Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

BRICKTOP

(b 14 August 1894, Alderson WV; d 31 January 1984, NYC) Singer and dancer, real name Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louis Virginia Smith, who became one of the most famous hostesses in one of the richest club scenes ever seen. She worked in Chicago, helped Duke Ellington's career in NYC, went to Paris in 1924 and opened Chez Bricktop (for her red hair) on Rue Pigalle. She taught the Prince of Wales the black bottom; among her habitués were novelists Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Evelyn Waugh; Cole Porter wrote 'Miss Otis Regrets' for her in 1934 (and for their friend Monty Woolley, who sang it in a film).

In 1937 Jimmy Monroe had a club not far away where the patrons danced to the latest American jazz records; he said that musicians hung out in his place because they liked to hit on the French girls and Bricktop didn't want them doing it at her place. She returned to NYC in 1939 as a society hostess, went back to Europe '51, had a club in Rome and another in Mexico; came back to NYC '64. There was a documentary film Honeybaby, Honeybaby! '73, and an autobiography Bricktop By Bricktop '83.