with her heritage. In “Luna, Who Dreamed of Being Snow White,” Judy Stone described her as:
“secretive, mysterious, contradictory, evasive, mercurial and insistent upon her multiracial lineage — exotic, chameleon strands of Mexican, American Indian, Chinese, Irish, and, last but least escapable, Negro.”
Media interest in her racial heritage caused her enormous discomfort. When asked whether her appearances in Hollywood films would benefit the cause of black actresses, Luna replied, “If it brings about more jobs for Mexicans, Chinese, Indians, Negroes, groovy. It could be good, it could be bad. I couldn’t care less.”
During an interview in the late ’60s, Luna expressed her fondness for LSD:
“I think it’s great. I learned that I like to live, I like to make love, I really do love somebody, I love flowers, I love the sky, I like bright colors, I like animals. [LSD] also showed me unhappy things — that I was stubborn, selfish, unreasonable, mean, that I hurt other people.”
Around 1976, Luna had a daughter, Dream, with Luigi Cazzaniga, who shot her Playboy pictorial.
Her unprofessional behavior, though, signaled the end of Luna’s career. Beverly Johnson recalled that Luna “[didn't] wear shoes winter or summer. Ask her where she’s from — Mars? She went up and down the runways on her hands and knees. She didn’t show up for bookings. She didn’t have a hard time, she made it hard for herself.” In 1979, Luna died of a drug overdose in Rome.
View candid photographs of Donyale Luna and of her modeling.
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Concrete Loop will feature ‘Black History Spotlights’ each week. These features honor black people through the years and submissions are welcome.
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interesting…
Off the chain. This should be a lesson to those who want the fame. You have to have a strong head and a will to not get caught up.
Good stuff CL, good stuff.
Who would have ever known? She is really beautiful and thank you for highlighting this woman – i have never heard of her before.
…but yall with these margins again!
real sad
I had never heard of her. You hear about all the other black supermodels. She sounded like a very interesting character. That Vogue cover is FIERCE!!!
Wow she seemed special in since that she didnt want to be black.
*sigh*
someone else who hates Blackness…
You forgot to mention that the chick was bat shit crazy and hated being black. i wrote a paper about her, she was a victim of self hate and a pure hippie at heart. She had a child with some itilain dude and died young. You can’t escape being black, and she tried her best to run from her own heritage and it ended killing her.
She nevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvver claimed to be black (negro). She would in fact deny being black claiming everything else. Should she even get this honor, she didn’t want it?!
Co sing w/ #7
Can you at least show somebody who is proud to be black?
Oh wow, pretty sad ending. Thanks for the history lesson CL!
wow…that’s very very very interesting
and they always say beverly johnson was the first black model
actually in those candids she looks a lil like erykah badu…..spooky
Wow, that was interesting! I have never heard of her before thanks for the enlightening moments in history CL!
i’ve done a lot of research on her cool ass. her ass did not ever like or admit to being black. she’s a forgotten traitor. screw her.
well damn…she was truly a toubled woman…she was pretty tho
@8 i think we got that from the post
I love the fact that Concreteloop is educating it’s readers on African Americans that we have no knowledge of, it is always very interesting to read about black people that made a difference and this lady is no exception. Hats off to Concreteloop I love you guys!!!
she looks a lot like naomi campbell
————-What a pathetic woman but at the same time, i do feel some small pity for
————-her.
THANKS FOR THIS POST, HOW BOUT WE TALK ABOUT WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON…
EVERYBODY TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH OF A BREAKTHROUGH THIS WAS, WHICH IN A SENSE IT WAS, BUT WHAT DID SHE BREAKTHROUGH??? SOME WOULD SAY, THE FIRST TO RECIEVE SCRAPS FROM THE TABLE…
WHERE ARE THE CRITICS WHO WILL SAY “YEAH SHE’S ON THE COVER BUT HER HAND IS COVERING HER FACE…?”
THIS GOES BACK TO LEBRON’S COVER WITH GISELLE, THE WAY HE LOOKED ON THE COVER DIDN’T ME A DAMN THING TO ME, JUST LIKE THIS LADY, BEING THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN MAKING “HISTORY” BACK THEN MEANS VERY LITTLE TO ME NOW. WHO THE HELL IS VOGUE? WHY ALLOW THAT MAGAZINE TO SET A STANDARD? COME ON FOLKS ARE WE AWAKE???
Go figure the first on there would be self-hating. People with self-hate I feel sorry for. Sad they can not accept themselves.
My auntie who is 66 told me there this girl from the Cabrini Greens projects in Chicago that made it big time as a model and was on the cover of a magazine, I wonder if this her, especially since this woman was ashamed of who she was. If so that would be great.
And Black people you can’t completely blame self hating Black people who don’t like being Black because many of us was born and bred to hate ourselves in various degrees. Yall know how Black folks treat each other and we should be trying our best to be kind to one enough so our little girls and boys won’t end up like Miss Luna.
So what if she didn’t claim ALL her ethnicities, it was her choice. Maybe she felt she needed to in order to get where she got and OBVIOUSLY back then… that was the most possible case. I’m happy CL is educating ppl about our history. Black, non-black and in btwn lol… we all tie together!
I really think if she was living in today’s society she wouldn’t be saying that..
what a beautiful background!! Mexican, American Indian, Chinese, Irish, and, black or how she states “negro”
America’s Next Top Model contestants should take notes cause this woman could model her ass off!!! click on the link under the article and check out her pics…………………….they are fierce!!
It feels good to learn something new everyday. But I don’t consider this a BLACK HISTORY moment when the person that is honored does not accept their heritage. Black history moments should be about people that are proud of their heritage and made some type of influence on where we are today. But it was still cool to know of her.
What a gorgeous piece. Never knew about her. Its shows you how things were for people of color, and not too long ago and that, based on opportunities that were available at that time for us, it must have been certainly a love/hate relationship with who you were. You didn’t want to be black, or not black enough. What a wonderful, terrible experience.
You cant say this woman is a tratior for not enthused about being black. She was born in a time where being black was a disease. im sure a lot of black people in those times had phsycolgical issues because of the ways they treated us in those times, it must of even been worse in the fashion world. I mean im sure she was out in the 60′s the height of segrgation. Its sad they never mention her, ive never seen her name in any place. I always thought beverly was the first black supermodel, but Donyale was on the cover of VOGUE in the 60′s? thats crazy. thanx concrete.
WOW! From the prospective of a 15 year old multiethnic girl how can she think that she would have looked like that if she wasn’t black. False claiming other ethnicities is ignorant and should be frowned upon. Black is the dominant race, that’s how she got her beautiful features.
As for her bring a breakthrough model, well I, myself never heard of her but from what I’ve read she seems like she wasn’t credited widely enough for being “The First” because she didn’t accept herself as African American, so who would?
apples_poptarts@yahoo.com
being*
——I don’t give a damn about Vogue…they set no standards for me personally, so, it’s nice I guess.
——Tragic ending…too many people get caught up in the fast life..and die fast..
GOES BACK TO LEBRON’S COVER WITH GISELLE, THE WAY HE LOOKED ON THE COVER DIDN’T ME A DAMN THING TO ME, JUST LIKE THIS LADY, BEING THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN MAKING “HISTORY” BACK THEN MEANS VERY LITTLE TO ME NOW. WHO THE HELL IS VOGUE? WHY ALLOW THAT MAGAZINE TO SET A STANDARD? COME ON FOLKS ARE WE AWAKE???
—————————————————————–
————-Thank you. Well said. I admit that i could only see bits of that thread but
————-i think only 3 posters mentioned this in the other vogue thread.
Tahnks J. for letting more know of her and for responding to my email requesting a feature on her for the website!!
This is a tragic story. It’s unfortunate that she wasn’t strong enough to handle being black during that era. Still she wasn’t by herself.
she does look like erykah badu in some of those pics
I READ ABOUT HER YEARS AGO…..SHE WAS SO BREATHTAKING….A WONDERFUL LIFE CUT SHORT!!!
i had never heard of her either until i saw the vogue cover and her name on someone’s thread on another blog site that i frequent, and wanted to know more, so i emailed J. and he was nice enough to reply and saying he would post something on her. I thought her life was so tragic, a shame she couldn’t feel comfortable in her own skin and had to take the route of drugs, she had a powerful look, too bad she didn’t reap the full benefits of her beauty, but during the 60′s black models were very limited to do the climate of the day, but Europe did embrace ethnic beauties she should have stayed focused.
Wow. Really interesting, and she was beautiful.
Very captivating woman… funny how I never heard of her. She was modeling in the 60′s when racism was crazy and the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak and she was captivating audiences wherever she went. Self- hatred or not, this is certainly worth learning… everyone has flaws and insecurities.
I agree with 8, 23 and 35.
Perhaps she wasn’t strong enough to take Blackness. We can not transplant historic subjects and fragmentedly critic them based upon our contemporary standards. Its clear that Luna was suffering from the post and current racial and gendered traumas that Baldwin, Morrison and others so eloquently speak to.
CL, thank you for posting this and thank you for the person who alerted CL about the Luna story. This has much to do with my research. I can not thank you all enough.
We should reclaim Luna’s status as the first Black model!
I also did a feature on her on my blog, she was amazingly beautiful. Check my blog for a recent post on the first black movie star.
NOT A GOOD MORNING STARTER STORY AT ALL! HOME GIRL? WAS A MESS AND SOME ON HERSE TALK AS IF BLACK PEOPLE ARE “TREATED” MUCH BETTER THAN WE WERE BACK IN THE 60s WRONG! I SEE SOOOO MANY SISTERS TRYING TO KILL THEMSELVES TO FIT IN THE WHITE MANS TINY LIL BOX TO SEEK EXCEPTANCE,TO EXPLAIN AWAY WHY WE “ACT”THE WAY WE DO,HOW MUCH THEY AREN’T LIKE THEM OTHER BLACK PEOPLE, HOW THEY KEEP THEIR KIDS OUT THE SUN SO THEY WON’T GET TOO BLACK. IT’S HORRIBLE!WILLIE LYNCH AT WORK ON THE DAILY!STILL I RISE BLACK=BEAUTY
I find it ironic that even during 60s and 70s when segregation existed there were still more black models in high fashion magazines then than there are now.
I immediately saw Erykah Badu when I looked at her face especially in the candids.
I personally don’t consider a black person on a Vogue cover an accomplishment b/c as a black person Vogue is pretty much irrelevent to me and my culture. I also think it’s a little ridiculous to shine a black history spotlight on someone who did not want to be seen as black. If being black wasn’t good enough for her in life, then why should it be in death?
All that said thanks for making her story known because she definately lead an exotic, complicated and tragic life. It would definately make a great movie. It has Oscar written all over it if done right.
¥HERE! _____________________________AND ANOTHER THING IT’S SAD THAT SO MANY OF OUR PEOPLE SPOT LIGHTED NOT A ONE OF THEM LIVED PAST THEIR 30′S! GOD BLESS THEIR SOULS! LONG LIVE THE BLACK MAN AND WOMAN! GOOD DAY TO ALL!
go ms luna girl….wow beverly johnson is old if she knew this broad….
i’ve heard of her. there was no evidence that she was even mixed with all of those other races. of course she has something in her as most african-americans do, but she keeps claiming other races when there is no evidence that she was mixed with them. her birth certificate states something and she states something else. plus she was known for being crazy. i think she just didn’t want to be black and i also think she had a mental problem. i don’t think she should be featured but whatever
oh yeah i have to add that she only dates white men, put on blond wigs with blue contacts sometimes too. clearly she had identity issues
BACK ON MY SOAP BOX…
th”at said thanks for making her story known because she definately lead an exotic, complicated and tragic life. It would definately make a great movie. It has Oscar written all over it if done right.”
(BECAUSE THE MARGINS IS ALL MESSED UP I CAN’T GET YOUR FULL NAME, BUT THIS A REALITY. HER STORY TURNED MOVIE IS WHAT I’M TALKIN ABOUT. WHY PLACE IT ON A PEDASTOOL LIKE HER LIFE IS TO BE REVEARED? VOGUE COULD HAVE EASILY PUT CORRETTA SCOTT KING ON THAT COVER BACK THEN OR WILMA RUDOLPH OR ALTHEA GIBSON, THEY WEE MAKING DIFFERENCES. BUT VOGUE DOES WHAT IT WANTS TO DO IRREGAURDLESS!
IT’S TO MANY BLACK WOMEN WHO MADE “REAL” STRIDES IN HISTORY TO PASS UP TO LET THIS WOMAN GET SOME EXTRA SHINE.
(STEPS OFF OF SOAP BOX)
Interesting…this would make a great feature film if done correctly.
very strange… omg. omg. i do not no what to say. I am so shocked i am bewildered.
see what acid does?? itll kill u… damn. i kinda glad and i dont no if anyone can agree but im kinda glad i wasn ot born during those turbulent times… acid, lsd, all those narcotic type, like hypie drugs… the biggest drug during my youthhood was is like estacy, marijuana, i guess alcholo,,, my mom i like why dont u hang with ur friends u have no friends!! im like lol. if only u knew… id prob be strung out.
This is sad. But the true reality is that she isn’t the 1st Black Supermodel because she didn’t claim to be Black. So, its like she wrote herself out history because she didn’t claim her race to be BLACK. It’ unfortunate though, because she was very EXOTIC. I would not say she was naturally beautiful, because I just don’t see it. But, I will definitely say EXOCTIC. Also, most models aren’t naturally beautiful. But, you do have ones that are…ie: Beverly Johnson, Imani, Garcelle, Tyra, Eva (ANTM), and the list goes on…
sad that she didn’t want to embrace her OBVIOUS african heritage, she was a beautiful woman, but from what i’m reading she seemed like she was bipolar or something..i wanna see what her daughter looks like
i agree that she does look a lot like erykah badu, especially with that short hair s style. i actually had a cousin (she passed away a couple of years ago) who
hated being black and denied her heritage completely too.
she considered herself puerto rican – this in spite of the
fact that both her parents are black-and
emersed herself in their culture to the point of changing her name and
teaching herself to speak spanish fluently. sadder still is that she had a
bunch of children who she taught to think the same way (none of their fathers
are black, of course). i never knew there was anyone else out there
who thought or acted that way. i wonder where her daughter is.
This was very interesting.
Check out my blog for additional information on Donyale as well as a post on the first black actress! I’m glad to see conreteloop spotlighting her, I did on my blog during black history month.
@51: This would make a great movie. Who do you think could play Donyale?
Thank you Angel! I never knew this person ever existed! Her life needs to be made into a movie! What tragic success!
Scurv