Bricktop
"She was a lady of the dawn who drank only champagne and expected a rose from every male visitor."
– Jim Haskins
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.
Bricktop was born in West Virginia. From childhood, she was an entertainer; she took to the theatre in a performance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin when she was five and only went up from there. Though she had a talent for both singing and dancing, her love was being an entertainer rather than following any one skill. By the age of sixteen, she had joined TOBA (Theater Owner’s Booking Association) and was working on the vaudeville circuit. After that, she was picked up to work at a cafe, singing alongside Florence Mills.
From here on, her story is very much a star-studded one. From her first steps into show business, Bricktop found herself surrounded by some of the most incredible people alive during that time. She moved from New York to Paris, where she worked at a tiny club, and she wept at the size, only to be comforted by Langston Hughes. At this point, he was not the well-known poet he would become, but he was kind. He brought her soup and sat with her until she felt better, and the two became friends. Later, Langston said, “You liked [Brickstop] right away, she liked everybody and made everybody like her. . . . Bricktop was simply a good old girl of the kind folks call ‘regular… Bricktop was the toast of Montmartre, with dukes and princes at her tables”.
To have the poetic giant Langston Hughes speak that well of you is an accomplishment on its own, but that is not where Bricktop stopped. She continued working in that club and continued charming the people she met, including Scott F. Fitzgerald, who would always be proud that he was among the first to discover her before she was famous, saying, “my only claim to fame is that I discovered Bricktop before Cole Porter.” Cole Porter, whose claim to fame was his songwriting, came soon after, and the friendship the two struck lasted their lifetimes. Their places in each other's lives were important enough to be remembered even today.
Bricktop spoke of her friendship with the man fondly, believing him to be a part of the reason she became who she was, writing that he was “standing right there behind me until I became Bricktop, the one and only.”
The list of famous people she charmed grew, soon including royalty, such as Aga Khan, who said, “How does it feel to have royalty kiss this little freckled hand of yours?” to which she replied, “I don’t feeling anything. Royalty? They’re only people.”
It was this familiarity that played a large part in why people adored Bricktop so much. While she was an incredible person, even she admitted, “I'm no singer, I'm a personality. Nobody ever came to hear me; they came to see me.” And that seemed to be true. While many came to the club to learn the newest dance moves from her, they stayed because of her charisma. At a certain point, she had enough people who adored her that, with the help of Cole Porter, she opened her own club. Cole Porter insisted she called it “Bricktop’s” because he knew it was her that would draw people into the club.
And draw them she did. From the beginning of her club, she saw only success; famous people from around the world came. Fred and Adele Astaire practiced their routines at the club before they would bring them to Broadway. Jasha Heifitz would come and borrow a violin from the band to play for the club. Later on, the Romani performers Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli became regulars at the club.
After Josephine Baker had died, Bricktop told Josephine Baker’s son, Jean-Claude Baker, that the two had had a brief affair. The two worked together throughout their lives, Bricktop helping Baker grow her reputation in Paris. She also helped push forward the career of the incredible singer Mabel Mercer, who was her assistant at Bricktop’s.
Not only did she encourage incredible artists, but she inspired incredible art, including a song that Cole Porter wrote for her called “Miss Otis Regrets.” Almost all the famous artists at the time were regulars at her establishment and devoted to her. Once, after kicking John Steinbeck out for “ungentlemanly” behaviour, he bought her a cab full of roses to get back into her good graces.
During her time in Paris, she would write about how Paris was a much better place for women of colour to live than America. These articles would bring a wave of people of colour to Paris hoping to find better lives, and while she praised the country for the opportunities it gave people of colour, she was a large part of that. She worked to give performing opportunities to other people of colour, such as the ones mentioned before, but also the brilliant Duke Ellington.
Her time in Paris was a fabulous one, and in that time, she placed herself as one of the most loved members of the lost generation, not through writing or painting, but through sheer likability. It was not to last, though. The war came, and she was forced back to New York.
While Bricktop found great success during her time in Paris, the country's attitudes shifted when the war began. The country that Bricktop had made her stage and her home was no longer safe for her, and she was forced to return to New York City, closing her club, Chez Bricktop.
Her return to America did not mean a return to the life she had led previously in America, though, as she still had all the friends she had gained during her time in Paris. Her return home was secured by the Duchess of Windsor and Lady Mendl, and upon her return, she was greeted with a wardrobe designed by Molyneux.
But while her friends were still there to support her, the city itself was not. She tried performing at some of the more popular clubs during the time, but nothing stuck, and she decided that this was not the place for her. In 1943, she moved again, this time heading to Mexico City and opening a new Chez Bricktop with the help of Doris Duke. Here she found a modicum of the success she had in Paris, and for a while, she stayed there and ran her business the best she could. From all accounts, the city seemed to agree with her. She wrote of her time in Mexico City in her autobiography, Bricktop, by Bricktop, saying, “The Spanish are like the English, once they like you, they like you, and they like you best if you don’t try to be something you’re not. I was the only singer who never tried to sing in Spanish, and that was the way the Mexicans liked it.”
As she found success again, she also found religion, converting to Catholicism and making a vow of celibacy at fifty-one, saying, “Lord, never let me be a foolish old woman.”
She lived in Mexico City happily for a while, but she never forgot her time in Paris. So in 1949, as soon as the war was over, she took the chance to return to her once-beloved city. But the war had changed Paris, and upon her return, when a friend told her, “You won’t find Paris as it used to be,” They were not lying. Despite the warnings, Bricktop tried to recapture what she had all those years ago by opening Chez Bricktop’s again in 1950. Unfortunately, due to financial problems, it shut down within the year. It was then that she moved to Rome to try one more time to regain what she had back in the first Chez Bricktop.
It was in Rome that Bricktop’s found its feet again and got back to the star-studded glory it had been known for in its first run in Paris. Celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ava Gardner found their way to her club, and business picked up for a short time. But again, her success was fleeting, and when Disco became popular, she fell behind. In 1961, her club was forced to close, and she returned once again to America.
It was upon this final return to her home country that she decided to come back as a retired woman, saying: “I'm tired, honey. Tired of staying up all night.”
From that point, she continued to live a good life, even if it was quieter than it had been before. She was still a celebrity, making brief cameos in films and one recording. Her last large public act was to write and release her autobiography alongside James Haskins. She died in 1984 at the age of 89.
Her story is hard to tell, not because there isn’t enough information, but because there is so much. Bricktop was loved fiercely and loyally by patrons, lovers, and almost anyone who met her. That being the case, when one attempts to tell her story, so many people want to share the way she touched their lives. From royalty such as the Duchess of Windsor to incredible activists such as Martin Luther King Jr, people from every walk of life knew her and loved her, which is a rather rare thing. When someone is so well-known, it often comes hand in hand with controversy or having hordes of people hating her, but with Bricktop, that isn’t the case. From royalty to busboys, Bricktop made friends, and the value of that cannot be overstated.
It is important to realize how impactful the simple fact she was loved is. Bricktop was a queer woman of colour alive during World War 2, was happy, died of old age, and was loved. That simple fact is such a beautiful reality. Even in the worst of times, there can be pockets of happiness and no matter what happens, there is no time in history when queer people have been universally miserable. That time will never come. There have always been happy endings for queer people, and there always will be.
[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]
Patrick M. (August 15, 2011) To Bricktop, on Her Belated Birthday. Retrieved March 5, 2017
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/08/15/to-bricktop-on-her-belated-birthday/
Albin K. (February 1, 1984) BRICKTOP, CABARET QUEEN IN PARIS AND ROME, DEAD, Retrieved March 5, 2017
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/01/obituaries/bricktop-cabaret-queen-in-paris-and-rome-dead.html
Steven N. (October, 1, 2015) Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith: Once the Grande Dame of Paris’ Nightclub Scene. Retrieved March 5, 2017
http://www.theroot.com/ada-bricktop-smith-once-the-grande-dame-of-paris-ni-1790861265
MARIARYCHKOVAA (March 26, 2014) Ada “Bricktop” Smith & Chez Bricktop’s night club. Retrieved March 5, 2017
https://marsharychkovaa.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/ada-bricktop-smith-chez-bricktops-night-club/
Christopher P. (October 24, 2012) Fabulous Dead People: Bricktop Retrieved March 5, 2017
http://www.wmagazine.com/story/bricktop-aka-ada-beatrice-queen-victoria-louise-virginia-smith
