- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186343", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b22102207", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"Sc MIRS Smith 1985-65", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1930-1979", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1930/1979"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith audio collection"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"54 audio_recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Performer and club owner Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (August 14, 1894 - February 1, 1984) was known as \"Bricktop\" for her red hair. The collection consists of fifty-four audio recordings, dating from approximately 1930 to 1979."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Bricktop, 1894-1984", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Performer and club owner Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (August 14, 1894 - February 1, 1984) was born in Alderson, West Virginia. Fascinated by saloons from an early age, she started out in 1910 performing in vaudeville before going on to headline at clubs such as Barron's Exclusive Club in New York City, where she came to be known as \"Bricktop\" for her red hair.</p> <p>Bricktop arrived in Paris in 1924, joining a wave of African American expatriate artists. She became a central figure connecting larger-than-life stars. Cole Porter employed her to teach the Charleston dance to socialites and princes at his private parties. She performed widely, organized parties, and opened her own establishment called Chez Bricktop in 1926, drawing that same wealthy expatriate clientele.</p> <p>Her nightclub became the epicenter of jazz-age Paris, and figured as a temporary home for many expatriate entertainers, including Josephine Baker, Mabel Mercer, and Florence Mills. Bricktop and her club were immortalized in the American literary canon, earning mentions in short stories and novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. One of the first fellow Americans she met in Paris was Langston Hughes. He described her as one of \"the bright particular stars of the night life of Montmartre\" in his 1937 unpublished essay \"Adelaide Hall New Star of Paris Night Life.\" In 1929, Bricktop married Peter DuCongé, an African American saxophone and clarinet player who toured with Louis Armstrong's band. They separated sometime in the 1930s.</p> <p>Bricktop continued to sing throughout her career as a club owner. Cole Porter had a dedicated table at her club, and, beginning in 1932, Bricktop adopted his song \"Miss Otis Regrets\" as her signature standard.</p> <p>In 1939, Bricktop returned to New York City just before the German invasion of France. While she struggled to find work performing, she found a spiritual home in the Catholic church and remained devout throughout the remainder of her life. She went on to open another nightclub called Bricktop's in Mexico City in 1943. In 1950, she returned to Europe to open a third iteration of her club in Rome. Her nightclub continued to be a vibrant center of artistic and fashionable expatriate society until her retirement in 1961, when she returned to New York.</p> <p>Even in retirement, according to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, she made cameo appearances in the 1974 film <span class=\"title\">Honeybaby, Honeybaby</span> directed by Michael Schultz, and Woody Allen's 1983 film <span class=\"title\">Zelig</span>. She also continued to perform a repertoire of 1930s and 1940s jazz standards that included \"Miss Otis Regrets.\" After several attempts throughout the 1960s to record her story, she published her autobiography <span class=\"title\">Bricktop</span> with James Haskins in 1983, before dying a year later.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection consists of fifty-four audio recordings, dating from approximately 1930 to 1979. The collection contains interviews with Bricktop and previously unknown recordings of her performances, as well as music she collected. Many of the recordings were originally reels, containing two or more parts.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith audio collection is arranged in three series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/186343#c1731206'>SERIES I: INTERVIEWS</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Eighteen recordings in which Bricktop recounts stories from her life. The recordings are arranged chronologically.</p> <p>In fourteen recordings, Bricktop is interviewed by entertainment reporter David Hanna in 1962 for an unrealized book project. In four recordings, Bricktop, at age 70, recounts stories from her life for another unrealized book project in 1964. She speaks to an unknown person that she frequently refers to as Joe. One audio recording is of Bricktop's television interview and performance on <span class=\"title\">The Les Crane Show</span> in 1965.</p> <p>Some of the artists, writers, performers, socialites, and royalty that Bricktop mentioned in her interviews included Tallulah Bankhead, Humphrey Bogart, Ralph Bunche, Richard Burton, Thelma Carpenter, Maurice Chevalier, the Oma Crosby Trio, Duke Ellington, King Farouk I, Bennie Fields, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Errol Flynn, Joe Frisco, Ava Gardner, Ernest Hemingway, Barbara Hutton, Jack Johnson, Florence Jones, Elsa Maxwell, Lady Mendl, Mabel Mercer, Florence Mills, Mistinguett, Billy Reardon, Paul Robeson, The Rocky Twins, Blossom Seeley, Jimmy Savini, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophie Tucker, Barron Wilkins, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/186343#c1731243'>SERIES II: MUSIC</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The collection contains twenty-three non-commercial music recordings, arranged alphabetically. Two collections of her vocal performances include a rare recording of \"Miss Otis Regrets.\" The majority of the recordings contain instrumental music that do not include her vocals. These piano and orchestral tracks were likely recorded as musical accompaniment for rehearsals or performances. Fourteen music recordings, including her vocal performances, as well as the bulk of the instrumental music, are available as access copies on CD in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound division.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/186343#c1731267'>SERIES III: RECORDINGS COLLECTED BY BRICKTOP</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The collection contains twelve recordings that Bricktop collected. The recordings are arranged chronologically, and they include a radio interview with David Hanna. There are also nine commercial music recordings by artists such as Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, and Tito Puente.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by James Haskins, 1985.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith papers, Sc MG 247, including some interview transcripts.</p> <p>See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith photograph collection [graphic], Sc Photo Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith Collection.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection inventoried by <span class=\"name\">Christopher Arena</span> and <span class=\"name\">Nathan Evans</span>. Collection processed and described by <span class=\"name\">Lyric Evans-Hunter</span>, archivist; and <span class=\"name\">Shola Lynch</span>, curator. Finding aid published in <span class=\"date\">2024</span>.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Smith, Ada \"Bricktop,\" and James Haskins. <span class=\"title\">Bricktop</span>, Sc E 84-101.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Item scope and content notes and AMI identifiers revised for clarity by Lyric Evans-Hunter.", "date"=>"2024-04-16"}
- date_start
-
1930
- keydate
-
1930
- date_end
-
1979
- date_inclusive_start
-
1930
- date_inclusive_end
-
1979
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Ada \"Bricktop\" Smith audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library"}