#ada bricktop smith

[travsd]

A Bucketful of Bricktop

Born of an August 14, the great Jazz Age figure known as Bricktop (Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, 1894-1984). Bricktop was a queer woman of color. Two colors, not just black but also red. Her rusty hair and freckles were commonly attributed to some Irish ancestry. At any rate, it gave her that memorable nickname and it’s a fortunate thing. A black singer named Ada Smith might…

[makingqueerhistory]

Originally named Ada Smith, she would go by the name Bricktop for most of her life. A woman who was the center of the night scene in Paris during the ’20s, Bricktop was a talented woman in her own right and fostered the talent of the people around her. Making connections with some of the most incredible rising stars of her day. Although she was a force of nature who created one of the most well-known meeting places for artists and socialites at the time, she often gets left out of discussions about the lost generation.

Support Making Queer History on Patreon

Send in a One-Time Donation

[lboogie1906]

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (“Bricktop”) (August 14, 1894 - January 31, 1984) vaudevillian actress, singer, nightclub owner, and international celebrity host, was born in Alderson, West Virginia to Thomas and Hattie Thompson Smith. She began performing at the age of five, playing Harry in Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Haymarket Theater in Chicago. She earned a permanent chorus role at the Pekin Theatre. A truancy officer tracked her down and she was forced to quit performing and return to school.

She began touring with the Theater Owners’ Booking Association and Pantages Vaudeville circuits. She appeared alongside vaudevillian entertainers. She earned the nickname “Bricktop”. She performed in a wide variety of locations including Chicago, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York. Baron’s Exclusive Club in Harlem became one of her regular venues, she convinced the owner to hire Elmer Snowden’s Washingtonian’s band, which included an undiscovered Duke Ellington.

She performed in Paris at the Le Grand Duc nightclub. She began hosting and entertaining at charity events and parties for celebrities, where she befriended influential artists such as the authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck, and the composer and musician Cole Porter. Porter wrote a song for her titled, “Miss Otis Regrets She’s Unable to Lunch Today.” She became involved with the Paris nightclub scene, regularly performing at The Music Box and Le Grand Duc.

She opened her nightclub called Chez Bricktop’s. The club regularly featured high-profile guests and performers. Known for smoking her signature cigars, became known in Paris as the “doyenne of café society.”

She married New Orleans musician Peter Conge (1929) she moved her nightclub to 66 Rue Pigalle. She separated from her husband, but they never divorced. She made radio broadcasts for the French government. She attempted unsuccessfully to recreate her nightclub enterprise in New York.

She opened and closed nightclubs in Mexico City, Paris, and Rome but none were as successful as her original Paris nightclub. She recorded her first and only song, “So Long Baby” with jazz artist Cy Coleman. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[theart2rock]

Vor 40 Jahren - Februar 1984

Ich möchte mir vornehmen, jeden Monat 40 Jahre zurückschauen und einen kurzen Rückblick zu machen. Dabei auch einmal über den Tellerrand der Rockmusik zu schauen. Events - 08. Februar - Die Olympischen Winterspiele werden in Sarajevo eröffnet. - 14. Februar - Elton John heiratet Renate Blauel - 14. Februar - Joe Perry und Brad Whitford besuchen ein Aerosmith Konzert und kehre zur Band zurück, was etwas später im Jahr zur Reunion Tour "Back In The Saddle" führt. - 16. Feburar - Jerry Lee Lewis stellt sich den Behörden wegen Steuerhinterziehung und wird später freigesprochen. - 18. Februar - Rom verliert den Titel "Heilige Stadt" - 26. Februar - Spitting Image wird in England zum ersten Mal ausgestrahlt und wird zur Erfolgsserie. - 28. Februar - Nachdem er sich von den einen Monat zuvor erlittenen Kopfhautverbrennungen erholt hat, gewinnt Michael Jackson bei der 26. jährlichen Grammy-Verleihung acht von zwölf nominierten Preisen und bricht damit den Rekord für die meisten Grammys in einem einzigen Jahr. Er gewinnt sieben für das Album Thriller (einschließlich Album des Jahres und Platte des Jahres für "Beat It") und einen für seine Arbeit am Hörbuch für den Film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. - 28. Februar - Police gewinnt mit Every Breath You Take den Grammy für den besten Song des Jahres. Culture Club wird zum besten Newcomer gewählt. - 29. Februar - Die deutsche Band KMFDM wird gegründet. Wichtige Veröffentlichungen - Sparkle in The Rain - Simple Minds - Out Of The Cellar - Ratt - Into The Gap - Thompson Twins - Keep Moving - Madness - The Smiths - The Smiths - N.E.W.S. - Golden Earring - Metal Queen - Lee Aaron - Wings Of Tomorrow - Europe - Human Racing - Nik Kershaw - The Works - Queen - Ammonia Avenue - The Alan Parsons Project - Animal Grace - April Wine - Declaration - The Alarm - The Great Pretender - Dolly Parton - Hail To England - Manowar - It's My Life - Talk Talk - Parting Should Be Painless - Roger Daltrey Schweizer Hitparade Platz 1 Single Charts - Jenseits von Eden - Nino de Angelo Schweizer Hitparade Platz 1 Album Charts - No Parlez - Paul Young - ? (Fragezeichen) - Nena Schweizer Interpreten in den CH-Charts - I'm In Love With My Typewriter - Bo Katzman Gang US Billboard Single Charts - Karma Chameleon - Culture Club - Jump - Van Halen US Billboard Album Charts - Thriller - Michael Jackson UK Single Charts - Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood UK Album Charts - Touch - Eurythmics - Sparkle In The Rain - Simple Minds - Into The Gap - Thompson Twins Happy Birthday - 09. Februar - Han Cheng (Super Junior) - 20. Februar - Audra Mae - 23. Februar - Grieves - 25 Februar - Lovefoxxx (CSS) - 26. Februar - Natalia Lafourcade Farewell - 01. Februar - Ada "Bricktop" Smith - 18. Februar - Paul Gardiner Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel

[blackqueernotables]

Ada "Bricktop" Smith: Cabaret performer, vaudevillian actress, and Parisian saloon owner. 

[milkandheavysugar]

Ada “Bricktop” Smith (1894-1984) was the owner of the iconic Chez Bricktop nightclub in Paris

Excerpt from Maya Angelou’s autobiography,��“Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas”:

The club had thick carpets and heavy chandeliers, and the waiters dressed as handsomely as the customers. Bricktop was a Negro woman away from the United States thirty years, and still her Southern accent was unmistakable. I was even more amazed when she told me she wasn’t Southern at all, but had come from Chicago. When she finally came to my table, she asked me where I was from. I said, “San Francisco.” “How do you feel being so far from home?” I said, “There is no place God is not.” Her face crinkled in a little girl-grin, “Oh, you’re going to be my baby. Did you know I’ve converted to Catholicism?” I said I hadn’t heard. She leaned across the table, her eyes sparkling. “I have friends who ask me why. They found out I go to Mass every day and they’re shocked. I say, ‘Look for thirty years you found me running in and out of bars every day and you never tried to stop me and it didn’t shock you. Why do you want to stop me now?” She sat back in the chair and smiled smugly. “Don’t you reckon that stopped them?” I looked around the room at some famous American and European faces, and the line of people waiting inside the doorway for a table. I didn’t doubt that Brickie had the keys necessary to open the Eternal City. 

[classicladiesofcolor]

Performer Ada “Bricktop” Smith (DuConge) photographed in Paris (1934)

[yourdailyqueer]

Ada "Bricktop" Smith (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 14 August 1894  

RIP: 1 February 1984

Ethnicity: Irish, African American

Occupation: Dancer, jazz singer, club owner, actress

Note: She has been called "...one of the most legendary and enduring figures of twentieth-century American cultural history."

[blueiight]

I think the one louis relationship that kinda stands out is miss bricktop cause at first he literally is just her pimp but eventually she's like his lawyer/accountant/business co-owner??? Like I really think in his upper class edwardian mind he rationalized his business like he could do that for all his girls like turn them into accountants or sm

ur so right yea granted bricktop is very roughly based off a real historical figure ada bricktop smith [& a few other ladies.. shes sort of a composite of multiple bw of that era] but louis even in his attempt to try to get bricktop out the trenches is essentially putting heightened scrutiny n they already got targets on their back as is even moreso on bricktop’s back by having a former ‘prostitute’ count his money infront of the very same alderman who tried to sodomize & assault her in ep1.. i dont think being a secretary / money keeper by itself was an exceptionally transgressive occupation for a lady in lou’s heyday [ pls correct me i am not a historian ] but the symbolism of it all… & i cant really say louis had the same intentions to offer this means of social mobility to any of the other women he was pimping out. notice how most of the women we see him pimping out are poorer black women. one of my anons point out the urge fans have to reach to create ‘mutual abuse’ theatrics to make louis ‘evil’ bc they do not see the evil inherent to louis’s mortal business, do not see the horror in the dubai penthouse which is insane cuz the show beats ur head in w. it and jacob anderson even says louis in this vers is far more aware [tormented i think is what he said?] of the evil in his mortal businesses than his white tethered

[theherstorybuff]

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (1906 - 1975), born Freda Josephine McDonald, was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother was a washerwoman and her father abandoned the family soon after Josephine's birth. Her mother remarried soon after and had several more children. To help her large family make ends meet, Josephine began working at age eight, babysitting and cleaning houses for wealthy white families, where she experienced sexual and physical abuse. She soon chose homelessness and living on the streets over the suffering she faced in service.

At just 13 she was briefly married and by 15, she began working in the performing arts. Eventually she landed a chorus role in the Broadway musical, Shuffle Along, which influenced her decision to move to New York City to pursue her career. She also married Willie Baker around this time, and kept his name after their divorce a few years later.

In 1925, Josephine traveled to Paris, where she performed in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The following year, Josephine performed La Folie du Jour at the Folies Bergère music hall wearing a now infamous skirt made from 16 bananas. The performance rocketed Josephine to fame, quickly making her one of the most popular and highly paid performers in Europe. Capitalizing on this success, she sang professionally for the first time in 1930 and years later landed a few film roles as a singer.

The money she earned from performances enabled her to purchase an estate in Southwest France called Les Milandes and paid to move her family there from St. Louis. In 1936, after so much success in France, she returned to the US to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies. Unfortunately, she was met with so much general hostility and racism that she quickly returned to France. Upon returning, she married a French industrialist and obtained French citizenship.

Josephine's son later shared that his mother had many relationships with women throughout her life, including affairs with Colette, Clara Smith, Bessie A. Buchanan, and Ada "Bricktop" Smith. Another famous alleged lover of hers was Frida Kahlo. Out of preservation of her career, Josephine vehemently denied her bisexuality to the point of homophobia.

When WWII began, Josephine Baker worked for the Red Cross during the occupation of France. She also entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East as a part of the Free French forces. Most critically, though, was her service as an agent of the French Resistance. She sometimes even smuggled messages hidden in her sheet music and underwear. At the war's end, Josephine was presented with both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of Resistance, two of France's highest military honors. Afterwards, she spent most of her time at Les Milandes with her family. In 1947, she married a French orchestra leader and a few years later began to adopt babies from around the world. She adopted 12 children of different ethnic backgrounds, an unprecedented act at the time. 

During the 1950s, she began traveling back to the United States frequently to lend her support to the civil rights movement. Her refusal to perform for segregated audiences helped to integrate live entertainment in Las Vegas. She was the only woman to speak at 1963's March on Washington. Throughout her time performing in the US she was outspoken on the desegregation of her audiences.

After unsubstantiated accusations of communism, her work visa was revoked, forcing her to cancel her engagements and return to France. In April 1975, she performed the first in a series of performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of her French debut. Just days later, she died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage. On the day of her funeral, more than 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris. She was the first American woman buried in France with military honors.

[oh-sewing-circle]

"Josephine Baker was an American-born French dancer and singer who symbolized the beauty and vitality of black American culture, which took Paris by storm in the 1920s. Baker was bisexual. Her son Jean-Claude Baker and co-author Chris Chase state in Josephine: The Hungry Heart that she was involved in numerous lesbian affairs, both while she was single and married, and mention six of her female lovers by name. Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women whom she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career. She was also reportedly involved intimately with French writer Colette. Not mentioned, but confirmed since, was her affair with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo."

[makingqueerhistory]

[Image Description: Illustration of Ada Smith smiling and wearing a black feather boa]

Read about the life of Ada "Bricktop" Smith here and find Pride Month Portraits on Redbubble. All proceeds during June will go to Black Lives Matter.

[lboogie1906]

Oscar Holden (April 11, 1886 - 1969) often called the patriarch of Seattle jazz, was one of the earliest of Seattle influential jazz musicians. He was born in Nashville to parents John Wesley Holden and Ann West Holden. He was the fourth of five children.

By 1907 he joined that migration partly because his sister, Sallie Holden Estelle, had married and was living in the city. He arrived in Chicago when the emerging South Side Black community was beginning to attract musicians from around the nation. He played in a number of those clubs including Mott’s Pekin Saloon/Theater, the Elmwood Cafe, and the Plaza Cafe. He played on Mississippi riverboats where he met you Louis Armstrong and the two formed a lifelong friendship.

He moved to Vancouver. He formed his 10-piece jazz band and performed at the Patricia Cafe in the city. Band members included him as pianist and clarinet player, Charles Davis on banjo, Albert Paddio on trombone, Frank Odel on saxophone, and Williams Hoy as drummer and xylophonist. Visiting musicians who performed with him at the Patricia Cafe included Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton and Ada “Bricktop” Smith.

He arrived permanently in Seattle in 1925. He formed a new band and began playing in various nightclubs. He married Leala Beatrice Carr (1929) and fellow piano player. The couple had seven children. Leala Carr Holden died while giving birth to Leala Beatrice.

During the Great Depression, he continued to play in clubs and halls that flourished on Jackson Street. In WWII both Oscar and Leala before her death, worked at the Todd Shipyard while Oscar continued to perform at night. In 1942 they purchased a home across the street from Washington Hall, a well-known jazz venue that was one of the first places to welcome Black performers.

He had great endurance and in between his day shifts at Todd Shipyards in Seattle and night shifts playing at clubs, he would regularly swim two miles across Lake Washington. He continued performing until he suffered a stroke in 1966. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[theonlinemuse]

And here’s more for the list:

Ma Rainey, blues singer (1886–1939)

Lucille Bogan, blues singer and songwriter (1897-1948)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singer, songwriter, guitarist (1915-1973)

Alice Walker, author and poet (1944-)

Jackie Shane, soul and R&B singer (1940-2019)

Ethel Waters, singer and actress (1896-1977)

Alberta Hunter, jazz singer and songwriter (1895-1984)

Ada "Bricktop" Smith, jazz singer and vaudevillian (1894-1984)

Amaza Lee Meredith, architect (1895-1984)

Lucy Diggs Slowe, educator and college dean (1885-1937)

Edna Meade Colson, educator (1888-1985)

Ruth Ellis, activist (1899-2000)

Mary P. Burrill, playwright (1881-1946)

Hattie McDaniel, actress and singer-songwriter (1893-1952)

Ruby Dandridge, actress (1900-1987)

Moms Mabley, comedian and actress (1894-1975)

Marsha Mabrey, conductor (1949-)

Gail Marquis, basketball player (1954-)

Mabel Hampton, activist (1902-1989)

Carmen McRae, jazz singer (1920-1994)

Anita Cornwell, author (1923-)

Angelina Weld Grimké, playwright and poet (1880-1958)

Edmonia Lewis, sculptor (1844-1907)

Barbara Jordan, lawyer and politician (1936-1996)

Angela Bowen, professor, activist, writer (1936-2018)

June Jordan, poet and essayist (1936-2002)

Pat Parker, poet and activist (1944-1989)

Nona Hendryx, singer-songwriter (1944-)

Gaye Adegbalola, blues singer and guitarist (1944-)

Barbara and Beverly Smith, writers and activists (1946-)

Cheryl Clarke, poet and activist (1947-)

Deborah Batts, judge (1947-2020)

Margaret Sloan-Hunter, writer (1947-2004)

Alexis De Veaux, writer and illustrator (1948-)

Nell Carter, actress and singer (1948-2003)

Becky Birtha, author and poet (1948-)

Sapphire, author and poet (1950-)

Ajita Wilson, actress (1950-1987)

E. Denise Simmons, mayor (1951-)

Danitra Vance, comedian and actress (1954-1994)

Dianna Houston, director, producer, screenwriter (1954-)

Nisi Shawl, writer (1955-)

Pat Spearman, politician (1955-)

Marsha Warfield, actress and comedian (1954-)

Tracey Norman, model (1952-)

Judith Rice, politician (1957-)

Alice Dunbar Nelson, poet and journalist (1875-1935) 

Ernestine Eckstein, activist (1941-1992)

Angela Davis, activist (1944-)

Shay Youngblood, author and playwright (1959-)

It’s black history month, so here’s a few black wlw from history!

Stormé Delavarie, activist involed in the Stonewall Riots (1920 - 2014)

Josephine Baker, performer, civil rights activist and World War 2 spy (1906 - 1975)

Audre Lorde, writer and activist (1934 - 1992)

Gladys Bentley, singer and performer (1907 - 1960)

Bessie Smith, blues singer (1894 - 1937)

Lorraine Hansberry, author and playwright (1930 - 1965)

Black lesbians and bisexual women are and always have been absolutely instrumental to the LGBTQ community, and we owe them so much.

[hiddengardener]

Dusty Sage‎ VAUDEVILLE!  Jelly Roll Morton with Ada "Bricktop" Smith... .

[queerasfact]

Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo: did they actually have sex?

The short answer, sadly, is no.

(This photo shows that Joe and Frida did meet, in Paris 1939. But it well may be that that’s all they did.)

The long answer is this:

Researching our episode on jazz-age performer, Civil Rights activist, and World War 2 spy, Josephine Baker, I kept coming across the rumour that Josephine had slept with bisexual Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. When someone did genuinely drive around Vienna in an ostrich-driven cart, dance on stage wearing nothing but bananas, and smuggle sensitive information out of war-time France pinned to her underwear, it can be difficult to discern fact from rumour. But I was determined to chase down a primary source for this rumour and prove it true.

The more I chased the story down, however, the less substantial evidence I found.

False and poorly researched history is definitely a pet peeve of mine, so let’s take a look at what information there is:

I started with a quick google of “Josephine Baker” “Frida Kahlo”, assuming the source would be easy to find. There are many articles circulating on the internet about Frida and Josephine, but most of them have no citations, or simply cite each other in an endless loop. When they do lead you to other sources, they are usually biographies of the women individually, with no mention of them having met.

Eventually, I found reference in this article to a different source: the author talks about watching the 2002 film Frida, saying “the film Frida included their affair” and backs this up with the comment that “Josephine's son has vouched that his mother had multiple affairs with women.”

Josephine’s son, Jean-Claude Baker, is the author of Josephine: The Hungry Heart. And lo and behold! the book did talk about Josephine having affairs with women, backed up by interviews Jean-Claude had conducted with those who knew her. But nowhere in the entire 533 pages does Jean-Claude mention Frida.

As for the film Frida, it does indeed depict Frida and Josephine in a relationship. But it is not, to be clear, a historic documentary, but a biopic drama. Happily though, I discovered that it is a based on another biography -  Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Harrera.

But does Harrera’s biography make any mention of Josephine? No. No, it does not. None at all.

All is not yet lost. There were many articles, listicles, and other podcasts still telling this story. They must be getting it from somewhere, right? But when one of them finally gave me a list of sources for further reading, all it led me to was several online biographies of Josephine and Frida, none of which mention the women meeting, let alone having a relationship. Except for one: Wikipedia.

Wikipedia – which I am going to edit as soon as I’ve posted this – tells us that “…Jean-Claude Baker described his mother as bisexual, having had relationships with men and women, including the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.” The citation it gives for this statement is confusingly not Jean-Claude at all, but a book by Marjorie Garber titled Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life.

Garber’s book does talk about both Frida and Josephine! Good news, but not good enough. She never mentions them conjunction, and definitely never having sex. The specific page referenced on Wikipedia talks about Josephine, but makes no mention of Frida at all.

One final try – I ventured into the Wayback Machine, to find out if this citation had always been wrong. As it turned out, before Garber, it used to direct you to ... Harrera’s biography. Which as we already know, doesn’t mention Josephine, let alone a relationship between the two women.

At this point, I gave up. (If you haven’t given up, and have any concrete evidence that this supposed relationship did take place, please shoot us an ask!) There was simply no primary evidence - in fact, no evidence at all, beyond the fact that they met, to support this oft-repeated claim.

As a person who likes to hear fun stories about queer historical figures, I am sad. As a historian, I am disappointed – it would be a good story if Josephine and Frida had slept together, but the fact that we have so willingly let this trick us into believing that they did without further evidence is worrying. To be good historians, we need to question what we read, check our sources, and chase things up. As queer historians, these are the tools that we use to uncover the queer people who have been hidden from our history. If we can’t read critically, we have no choice to accept the history the society has given us.

In conclusion, Josephine and Frida probably never had sex. But don’t lose hope! There are plentiful accounts of her having relationships with both women and men – many of them found in Jean-Claude Baker’s biography. And the women she probably did sleep with are far from boring. The list includes:

Clara Smith, a successful blues singer who recorded over 100 songs and worked with Louis Armstrong

Dancer and violinist Mildred Smallwood, the first African-American woman to appear in the American Dance magazine

Bessie Buchanan (née Allison), the first African-American woman to have a seat in the New York State Legislature

Ada “Bricktop” Smith, a club-owner so famous and influential in jazz-age Paris that F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "My greatest claim to fame is that I met Bricktop before Cole Porter did."

Colette, a scandalous bisexual writer and performer, who almost caused a riot by kissing her female lover on-stage at the Moulin Rouge

Check out our podcast for a complete account of Josephine’s fascinating life and her many lovers.