Don Cornelius, who with the creation of Soul Train helped break down racial barriers and broaden the reach of black culture with funky music, groovy dance steps and cutting edge style, died early Wednesday of an apparent suicide. He was 75.
Officers responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 a.m., police said. He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
"I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague and business partner Don Cornelius," said Quincy Jones. "Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV, there was Soul Train -- that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched. My heart goes out to Don's family and loved ones."
The Rev. Al Sharpton said he was shocked and grief-stricken.
"I have known him since I was 19 years old and James Brown had me speak on Soul Train," Sharpton said in a statement from New York. "He brought soul music and dance to the world in a way that it had never been shown and he was a cultural game changer on a global level."
Soul Train began in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV as a local program and aired nationally from 1971 to 2006.
It introduced television audiences to such legendary artists as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Barry White and brought the best R&B, soul and later hip-hop acts to TV and had teenagers dance to them. It was one of the first shows to showcase African Americans prominently, although the dance group was racially mixed. Cornelius was the first host and executive producer.
"There was not programming that targeted any particular ethnicity," he said in 2006, then added: "I'm trying to use euphemisms here, trying to avoid saying there was no television for black folks, which they knew was for them."
Soul Train, with its trademark opening of an animated chugging train, was not, however, an immediate success for Cornelius, an ex-disc jockey with a baritone rumble and cool manner.
Only a handful of stations initially were receptive.
"When we rolled it out, there were only eight takers," he recalled in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "Which was somewhere between a little disappointing and a whole lot disappointing."
The reasons he heard? "There was just, 'We don't want it. We pass,' " he said, with race going unmentioned. "No one was blatant enough to say that."
Audience reaction and the high-powered talent the show attracted helped it spread. Over the years, Soul Train showcased some of R&B's biggest stars, including Gaye and Brown, as well as crossover white artists. In later years, it featured rap stars, although Cornelius acknowledged that he was no fan of the genre or the racier dance moves that younger teens had embraced.
The show's highlight was a dance line. Teens strutted and pranced their way between two lines of dancers awaiting their turn to show off. Over time, the dance line worked its way into American culture and is now an integral part of wedding receptions and parties.
Cornelius, who was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, said in 2006 he remained grateful to the musicians who made Soul Train the destination for the best and latest in black music.
"I figured as long as the music stayed hot and important and good, that there would always be a reason for Soul Train," Cornelius said.
The series spawned a franchise that includes the Soul Train Music Awards, the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards and the Soul Train Christmas Starfest.
Cornelius stepped down as Soul Train host in 1993. The awards returned to the air in 2009 after two-year hiatus. Last year's awards were held on Nov. 27 in Atlanta, with Earth Wind & Fire receiving the "Legend Award."
In his later years, Cornelius had a troubled marriage. In 2009, he was sentenced to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor spousal battery. In his divorce case that year, he also mentioned having significant health issues.
Cornelius conducted viewers on the "hippest trip in America" from more than two decades on Soul Train starting in 1970, and in the process shined a light on R&B stars that mostly performed in the shadows of the mainstream. At the same time, he invited the nation to multicultural, cross-generational dance party that was broadcasted into living rooms every Saturday morning.
With his smooth, resonate baritone, Cornelius introduced hundreds stars including Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, James Brown, Jerry Butler, Marvin Gaye, the O'Jays and Barry White to TV audience, while overseeing a colorful menagerie of partiers who influenced dance and fashion. It opened a window to African-American culture that had gotten scant media exposure until then.
"Back then there was no targeted television and I just had the sense that television shouldn't be that way," told USA TODAY in a rare interview in 2010 when the show's 40th anniversary was being celebrated by a VH1 documentary. "The primary mission of the show was to provide TV exposure for people who would not get it otherwise. People who didn't get invited to The Mike Douglas Show, or Carson. There was no ethnic television, just general market television which meant mostly white people."
Cornelius developed his brainchild while working as a journalist and DJ in Chicago. It started in 1970 as daily, after school dance show on WCIU-TV and it was supported by such local acts as Butler, Curtis Mayfield and the Chi-Lites. The show was sponsored by Johnson Products, makers of Afro Sheen and other hair products, and with owner George Johnson's help, Cornelius was able to move production to Los Angeles for the weekly syndicated show that premiered in 1971. Stations skeptical of an unproven, new show were won over by the fact that Knight agreed to do the pilot. Other artists were quick to jump on board.
Cornelius, would host the show until 1993. The Train stayed on the tracks for another 13 years with assorted hosts. By the time he sold it to MadVision Entertainment in 2008, he had created an empire that included the Soul Train Music Awards and the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. In his later years, Cornelius had a troubled marriage. In 2009, he was sentenced to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor spousal battery. In his divorce case that year, he also mentioned having significant health issues.
The show, the longest-running, first-run, nationally syndicated program in television history, was rife with iconic elements. There was the Soul Train line in which pairs of dancers popped creative dance moves and flashed outrageous fashions on their way down facing lines of eager who egged them on while rhythmically sliding in the opposite direction for their turn at the top of the line. The Scrabble Board gave two dancers 60 seconds to unscramble the name of a notable African-American entertainer or historical figure.
The dancers became stars in their own right and created moves such as locking, roboting and waacking (later known as voguing) that would be replicated at clubs and parties around the world. Singer Jody Watley, who along with dance partner Jeffrey Daniels became part of the hit making trio Shalamar before she launched her Grammy-winning solo career. Daniels, whose "backslide" influenced Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Rosie Perez (Pineapple Express) and Fred "Rerun" Berry (What's Happening) were others who got their starts on the show.
When it was time to go, the host always reassured viewers with his signature sign off, "and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!"
