Nina Mae McKinney

McKinney was born June 12, 1912, in Lancaster, South Carolina to Georgia Crawford and Hal Napoleon McKinney.[3][4] Shortly after McKinney's birth, her mother often hid from her abusive husband in the house of Colonel Leroy Springs (of Springs Industries), for whom she worked as a domestic.

By 1920, Crawford relocated to Savannah, Georgia, working as a cook for Mrs. Cynthia Withers, her daughter Irene, and other white lodgers. McKinney stayed behind in Gay Street in Lancaster Gills Creek neighborhood with her 70-year old paternal grandmother, Mary A. McKinney. Her father, Hal, supported the family financially, as a delivery man for a local drugstore. In the meantime her mother, Georgia, had married James Edwin Maynor and migrated north to New York. Eight-year-old McKinney, followed them shortly afterward, but was sent back down south to stay with her Uncle Curtis and his family in Gills Creek when her father went to prison. In 1923, Hal escaped from his chain gang and was never recaptured.

From 1920 to 1922, McKinney was shifted from relative to relative. After the death of her grandmother, she was sent to her great-aunt Carrie Sanders, who also worked as a maid and a cook for Colonel and Mrs. Leroy Springs, and she lived with her in a small dwelling at the rear of the Springs' home.

In 1923, McKinney went to live with Col. Springs as a live-in domestic. Her duties included delivering and collecting parcels from the local post office. To entertain herself as she made the trips, she did stunts on her bicycle.[5] She began acting in small scale school productions at the Lancaster Training School.[2]

Around 1925, 13-year old McKinney relocated to Manhattan to stay with her mother and stepfather. She attended public school in 126 Lower Manhattan. By the summer of 1927, she had given up school completely.[5]

In November 1931, McKinney married jazz musician James "Jimmy" Monroe.[6] They divorced in 1938.[7]

In mid-1927, McKinney began dancing and singing around Harlem speakeasies. She became close to Bessie Smith's pianist, Porter Grainger, who wrote two songs for her, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" and "The Band'll Play (Who'd A-Thought It?)", which she recorded ( but were never released) at Brunswick Studios, 7th Avenue. In April 1928, McKinney, under the name Alice Clinton, with pianist J. C. Johnson, recorded two Blues songs with Gennett Records, "Do What You Did Last Night" and "There's Been Some Changes Made".

In January 1928, Lew Leslie's Blackbirds Revue played at Les Ambassadeurs Club. McKinney probably joined after her 16th birthday as a chorus girl in the Blackbirds Beauties under the name Nina Mae McKinney.The show itself was renamed Blackbirds of 1928 and moved to the Liberty Theatre, where it ran for a successful 518 performances,[5] starring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Adelaide Hall.

In October 1928, King Vidor arrived in New York searching for actors for his upcoming all-Black talking picture, "Hallelujah!". Actor Daniel L. Haynes and dancer Honey Brown, from Club Highland, were to be the stars. During casting sessions in Harlem, McKinney walked back and forth in front of the building to gain the attention of King Vidor. He said, "Nina Mae McKinney was third from the right in the chorus. She was beautiful and talented and glowing with personality."[5] In Hollywood[8] she first had just a minor role in the film.[9]

McKinney did not follow the Blackbirds show to Boston but travelled to Memphis with her mother to join the cast of Hallelujah beginning filming: exterior shots filmed in Tennessee and Arkansas, interior shots in Culver City, California, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

Honey Brown was injured, and in December, McKinney replaced her as the new star of the film. McKinney and 39-year old Daniel Haynes performed in local establishments such as the Mayfair Club and Hotel Somerville. She recorded two numbers from the film, "Swanee Shuffle" and also "If You Want My Love, You Gotta Do More Than That" (cut from the film and never released).

On March 20, 1929, McKinney, Daniel Haynes and Victoria Spivey appeared on Radio-KHJ at 9 pm. She performed songs from Blackbirds, "I Must Have That Man" and "Diga Diga Doo".

On May 20, 1929, 17-year old McKinney was engaged to James Marshall, director of Harlem's Lafayette Theatre, and signed a five-year contract with MGM, the first African American performer to do so.[10]

McKinney returned to New York and was working as a domestic for Col. Leroy Springs, in New York, caring for his ailing wife. McKinney appeared at the Embassy Theatre on August 20 for the premiere of "Hallelujah!", which was an immense success. McKinney was the first African American actress to hold a principal role in a mainstream film; and it had an African American cast.[11] Vidor was nominated for a directing Oscar and McKinney was praised for her role. Vidor told audiences "Nina was full of life, full of expression, and just a joy to work with. Someone like her inspires a director."[8]

The following day, McKinney wed James Marshall. But she returned to California in September, moving into the Hotel Dunbar and traveling daily to Culver City to film, "The Bugle Sounds", "Manhattan Serenade" and "They Learned About Women". Few Hollywood movies had mixed race casts, and it was difficult for African Americans to find enough work in the creative side of the film industry. There were very few roles a woman of color could play. Hollywood was reluctant to make McKinney into a glamorized icon like the white actresses of the time, despite her beauty; film production codes prohibited suggestions of miscegenation, so filming interracial romance was impossible.[12]

McKinney continued to perform live, such as at the Club Apex and Club Montmartre. She had affairs with actress Pepi Lederer and with Jagatjit Singh, Maharajah of Kapurthala.

On December 30, 1929, she starred for a week at the cabaret revue Harlem Scandals at the Lincoln Theatre, performing her signature number, "I Must Have That Man" (from Blackbirds), then was replaced by Carolynn Snowden.

By late-January 1930, McKinney had grown tired of MGM. She had begun failing to appear for promotional appearances, especially if her name was not in lights above the marquee. That spring, her new manager, Al Munro, sports writer of The Chicago Whip, arranged a tour of the Mid-West for her. She was to appear in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. In late-March, she left for Chicago to appear in a vaudeville show, Circus at the 35th Regiment Armory. The following month, she moved on to the Metropolitan Theatre for two weeks. During this engagement, on April 9, McKinney appeared on two of Reverend A.W. Nix's Black Diamond Train to Hell sermons (Part 5 and 6), which was recorded at the Brunswick Recording Library. Horrible reviews followed McKinney, declaring her a money-hungry, star struck girl who had grown to despise her own race. McKinney claimed to have filed a libel suit during 1930 against a white reporter, Elisabeth Goldbeck, who stated that McKinney had "repudiated her race" in an article that composed for the Motion Picture Classic magazine.[13]

Returning to Los Angeles on June 4, McKinney and her mother moved back into the Dunbar Hotel, where throughout the summer, she performed at series of private parties and mingled with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Also during this time, she married 23-year old NBA Middleweight boxer named, William "Gorilla" Landon Jones, who bought McKinney a $6,000 Lincoln Convertible Coupe as wedding present. This marriage was short-lived. From September to November 1930, there is no account of McKinney, even as her mother roamed around Los Angeles searching for her daughter. She surfaced in Crown Point, Indiana on October 23, to marry Douglas S. Daniels, another short-lived marriage that ended on November 20.

Because of the prevalence of racism in the American entertainment industry, many African American actors and actresses worked in Europe, where they found more professional opportunities, throughout the 1920s–1930s.[5] On December 5, McKinney boarded the SS Bremen, sailing from New York to Cherbourg, France. After eight days at sea, while disembarking from the ship, she had a sudden spell of sea-sickness and in the excitement she dropped her purse containing $200 in the sea. Her new manager, William Morris Jr. failed to meet her at the port, but luckily a French gentleman paid her train fare and escorted her to Paris. For the next four months, McKinney and the cast of Hallelujah embarked on a European tour to promote their successful film. On December 13, a stage revue Allelujah! opened at the Theatre Les Miracles, where it remained for the next three weeks with immense success. After performing all afternoon at the Theatre Les Miracles, she spent evenings singing at the Monseigneur Club on 94, rue d'Amsterdam.

The first two weeks of January 1931, the revue appeared in Cannes and Monte Carlo. On January 16, the revue opened at Berlin's Kabarett Der Komiker, where it appeared until later February. On February 23, the arrived in Belgrade for a weeks appearance at the Corso Theatre. The Hallelujah revue returned to France, early March, where it remained until March 11th, when the troupe boarded the SS Lafayette back to the United States.

Throughout the spring of 1931, McKinney performed in theatres around Harlem, Astoria and Brooklyn. By May, she was broadcasting from Connie's Inn. In June 1931, she returned to films as a supporting actress in Safe in Hell, directed by William A. Wellman. McKinney played a hotel proprietor, Leonie, who befriends a New Orleans party girl (occasional prostitute) on the run.[8]

That fall, McKinney returned to New York to appear in Ronald Firbank's stage play, Prancing Nigger. However, due to the mass disapproval of the African American community, she turned down the role and the play never materialized. On November 25, she escaped to Portsmouth, Virginia with her latest lover, 24-year old musician, James Norman Monroe, and married him. Monroe was her fourth husband. Like her previous husbands, many considered Jimmy Monroe to be an extremely bad influence, even going as far as introducing her to drugs.

McKinney opened 1932 as the headliner of the Dear Old Southland revue, which ran for a week at the Lafayette Theatre beginning on January 16. The following month, she and Jimmy Monroe left for a tour of the East Coast and Mid-West, appearing in New Jersey, Ohio and Washington DC for the next five months. In-between touring, she filmed two shorts with Vitaphone, Pie, Pie Blackbird (with the Nicholas Brothers and Noble Sissle's Orchestra) and Passing the Buck.

Returning to New York in July, McKinney immediately entered rehearsals for Max Rudnick's production, Folies Bergere at the Liberty Theatre. After a brief run in Brooklyn, the revue opened early September at the Sam H. Harris Theatre. Shortly afterwards, she moved over to the 44th Street Theatre, where she appeared in the Broadway production of, Ballyhoo of 1932, performing "Love, Nuts and Noodles". Opening September 6, she remained with the revue for the next three months. Beginning October 4, she also began doubling at the brand new Hollywood Restaurant, headlining in a floorshow revue, Hollywood Revels of 1933.

After performing for an evening at the Harlem Opera House, on November 28, Mr. and Mrs. Monroe and the pianist Garland Wilson sailed to Europe arriving on the French coast in early December. On December 8, McKinney opened in Paris at Chez Florence, where she played throughout the month. Afterhours, she doubled at the La Habanera Cabaret. Also at some point during this engagement, McKinney recorded two songs, "Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day" and "Rhapsody In Love" with French Brunswick Records. In January 1933, McKinney returned to the Theatre Les Miracles to broadcast on Radio-Poste Parisien and later appeared at Le Pigall's nightclub before departing for a nightclub engagement in Cannes.

The following month, she flew north to London for a four-month's engagement in the revue, "Chocolate & Cream" at the Leicester Square Theatre, which opened February 13. McKinney was an immense success amongst the British public. A week after the opening, on February 17, she participated on John Logie Baird's experimental television at the BBC's Broadcasting House in London, performing a song-and-dance routine from her revue at the Leicester Square Theatre, making her the first Black woman to ever appear on television. By March 7, she was also doubling at London's Ciro's Restaurant.

While still going strong at the Leicester Square Theatre, on April 4, McKinney began appearing over at the Trocadero Cabaret as the star of Charles B. Cochran's revue, Revels In Rhythm. Cochran also brought in a film crew to film the cabaret spectacle, to be shown in newsreels across Britain. Soon however, the director/impresario found his popular headliner becoming extremely moody and temperamental. She began failing to appear at the cabaret and even randomly demanding large sums of money. She had grown extremely dependent on drugs and alcohol to cope with her extremely grueling work schedule and with Jimmy Monroe's affairs with his new English mistress. It's even evident in the filmed version of Revels In Rhythm that she is unwell when breaks into a coughing fit in the middle of her dance routine. During the summer of 1933, she began appearing frequently on BBC Radio and making appearances at Holborn Empire, Hackney Empire and Shepherd's Bush Theatre.

After Chocolate & Cream closed in late-June, McKinney and Garland departed for a three-month regional tour. On July 25, she was briefly hospitalized with the mumps. Two months later, on September 26, five minutes before her appearance at Cardiff's New Theatre, she collapsed in her dressing room. Carried to her car by her manager, Stanley C. Mills, she was taken to the Royal Infirmary, where it was declared to the press that she was suffering from dysentery.

On November 21, McKinney arrived at Croydon Airport for a flight back to Paris, to care for her ailing husband, who was recuperating from an unknown illness at their Parisian apartment. Eight days later, on November 30, she began a month's engagement at Chez Florence.

In January 1934, Garland Wilson and McKinney departed for a tour of the Cote d'Azur, beginning in the city of Nice. This marked the beginning of a successful five month European tour. The following month, the partnership enjoyed a success filled month in Prague. On March 2, she arrived in Budapest, appearing at the Parisian Grill-Bar for another month. She arrived in Athens, Greece to open on April 7 at the Femina Cinema, where she was billed as the Black Garbo[2][5] (prior to this, she had been referred to only as the Black Clara Bow). As her Greek engagement ended around May 6 and preparing to sail for Egypt, McKinney received a telegram that her mother was unwell at home in America. The Egyptian engagement was cancelled and she flew back to London. For some reason, she never returned to America to check upon her mother.

Instead, on July 15, McKinney opened at London's Alhambra Theatre, where she remained for the next two weeks. In the meantime, she also appeared in Kentucky Minstrels (released in the United States as Life is Real.), her first British film, alongside Scott & Whaley and Debroy Somer's Orchestra.[8] She also sang the popular song "Dinah" during Music Hall, a radio broadcast show.

During summer 1934, alongside Paul Robeson, McKinney began filming, Zoltan and Alexander Korda's Bosambo (later known as Sanders of the River) at the Denham Film Studios near London. The film, which was partly set in Africa, would portray African culture positively, which Robeson had made a condition of his participation in the project. McKinney and Robeson later discovered the film was re-edited without their knowledge, and that their roles in the film had been significantly downgraded.[14][8] During the filming, she carried on an brief affair with Robeson to cope with her adulterous husband.

McKinney resumed working at the Alhambra in October. During this time, her usual moody attitude returned. After being invited to a private reception, hosted by the royal family, she arrived extremely late and stayed barely fifteen minutes before departing. She moved over to the Chiswick Empire the following month. During this time, she and Robeson were in rehearsals to appear in a stage production, Stevedore, which appears never to have opened. In the meantime, her affair with Robeson had ended and she had turned her attentions to Ananias Berry, husband to Valaida Snow, who was visiting England with Blackbirds of 1934. After two successful years abroad, on December 18, she returned to America aboard the SS Île de France, arriving on Christmas Day.

Shortly after returning, McKinney and Jimmy Monroe flew to Los Angeles, moving into the Clark Hotel. Although her contract with MGM had expired in 1933, she returned to Hollywood in January 1935 to appear in her final film with them, "Reckless", alongside Jean Harlow. She even managed to get Jimmy Monroe a small part in the film. Unfortunately, MGM cut out almost all of her scenes. Furious, she returned to New York in late-March, for the premiere of Sanders of the Riveron April 4. She announced that she would never film in Hollywood again, nor would she ever accept maid roles.

On May 26, McKinney opened at Harlem's Lafayette Theatre as the star of Somerset Maugham's "Rain", a stage play set on a Pacific island: a missionary's determination to reform a prostitute leads to tragedy. In late-June, she began rehearsals for a new floorshow at the famous Cotton Club, where she remained for the next seven months.

On July 5, for a week, McKinney appeared for a week at the Apollo Theater, alongside Gladys Bentley, Earl Snakehips Tucker and Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. She finally opened at the Cotton Club on July 18, for the 26th edition Cotton Club Parade of 1935 alongside Butterbeans & Susie, Miller & Mantan and the Claude Hopkins Orchestra. In-between performing at the Cotton Club, she also found the time to appear in the short film, "The Black Network" once again alongside the Nicholas Brothers.

In February 1936, McKinney left New York for a brief tour of Texas with the Blue Rhythm Show. Returning to Harlem the following month, after a brief hospitalization, she sailed back to Europe aboard the SS Caledonia, arriving just in time open at Glasgow's Royal Theatre on March 30. Instead of Garland Wilson, she was now accompanied by the pianist team, Rudy Smith and Kirby Walker. For the next ten months, she busied herself with a hectic British tour with four shows a day. That summer, she was set to appear once again alongside Paul Robeson in his latest film, Song Of Freedom. However, due to her temperamental behavior, she was promptly replaced by Elisabeth Welsh. In October 1936, McKinney and Jimmy Monroe began contemplating on filing for British citizenship, at the same time, the couple were preparing to adopt a young Afro-British girl, whom McKinney had named, Brenda Mae.

The bliss of finally having a family of her own in her new adopted country ended in early-November, when while performing at Dublin's Royal Theatre, she collapsed onstage. After convalescing for a few days at the Duchess Nursing Home, McKinney returned home to discover Jimmy Monroe had fled to Paris with his English girlfriend. He had drained $10,000 from their bank account and opened a nightclub, Au Harlem Cabaret on 58, rue de Notre Dame de Lorette with Freddy Taylor's Orchestra.

After completing her British tour, McKinney returned to London on February 16 to open at the Paramount Theatre. Upon returning from her tour, she had replaced Rudy Smith with the Jamaican pianist, Yorke de Souza. Around this time, she announced her engagement with Jackie Evans (member of the Four Bobs) and began preparations for her latest film, Unannounced, created especially for her by independent producer, William Newman. Filming never began, nor did her wedding with Jackie Evans.

On February 27, McKinney appeared at Alexandra Palace alongside African American dancer, Johnny Nit, in the BBC's televised revue, "Ebony", where she performed the Blues number, "Poppa Tree Top Tall". Over the next three months, she returned on the road for another hectic British tour. By May, she announced her plans to depart for a brief South American tour, which never materialized. On June 5, with her troupe, she returned to Alexandra Palace to appear on the televised revue, "Dark Laughter", where she appeared alongside the Jamaican trumpet player Leslie Thompson.

Having burned bridges with nearly every British theatrical agent and exhausted by non-stop tours across Britain, on July 23, McKinney and her troupe boarded the SS Mooltan to Australia with a six-month contract. After a month at sea, and passing through Morocco, Egypt, India and Ceylon, she disembarked at Fremantle on August 24. From there she traveled to Melbourne, where she opened on September 7 at the Tivoli Theatre in her latest revue, Hello Harlem!. After a successful month onstage and a brief radio appearance, the revue departed for Sydney's Tivoli Theatre, opening on October 14 for another month. On November 3, McKinney collapsed onstage and she recovered at St. Luke's Hospital and her residence at the King's Lynn Apartments. On November 29, her New Zealand appearance at Auckland's Her Majesty's Theatre was cancelled.

For the next three months, McKinney lived quietly in Sydney at her new residence at the Mount Stewart Flats with an Australian woman with whom she had been carrying on an affair. The only media coverage was a small debt she had to settle with the owner of the King's Lynn Apartments.

Jack Carter-Nina Mae McKinney in The Devil's Daughter (1939)

On February 17, 1938, McKinney boarded the SS Niagara back to the United States with a contract to appear in Ralph Cooper's film, The Duke Is Tops. However, by the time she arrived on March 12, filming had already begun and she had been replaced by Lena Horne. McKinney was still asked to appear in Los Angeles on April 1, to sign with Million Dollar Productions. Afterwards, while finalizing her divorce from Jimmy Monroe (who was still in Paris with a new nightclub), she vacationed for the next six months with her parents in Harlem.

On September 3, McKinney arrived in Los Angeles to begin filming, Gang Smashers. After filming was completed in early-October, she traveled south to Ensenada, Mexico with fellow actor Joel Fluellen, where the two hastily married. However, within weeks, Joel quickly denied any knowledge of the marriage, declaring it was simply publicity for the upcoming film. McKinney promptly left for engagements in Chicago and Pittsburgh before returning to her Seventh Avenue apartment in Harlem.

On February 23, McKinney returned to the Apollo Theatre, once more appearing in a production of Somerset Maugham's "Rain" with Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra. The following month, she left for the Howard Theatre in Washington D.C. In the spring, she returned to Los Angeles to film, "Straight to Heaven", another Million Dollar Productions picture. From August 17 to 29, with other actors employed by Million Dollar Productions, she traveled to Jamaica to film Pocomania (later The Devil's Daughter). While sailing back to the United States, World War II broke out. If she had any plans of returning to Europe, those plans were immediately squashed.

On September 19, in Newark, McKinney married 20-year old Apollo Theatre errand boy, Robert "Charleston" Montgomery (making him husband number six). After the wedding, she signed a two-year contract with the William Morris Agency and went back on the road. The marriage was already announced to have fallen apart by November.

In November 1939, McKinney took over Pancho Digg's 13-piece orchestra and left for a two-month tour of the South and Mid-West. Beginning on December 28, Nina Mae McKinney and her orchestra traversed across South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana in a series of one-nighters. On January 7, 1940, while traveling from Jacksonville (Jimmy Monroe's hometown) to New Orleans, she was attacked by a white shop owner. Abandoning the orchestra at the end of January, she returned north in March to fulfill an engagements in Massachusetts, Indiana and New York with Tommy Tucker's Orchestra. That summer she was back in Harlem organizing for a new orchestra, which never materialized. Instead, on October 14, she opened at the West End Theatre in her latest revue, "The Queen of Harlem" with Edgar Hayes Orchestra and 36 chorus girls. The revue ran for a week before closing.

On January 20, 1941, Irvin C. Miller's Tan Manhattan opened for two weeks at Washington D.C.'s Howard Theatre, featuring McKinney as one of its headliners. The revue was supposed to go to Broadway the following month at the Shubert Theatre, but this fell through. The revue moved over to Harlem's Apollo. In order to give 4 performances per day, the show is reduced to 90 minutes instead of the original 2 hours and 30 minutes. Critics were still concerned, saying that even as it assembles so many talents, the show lacks vigor, story and scenario.

For the last week of February, McKinney remained at the Apollo in the next revue, "Up Harlem Way" which also featured 25-year old singer, Billie Holiday, who was Jimmy Monroe's latest girlfriend. Reportedly, McKinney's frequent habit was to terrorize Billie's mother, Sadie Fagan on the phone. Monroe hastily scared McKinney out of town, who went on tour that summer of the Mid-West with the Tan Town Topics revue.

That fall, as Jimmy and Billie married and relocated to California, McKinney returned to the East Coast to join the cast of The Good Neighbor, a play that toured Connecticut, Maryland and New York. In the meantime, she had quietly become engaged to a slick, ladies-man named Melvin Woolfork.

The years 1942–1944 were extremely slow for McKinney. Most of that year was spent in small nightclubs around Harlem, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Baltimore. At some point during this period, she finally married her 7th husband, Melvin Woolfork.

Destitute and desperate, McKinney returned to Hollywood in July 1944 appearing alongside Merle Oberon, playing a servant girl in the film Dark Waters,[8] and Irene Dunne in Together Again as a nightclub attendant. That fall, she was also cast to appear in The Power of the Whistler. She took roles in some smaller films, having to accept stereotypical roles of maids.

By 1945, McKinney found employment entertaining in nightclubs around San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. In the spring of 1946, McKinney left with Saunders King's Orchestra and the Hollywood Cavalcade Revue for tour of the South before she left for a solo engagement at Washington D.C.'s Club Bali. From 1947 to 1948, she disappeared for over two years. There's no mention of her whereabouts except for her appearance in the film, Danger Street.

On January 23, 1949, McKinney was back in New York performing at the Audubon Theatre. Two months later, on March 8, shortly after having been cast in the film, "Pinky", her step-father, James Maynor died. On March 22, she arrived in Los Angeles, promptly moving into the Watkins Hotel. A few days later, she was interviewed by the press and discussed her plans to return to France once filming was over. For the remainder of March, she filmed her few scenes in Pinky, before returning to New York to visit her mother. On April 17, she returned to Hollywood with her new husband, Frank B. Mickey (musician and engineer) and an uncredited role in her final film, Copper Canyon (1950). The couple remained in California, residing at 122 1-2 West 53rd Street until mid-May, when they returned to New York.

On September 5, McKinney was in Indianapolis in the Stars On Parade revue at the Walker Casino alongside, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong and her former rival, Billie Holiday. A few weeks later, as Pinky was being released, she sued Ebony magazine for $70,000 before retiring from the stage altogether and living quietly in her Harlem apartment. In the summer of 1950, McKinney announced that she was pregnant for the first time. However, no baby ever arrived.

On April 4, 1951, McKinney and Frank Mickey finally received a marriage license. Most likely, the couple weren't legally married until 1951, as she was probably still married to Woolfork. Five months later, on August 8, she revived the stage production of, Rain for a week at the Apollo Theatre. The show then spent two weeks on the road in Brooklyn and Washington D.C. The producers hoped that the show would take an extended tour across the United States, but instead the show closed at the end of August and she returned to semi-retirement in Harlem.

In February 1953, McKinney decided to a make a comeback, spending over $1, 000 on new gowns for Manhattan Paul's revue at Smalls Paradise. Her accompanist was former Count Basie guitarist Jimmy McLin. Two months later, the duo traveled down to Delair, New Jersey for an engagement at the New Town Tavern. That winter, she reunited with her former husband, Melvin Woolfork, who had she opened a Las Vegas nightclub called, Mel's Inn. Together the couple flew to London, where she began preparing for her return to Europe. Back in Los Angeles by Christmas week of 1953, she was seen in and out of various agencies searching for film and television work.

By February 1954, no longer accompanied by McLin, McKinney had learned to perform the guitar herself and was preparing leave the United States again for a USO tour of Japan. Afterwards, from 1954 to 1959, she disappeared from America completely. Her husband, was reported in American newspapers, as making frequent trips to Monaco and the Far East (possibly to visit McKinney, who was rumored to have resettled in Greece). She remains unmentioned until July 1960, after she checked into a Harlem hospital for an unknown illness.