was extremely well attended by celebrities and the
general public and was hailed by the music press
as Turner’s “comeback performance.” In England,
also in 1983, Turner recorded and released the song
“Let’s Stay Together”; it reached number six on the
United Kingdom singles chart. Later, in the United
States, it reached number twenty-six on theBillboard
Hot 100 and number three on theBillboardHot
R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks chart.
With the 1984 release of the albumPrivate Dancer,
Turner became an acknowledged international su-
perstar. The album reached number three on the
Billboard200, and a single from the album, “What’s
Love Got to Do with It,” reached number one on the
BillboardHot 100, a first for one of Turner’s record-
ings. With the best available musicians, song mate-
rial, and stage settings, Turner performed to sold-
out crowds. She won the American Music Award in
1985 for Favorite Female Vocalist and Favorite Video
Artist. Later that year, she also won a Grammy award.
In 1988, Turner was named in theGuinness Book of
World Recordsfor having the largest audience for a
single performer (in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). In 1989,
she was fifty years old and still enjoying the status of
an international superstar.
Impact Tina Turner overcame domestic violence
to serve as a role model for women of the 1980’s and
beyond. Her personal experiences, outlined in an
autobiography, gave insight into the restorative pow-
ers of determination, self-respect, religious faith,
and health-promoting practices. Turner’s on-stage
persona and style, complete with leather mini-skirts,
tangled blond hair, and high-energy sexuality, shat-
tered age stereotypes for female entertainers of the
era.
Further Reading
Carby, Hazel V.Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and
African America.New York: Verso, 1999.
Lyman, Darryl, and Michael Russel.Great African-
American Women. New York: J. David, 2005.
Turner, Tina, with Kurt Loder.I, Tina. New York:
Morrow 1986.
Twyla R. Wells
See also Adams, Bryan; African Americans; Hair-
styles; Music; Music videos; Pop music; USA for Af-
rica; Women in rock music.
Twilight Zoneaccident
The Event Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese
juvenile extras are killed filming a movie
Date July 23, 1982
Place Indian Dunes Park, near Los Angeles,
California
TheTwilight Zoneaccident raised public awareness of the
risks assumed by film actors, stunt performers, and crew
members to meet directors’ demands for realism. The ensu-
ing court case marked the first trial of a Hollywood film di-
rector for crimes related to an on-set accident.
At 2:30a.m.on July 23, 1982, the final day of shoot-
ing on the first of four planned segments ofTwilight
Zone: The Movie, actor Vic Morrow, seven-year-old
Myca Dinh Lee, and six-year-old Renee Shinn Chen
were killed when detonated explosives hit the tail ro-
tor of a low-flying helicopter. The three performers
were struck by the main rotor; Morrow and Lee
were beheaded. The actors were shooting a scene in
which Morrow’s character, an American bigot trans-
ported into the past and transformed from oppres-
sor to oppressed, had become a Vietnamese citizen
being attacked by American soldiers. His character
was rescuing two children from a bomb-besieged
village.
An inquiry by the National Transportation Safety
Board was followed by a Los Angeles County grand
jury investigation in 1983 and a preliminary hearing
in 1984. The investigations culminated with five pro-
duction crew members being charged with involun-
tary manslaughter. The most famous defendant was
director John Landis, who was also one of the movie’s
producers (with Steven Spielberg). Landis had di-
rectedThe Blues Brothers(1980) andAn American
Werewolf in London(1981) in the previous two years.
When the trial opened on July 23, 1986, prosecu-
tor Lea Purwin D’Agostino described the defen-
dants as “careless and negligent”; Landis’s attorney,
James Neal, countered by characterizing the deaths
as an “unforeseeable accident.” Over sixty-nine days,
seventy-one witnesses were called, many offering
potentially damaging testimony regarding Landis’s
conduct and demeanor on the set. When Neal called
his client to testify on February 19, 1987, Landis ad-
mitted breaking California child labor laws by hiring
Lee and Chen to work after 6:30p.m.However, he
maintained that he was never warned of any poten-
tial peril in shooting the scene. After closing argu-992 Twilight Zoneaccident The Eighties in America