Information: The first column shows data points from Bentley, Gladys, 1907-1960 in red. The third column shows data points from Bentley, Glass in blue. Any data they share in common is displayed as purple boxes in the middle "Shared" column.
Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been cured by taking female hormones...
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Minton, Bobbie, 1907-1960
Computed Name Heading
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Surname :
Minton
Forename :
Bobbie
Date :
1907-1960
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Minton, Bobbie, 1907-1960
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Minton, Bobbie, 1907-1960
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Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been cured by taking female hormones...
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Bentley, Gladys Alberta, 1907-1960
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Surname :
Bentley
Forename :
Gladys Alberta
Date :
1907-1960
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Bentley, Gladys Alberta, 1907-1960
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Name Entry
Bentley, Gladys Alberta, 1907-1960
Source Citation
Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been cured by taking female hormones...
Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) was an African American singer and drag performer. Bentley ran away from home at age sixteen, after showing a preference for borrowing her brother's suits and being sent to doctors to assess her behavior. She moved to New York City and started her career performing; when she heard that Harry Hansberry's Clam House on 133rd Street, a gay speakeasies, needed a male pianist, she began performing in men's attire. At the Clam House, Bentley perfected her act and became popular and successful. She then performed at the Mad House in Harlem and was a star at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was known to perform with a line of drag queen back-up singing. She made eight recordings with Okeh Records and, later, with the Excelsior and Flame labels. She moved to California in the late 1930s, singing at gay clubs in Hollywood, San Francisco and Los Angeles, sometimes using the name "Bobby Minton". During this era, Bentley was one of few openly lesbian performers and had problems with police due to performing in male clothing. On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California and later Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1952 (during the McCarthy era), she started wearing dresses and it is said that she married a man, Charles Roberts, though Robert would later deny this happened. Bentley also studied to be a minister later in life.
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Source Citation
In her top hat and tuxedo, Bentley belted gender-bending original blues numbers and lewd parodies of popular songs, eventually becoming Harlem royalty. When not accompanying herself with a dazzling piano, the mightily built singer often swept through the audience, flirting with women in the crowd and soliciting dirty lyrics from them as she sang; By the early 1930s, Bentley was Harlem’s most famous lesbian figure — a significant distinction, given that gay, lesbian and gender-defying writers and performers were flourishing during the Harlem Renaissance. For a time, she was among the best-known black entertainers in the United States; But Bentley was the first prominent performer of her era to embrace a trans identity, implicating her body differently in these acts of musical defiance. (Throughout her life, Bentley used female pronouns to describe herself — at least in public.); Gladys Bentley was born on Aug. 12, 1907, to Mary Bentley, who was from Trinidad, and George Bentley, an American, and she was raised in Philadelphia; In 1923, at 16, she left home for New York City, where the Harlem Renaissance was already in high gear; But it was at the Clam House — Harlem’s most popular gay-friendly speakeasy, on 133rd Street, nicknamed Swing Street for its countless underground clubs — that Bentley established herself as the main attraction; In 1937, Bentley left New York for Los Angeles. She became a leading entertainer there and in the Bay Area, though she sometimes had to wear skirts onstage to appease club owners; By 1958, she said she had completed an autobiography, “If This Be Sin,” but it was never published. Bentley died in 1960, from complications of the flu, at 52, while studying to become a Christian minister;
Source Citation
Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been cured by taking female hormones...
Wikipedia article, Gladys Bentley (accessed July 6, 2022)
Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.
Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tail coat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been cured by taking female hormones...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Bentley
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Bentley
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New York Times Overlooked Obituary, Gladys Bentley, Jan. 31, 2019 (accessed Feb. 11, 2019)
In her top hat and tuxedo, Bentley belted gender-bending original blues numbers and lewd parodies of popular songs, eventually becoming Harlem royalty. When not accompanying herself with a dazzling piano, the mightily built singer often swept through the audience, flirting with women in the crowd and soliciting dirty lyrics from them as she sang; By the early 1930s, Bentley was Harlem’s most famous lesbian figure — a significant distinction, given that gay, lesbian and gender-defying writers and performers were flourishing during the Harlem Renaissance. For a time, she was among the best-known black entertainers in the United States; But Bentley was the first prominent performer of her era to embrace a trans identity, implicating her body differently in these acts of musical defiance. (Throughout her life, Bentley used female pronouns to describe herself — at least in public.); Gladys Bentley was born on Aug. 12, 1907, to Mary Bentley, who was from Trinidad, and George Bentley, an American, and she was raised in Philadelphia; In 1923, at 16, she left home for New York City, where the Harlem Renaissance was already in high gear; But it was at the Clam House — Harlem’s most popular gay-friendly speakeasy, on 133rd Street, nicknamed Swing Street for its countless underground clubs — that Bentley established herself as the main attraction; In 1937, Bentley left New York for Los Angeles. She became a leading entertainer there and in the Bay Area, though she sometimes had to wear skirts onstage to appease club owners; By 1958, she said she had completed an autobiography, “If This Be Sin,” but it was never published. Bentley died in 1960, from complications of the flu, at 52, while studying to become a Christian minister;
Bobbye S. Ortiz Papers, (bulk, 1919-1993 and undated, 1950-1990)
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Bentley, Gladys, 1907-1960
referencedIn
American Vaudeville Museum collection 1845-2007 (bulk 1910-1940)
American Vaudeville Museum collection, 1845-2007, (bulk 1910-1940)
Title:
American Vaudeville Museum collection 1845-2007 (bulk 1910-1940)
This collection consists of materialsdocumenting vaudeville and other entertainment in the United States,particularly in the 1910s through 1940s. Primary materials such as photographs,scrapbooks and handwritten stage scripts document the careers of particularperformers. There are substantial numbers of sheet music and theatre programs,and a large LP collection. The collection focuses on vaudeville but encompassesother forms and eras of American entertainment as well.
American Vaudeville Museum collection, 1845-2007, (bulk 1910-1940)
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Bentley, Gladys, 1907-1960
referencedIn
Gladys Bentley and Ubangi Club collection
Gladys Bentley and Ubangi Club collection
Title:
Gladys Bentley and Ubangi Club collection
Nine photographs include three unpublished images of Bentley at Harlem's Ubangi Club; four images of her backup dancers; and two of unidentified performers, two photos of unidentified performers, though one may be Willie Bryant, the jazz bandleader, vocalist, and disc jockey known as the "Mayor of Harlem.” Ephemera include a drink list, flyer, ticket, and a list in French of popular New York City clubs and restaurants.
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