Smith, Ada (1894–1984)

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Smith, Ada (1894–1984)

African-American jazz singer and celebrated Parisian club owner. Name variations: Bricktop; Brickie. Born Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith in Alderson, West Virginia, on August 14, 1894; died in New York on January 31, 1984; third daughter and youngest of five children of Hattie (Thompson) Smith and Thomas Smith; married Peter Ducongé (a saxophonist), in 1929 (separated 1933, never divorced).

Paris in the early 20th century was the place of choice for those who loved good times and good music. People came from all over the world to enjoy life in this lively city and many of them were African-American entertainers. One such was Ada Smith, also known as Bricktop. She began dancing and singing as a child in Chicago where her mother moved after her father's death in 1898. Hattie Smith , who had been born into slavery around 1861, ran rooming houses and worked as a maid. Ada played Harry in Uncle Tom's Cabin at Chicago's Haymarket Theater when she was four or five years old. At age 14, she was in the chorus at the Pekin Theater, the first theater of consequence in Chicago to devote its playbill to black drama.

By age 16, she was touring with the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA). Barron Williams, owner of Barron's Exclusive Club in New York City, gave Smith the name Bricktop because of her flaming red hair and freckles. By age 20, she had traveled throughout the United States and moved on to Europe. In 1924, she opened her own club on Rue Pigalle in Paris which she called Chez Bricktop. Celebrities flocked there. Evelyn Waugh, John Steinbeck, Josephine Baker , and Ernest Hemingway were only a few of her regular patrons. Another was the prince of Wales who eventually became King Edward VIII until he gave up the throne to marry the woman he loved, Mrs. Wallis Simpson (Wallis Warfield, duchess of Windsor ). Smith taught His Royal Highness how to do the dance called the Blackbottom. In 1929, she married the saxophonist Peter Ducongé, and the two settled into an estate in Bougival, outside Paris. She then opened a new, better, and bigger Bricktop in 1931, hiring on her constant companion and friend Mabel Mercer to be her assistant. That same year, Smith opened another café in Biarritz for the summer season. Cole Porter arrived in Paris with the song "Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to lunch today." There is some dispute as to whether it was written for Bricktop or their mutual friend Elsa Maxwell , but Smith performed it regularly to the delight of her oft-requesting audience.

When war threatened, Smith left Paris in October 1939, with the help of the duchess of Windsor and Elsie de Wolfe ; Smith was one of the last American entertainers to leave France. Returning to New York, she headed straight for Harlem. "Across the pond things are different. Negroes were as welcome in my place as any of the ritziest white people. I made no distinction. In America it's far different and one finds himself at wit's end to keep clear of ugly or embarrassing situations." Despite the segregated clubs, Smith became a well-known host in café society. With other nightclub operators, she opened the Brittwood on 140th Street in 1940. Though at first successful, she never quite regained her Paris popularity. In 1943, she moved to Mexico City where she stayed for six years.

After the war, Smith returned to Paris (1949). But "the Paris Smith returned to was vastly different from the pre-war days," writes Juanita Karpf in Notable Black American Women. "Parisians had begun to reflect some of the distinctly American attitudes towards blacks—an attitude Smith believes was imported and perpetuated by white American soldiers." Ada Smith persevered and the new Bricktop opened in May 1950. "Her opening night," wrote Janet Flanner , "was an extraordinary, chic jam of people." But by Christmas business was off, and the club was eventually closed.

Smith left for Rome in 1951 and opened a club on the Via Veneto. Having converted to Catholicism in 1943, she became involved in Italian charities, raising money for the housing of war orphans. She also became close friends with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. After retiring, Smith returned to the United States in 1964. In 1970, she released her only recording ("So Long, Baby"). In 1973, she made a documentary, Honeybaby, Honeybaby! A decade later, she published her autobiography, Bricktop. When she was 89, Mayor Ed Koch gave her New York City's seal and a certificate of appreciation for her "extraordinary talent and indomitable spirit." Ada Smith died in her sleep on January 31, 1984, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.