Triple Threats: Moms Mabley & Other Iconic Black Lesbian Entertainers

By Cristal Martinez

“Moms was clearly out and about and didn’t give a shit, and no one else did either,” said Whoopi Goldberg about iconic comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley. Earlier this year, Goldberg made her directing debut with Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, which highlights the pioneering career of one of the first black lesbian comedians of the early 20th century.

Nicknamed “Moms” because of her infamous frumpy frock and hat-wearing characters, the iconic couch-print dress isn’t the first outfit to make Mabley a comic fashionista. She was often draped in well-tailored men’s suits. Cross-dressing while on stage and off, Mabley blurred the lines of gender roles beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.

At 27 years old, Mabley came out as a lesbian and no one talked about it because “it was nobody’s business” narrates Goldberg. Nearly a century ago, there was no uproar, no media frenzy. It was her personal life and no one felt the need to comment. Mabley began her career during the Harlem Renaissance debuting her stand-up routines in New York theaters like Connie’s Inn in 1923. As a triple threat (black, lesbian, entertainer), Mabley was not alone. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Gladys Bentley were all black, openly gay, jazz singers during the Renaissance.

Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey, was not only of the first generation jazz singers to record, she was also of the first lesbians to use her sexuality for shocking, salacious lyrics. Just take a listen to her rebel anthem “Prove It to Me” where she sang in first-person, “They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men, it’s true I wear a collar and a tie and talk to the gals just like any old man.” Although she did maintain a public interest in men, her lyrics and actions behind closed doors proved otherwise. In 1925, she was arrested for hosting a gay orgy at her home with the women of her chorus.

Fellow jazz singer Bessie Smith, also with an affinity for women, bailed Ma Rainey out that night and although rumored to be her lover, she would have only been one of many. Smith, a bisexual singer, was known for her “Foolish Man Blues,” which she sang about a “mannish actin’ woman and a skippin’ twistin’ woman actin’ man.” Although Smith was married, it was a tumultuous one with violent fights and arguments that arose when her husband Jack Gee found out about her same-sex affairs. The Empress of the Blues, Smith “always swore her lesbian lovers to secrecy” wrote Thomas Nickels in Out in History. Luckily for Smith, Jack Gee was illiterate so he was unable to read of her lesbian affairs that were written in the gossip columns. There were several jazz singers of the like who were married and led “secret” lives or those who married gay men just for the “front.”

With the mention of these Harlem jazz singers of the 1920s and 1930s, one cannot skip Miss Gladys Bentley. According to Lillian Faderman, author of Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth -Century America, some black entertainers were encouraged “to flaunt lesbianism, to make it a spectacle and an attraction to those who expected the outré from Harlem.” Bentley’s risqué appeal was featured in her nightly show as well as her everyday life. Bentley, also a [masculine presenting] blues jazz singer, draped herself with tuxedos and top-hats. A three-hundred-pound “male impersonator,” she sometimes performed under the pseudonym Bobby Minton. Langston Hughes described her as an “amazing exhibition of musical energy – a large, dark, masculine lady” in his The Big Sea memoir. Bentley also married a New Jersey woman after taking part in a civil ceremony. Although openly gay during the Harlem Renaissance, Bentley later married a man and claimed to have been “cured” of being gay to avoid persecution and the end of her career.

The Harlem Renaissance gave way to a plethora of artists to be openly gay (in some cases merely through their lyrics). For instance, Mabel Hampton, a black lesbian pioneering activist wrongfully arrested for prostitution in 1917, joined “Moms” Mabley’s vaudevillian act when she was released. Although not every black lesbian artist of the era had the same degree of openness in their personal lives they sure did have it with their work. Mabley, who didn’t shy away from making jokes about men not having anything for her, was among them.

Goldberg’s I Got Somethin’ to Tell You which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival has already been bought by HBO and is due to air later this year. “Moms” was once part of Goldberg’s stand-up routine in the early days and when she recently brought her back she noticed that no had heard of the iconic comedian, much less recognized the impersonation. During the Q&A after the screening of I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, Goldberg (in a full on Mabley impersonation) shared with the crowd her favorite “Moms” joke: Two old women walking down the street. One turns to the other one and says, “I smell hair burning.” The other one says, “You walkin too fast.” Mabley’s off-color jokes, frumpy style, and denture removing acts made her one of Goldberg’s comic heroes and an idol for us all.