A 麻豆传媒映画time travelogue brought to you by聽.
Ada 鈥淏ricktop鈥� Smith was a singer and dancer from Chicago who spent 1919 and 1920 in 麻豆传媒映画with the house band at the . Although not a familiar name today, Bricktop is notable for a number of reasons, the least of which is her singing ability.
Bricktop (so named because of her red hair) was already well known through the club circuits, but it wasn鈥檛 until she got to France a few years after her 麻豆传媒映画stint that she hit the big time. saw her perform one of his songs and immediately became a fan. She taught his friends how to dance the Charleston and the聽聽and he in turn helped her get set up with her own club, Chez Bricktop, the hottest club in jazz age Europe.
Bricktop was the doyenne of Paris鈥檚 caf茅聽society and of the ex-pat American 鈥�.鈥溌犅爓orked at Chez Bricktop, and she once聽threw a drunk聽聽out, for which he later apologized by sending over a taxi filled with roses.聽Cole Porter鈥檚 classic聽聽was written for her, as was聽.聽TS Elliot wrote a poem about her and F Scott Fitzgerald聽聽鈥漨y greatest claim to fame is that I discovered Bricktop before Cole Porter.鈥� She also mentored and had a fling with聽, and before going to Europe helped Duke Ellington get his first club gig in Harlem.
But before all that, Bricktop was singing at Hastings and Dunlevy at 鈥渢he finest cabaret and cafe in the entire northwest,鈥� in the words of the聽, an African American newspaper that served as a social networking tool for vaudevillians, musicians, railway porters, and others on the road.
On 14 February 1920, the paper published an update that Bricktop had sent from Vancouver.聽She was doing fine, she said,聽but had had 鈥渢he misfortune of breaking one of her limbs on Christmas Eve after a lengthy visit to someone鈥檚 cellar, but the break is mending rapidly and she will soon again be able to strut her stuff with her usual vim and pep.鈥� The version she gives in her聽聽is that her leg was broken in a barroom brawl that erupted among the Scandinavian loggers who frequented the Patricia. She also told the聽Defender聽that her mother would be spending the summer with her in 麻豆传媒映画and that letters could be sent to 848 East Georgia Street.
Source: Ada Bricktop Smith in Vancouver, 1920, from聽Bricktop聽by Bricktop with聽James Haskins (Atheneum, 1983), via聽
