Smith, Ada "Bricktop", 1894-1984

The internationally known cabaret personality Bricktop was born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith on August 14, 1894 in Alderson, West Virginia. She acquired the nickname "Bricktop" from Barron Wilkins (owner of the Barron's Exclusive Club in Harlem), establishing her red hair as her trademark. Bricktop began her career as an entertainer at the age of 16, performing on the vaudeville circuit and in salons. She went on to own her own nightclubs in Paris (1920s and 1930s), Mexico City (1940s), and Rome (1950s).

In the early part of Bricktop's career she performed with Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles in McCabe's Georgia Troubadours minstrel show. Eventually she joined the Oma Crosby Trio, who performed on the white vaudeville circuit and the Theater Owners Booking Association or TOBA circuit that booked black acts. Other groups she worked with were the Ten Georgia Campers on the Pantages circuit and the Kinky-Doo Trio on the TOBA circuit. In 1911, she began performing at Roy Jones' saloon in Chicago, where she met boxer Jack Johnson, who invited her to work for him at his Cabaret de Champion, also known as Café Champ. By the time Bricktop was 19 years old, she had become a well-known entertainer in Chicago.

Bricktop continued to perform both on the vaudeville circuit and in saloons, in acts such as the Panama Trio with Florence Mills and Cora Green and as a headliner at Barron's Exclusive Club. According to her autobiography Bricktop (1983), while at Barron's she was responsible for leveraging the careers of Duke Ellington and Florence Mills. She also rallied for Mills to perform in the "all-Negro" production of Shuffle Along; her debut in that show marked the start of Mills' stardom.

While Bricktop was headlining at Connie's Inn (Harlem) she was approached by Sammy Richardson, an African-American entertainer who worked in Paris, who invited Bricktop to replace Florence Jones and headline at Le Grand Duc. In 1924, at the age of 29, Bricktop disembarked in France. Although she started out as a performer at Le Grand Duc, she ended up running it. Through the club, Bricktop developed relationships with celebrities such as Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to name a few. Cole Porter became a close friend and wrote "Miss Otis Regrets" for her. European and American writers often patronized Le Grand Duc such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. Consequently, she formed many relationships with the "who's who" of the expatriate high society, during the 1920s and 1930s.

In Paris, Bricktop worked private parties as well, teaching the Charleston and the Black Bottom. Aga Khan, Dolly O'Brien and the Prince of Wales were among her pupils. Bricktop employed many renowned performers and musicians as well, including Billy Reardon, Louis Cole, and Mabel Mercer (who eventually became her business partner). In the late twenties Bricktop met and married Peter Duconge from New Orleans, a saxophonist with Louis Armstrong's band. Married in 1929, they separated only a few years later but never officially divorced. Bricktop never had children.

By 1939, the German invasion of France had begun, which forced Bricktop to leave Paris. Her homecoming was disappointing; she no longer was the sought-after personality she once was in New York City. She found it difficult to get booked as a performer and subsequently struggled to make a living. During this period she converted to Catholicism and took an oath of celibacy. In 1943, at the age of 50, she moved to Mexico City and opened another club, also called Bricktop's. Her efforts proved to be more successful in Mexico, where she managed several successful clubs.

After the war ended, Bricktop decided to return to Paris to pick-up where she had left off; however, by 1949, she found the city deeply changed. Among other things resentment towards Americans had formed as a consequence of the war, and attitudes towards African Americans began to resemble white racist sentiments in the U. S. More importantly, she had difficulties attaining a permit to reopen her club in Paris, causing her to relocate to Rome.

Rome's "Bricktop's" opened in 1951, and as in Mexico, the club was very popular. She ran Rome's Bricktop's for thirteen years, and at the age of 69, retired her club once and for all, although she remained in Rome for several years after. For Bricktop, club life as she knew it had all but disappeared. She continued to make appearances in the U. S. and abroad, primarily performing the songs of the 20s and 30s until her death in 1984. She appeared on radio broadcasts, preformed at various establishments such as The Club Tango in Chicago, and introduced Josephine Baker for her "come-back" engagement at Carnegie Hall in 1973. Bricktop co-authored Bricktop (1983), her autobiography, with James Haskins.