Don Cornelius of Soul Train fame has died. He was 75.
Reports the New York Times:
Los Angeles Police Department officers responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 a.m. He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound about an hour later at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.
As hard as it may be for some people reading this to believe, there did exist a time when MTV was not on the air, and Soul Train was one of the first introductions many Americans had to urban culture. I remember vividly growing up in rural Louisiana and being glued to the TV set on Saturday mornings to listen to music and see dance moves that was somewhat foreign at the time to a people on the bayou — dance moves that I often attempted to mimic when my parents weren’t looking. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that the show impacted my tastes and sensibilities and, in doing so, my life. And as the suave producer and host of that show, Don Cornelius deserves to be remembered as an icon in the history of American culture. May he find the peace in death that appeared so elusive to him at the end of his life.
In an essay for Paper published in 2010, famed fashion editor Bevy Smith wrote about how she had a massive crush on Cornelius and dreamed of growing up to be a Soul Train dancer, fantasies that weren’t exclusive to her throughout Soul Train‘s run on the air.
Soul Train offered dance lessons, fashion tips and elocution training from the always articulate and debonair Don Cornelius. Don was the original MC, the epitome of a Master of Ceremonies. Don was old school even back then. A true “Cat Daddy,” he presided over the show, part of the action but always a bit aloof, looking down on his kingdom from his train-shaped podium. I remember Don breaking his ice-cold facade only once — when Mary Wilson of the Supremes convinced him to go down the Soul Train line. Don was doing just fine, swiveling his hips to the beat of James Brown’s “Gonna Have a Funky Good Time” until he attempted a split and tripped. However, in true Don Cornelius fashion, his recovery was smooth; he drifted out of the camera’s range, laughing.
Yes, I had a little crush on Don. I know, it’s a bit Lolita, but my sister had dibs on Gordon from Sesame Street… Hey, even back then, black women had slim pickings when it came to dating. Don was the man in charge and as sharp as the blade on Foxy Brown’s knife. From his powder-blue hot-pants suits and knee-high boots to his Brooks Brothers ensembles, he was an urban Beau Brummell.
The man was just the epitome of silky smooth…
