BHS Day 3: Gladys Bentley

Hi! Each Saturday this month is our Music and Entertainment Spotlight, which highlights the accomplishments of Black pioneers in music and entertainment. Today we're talking about one of the first Black LGBT pioneers and her unapologetic nonconformist lifestyle while establishing herself as one of the Harlem Renaissance's premier musicians. She is also one of the earliest examples of what the mid-century witchhunt against queer and LGBT individuals could do, as she notably went back into the closet shortly before her death in the early '60s. 

Name: Gladys Bentley, 1907-1960

Profession: Blues musician and singer

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her contributions to the music industry and her visible role as an LGBT pioneer

Notables:
--headlined at the Cotton Club, Clam House, Utungi Club, and Lafayette Theater at the height of her career
--became known for her innuendo-laden, gender-bending and suggestive songs and flirtatious nature with her predominantly female audience
--made her tuxedo and top hat her signatures, which she is still known for today
--was even said to moonlight as a drag king performer named Bobby Minton throughout her career, where she also found success and cultivated a loyal following in the gay community
--got her start at The Mad House as the house pianist and was offered a contract after her first show
--The Clam House, where she perfected her act, was later renamed in her honor
--was able to cultivate a second wind for her career out on the West Coast after the tide started to change in Harlem
--was visibly and often harassed for wearing mens' suits and her openly gay lifestyle after the Renaissance ended, which some believe forced her to go back into the closet and later denounce her former lifestyle in an Ebony article
--as a child, wore her brothers' suits to school and was often sent home for it, prompting her family to attempt to "cure" her of her emerging homosexuality and "odd" behaviors, one of which was her crush on her female teacher
--once held a public wedding and married a White woman
--briefly performed on Broadway but the flamboyance of her show forced her back to Harlem
--appeared twice on Groucho Marx' television show, where she performed two final times
--became a minister after her career was over

Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6



Quote of the Day: 
"She played a piano all night long, literally without stopping...an amazing exhibition of musical energy--a large, dark, masculine lady, whose feet pounded the floor as her fingers pounded the keyboard--a perfect piece of African sculpture, animated by her own rhythm."
--Langston Hughes, describing a Gladys Bentley performance