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Don Cornelius (creator of iconic dance program “Soul Train” that helped introduce Americans to black culture on TV) died after shooting himself in the head, officials said on Wednesday. He was 75.
“The death was reported as a suicide, a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head” – said coroner’s assistant chief Ed Winter. Cornelius was pronounced dead at 4:56 a.m., Winter said.
Police discovered the popular personality’s body at his house after responding to reports of shots fired in the wealthy, hillside area of Los Angeles called Sherman Oaks where he lived. The community is home to many celebrities and entertainment executives.
Cornelius was taken to a nearby hospital where he was officially pronounced dead, LAPD spokesman Kevin Maiberger said. He declined to give details because detectives were still at the scene investigating on Wednesday morning.
Cornelius launched “Soul Train” in the early 1970′s as a local dance show from Chicago. It relocated to Los Angeles the following year and eventually became part of pop culture history by boosting the careers of young artist breaking out, such as the Jackson Five, and older artists like James Brown that were looking to tap into a young, funky audience. As the smooth-talking host with a deep voice, Cornelius gave to hip young kids of the ’70s what American Bandstand creator Dick Clark offered to viewers in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll.
As the popularity of “Soul Train” grew, the show began to cross over into mainstream America and R&B artists soon broadened their fan base.

Don Cornelius.

The news Wednesday morning that Don Cornelius, the iconic host and founder of “Soul Train” (a.k.a. “the hippest trip in America”) had died, apparently by his own hand, at first brought shock and disbelief. Then a sustained round of going back in the day.
Before BET or MTV, before cable television or the Internet, TV’s “Soul Train” taught a generation how to dance and let black America see itself having fun. At the center stood Cornelius in all his preternatural cool.
For one hour once a week, black people were the cultural insiders. It was fine if others tuned in, but all the fashion, all the jokes, all the references were black, even if that meant the rest of America didn’t get it. Even if the rest of America didn’t know Evelyn “Champagne” King, or wear their hair fried, dyed and laid to the side, or realize that there was a dance called the “Errol Flynn.”
“Don Cornelius made a major impact on television and on so many people around the country” – said D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “?’Soul Train’ really attracted a lot of African Americans when there wasn’t much for African Americans in that regard. .?.?. It was an opportunity to see people that you otherwise were not be able to see.”
Local music great Chuck Brown remembers Cornelius as “smooth, cool, extremely intelligent.” He met him on a “Soul Train”-sponsored tour in the early ’70s but didn’t get to perform on the program until 1979, when his definitive hit “Bustin’ Loose” topped the charts.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the performance, but he was” – Brown said. “He would make sure everyone was comfortable. .?.?. [He was] a great TV presence. He was the man.”
“Soul Train” trumpeted itself as the “longest-running, first-run, nationally syndicated program in television history.” In a span that stretched from 1971 to 2006, it produced more than 1.000 syndicated episodes. (Cornelius hosted the show until 1993.)
It was appointment television with superstars such as Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, and groups not likely to be booked on “American Bandstand”: The Bar-Kays. Zapp. Atlantic Starr. Barry White and his wife, Glodine. Cool white performers such as David Bowie, Hall and Oates, and Elton John also made their way to the “Soul Train” stage.

Aretha Franklin, an early “Soul Train” performer, called him “an American treasure.”
“God bless him for the solid, good and wholesome foundation he provided for young adults worldwide” – she said, “and the unity and brotherhood he singlehandedly brought about with his most memorable creation of ‘Soul Train.’”
Donald Cortez Cornelius was born Sept. 27, 1936, in Chicago. After high school, he served as a Marine in Korea. Cornelius was working as an insurance salesman when he spent $400 on a broadcasting course and landed a part-time job in 1966 as announcer, newsman and DJ on WVON radio. That’s where listeners first heard the distinctively measured and rich Cornelius rumble.
Cornelius began moonlighting at WCIU-TV when Roy Wood, his mentor at WVON, moved there, and won a job producing and hosting “A Black’s View of the News.” When the station wanted to expand its “ethnic” programming, he pitched a black music show, and “Soul Train” was born.
“You want to do what you’re capable of doing. If I saw (Dick Clark’s) ‘American Bandstand’ and I saw dancing and I knew black kids can dance better; and I saw white artists and I knew black artists make better music; and if I saw a white host and I knew a black host could project a hipper line of speech, and I did know all these things” – then it was reasonable to try, he said.
“Soul Train,” which began in 1970, followed some of the “Bandstand” format with its audience and young dancers. But that’s where the comparisons stopped. Cornelius, the suave, ultra-cool emcee, made “Soul Train” appointment viewing.
“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.”
Debra Lee, who is chairman and chief executive of Black Entertainment Television, was one of those youngsters who tuned in to the show. She said she would finish her chores early so she could check out the latest music, fashions and dance moves.
“His reach is just amazing, and personally he was such a charming man” – she said, calling Cornelius a role model and “a great interviewer who knew how to connect to artists” and had “the best voice in the world.”
With that voice, he helped bring the best R&B, soul and later hip-hop acts to TV. It was one of the first TV shows to showcase African-American artists including Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Barry White.
“You have to dream” – Cornelius said in a 1995 interview. “I dreamed everything. I used to introduce Marvin Gaye in my living room. So when the time came that I was going to really introduce guys like Marvin Gaye and Steve Wonder, I had done it before.”