Moms Mabley

For my 100th posting on Misplaced In The Midwest, today is about a forgotten comedienne, the one and only Jackie "Moms" Mabley.

Jackie “Moms” Mabley (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975) was an American standup comedienne and a pioneer of the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" of African-American vaudeville.

Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken into a large family of twelve children in Brevard, North Carolina in 1894. Her father, James P. Aiken, owned and operated several businesses while her mother, Mary, kept home and took in boarders. Her father died a sudden accidental death when she was eleven. By the age of fifteen Mabley had reportedly been raped twice and had two children that were given up for adoption. After being pressured by her stepfather to marry a much older man and encouraged by her grandmother to strike out on her own, she ran away to Cleveland, Ohio with a traveling minstrel show where she began singing and entertaining.

She took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony magazine in a 1970s interview that he'd taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name. Later she became known as "Moms" because she was indeed "Mom" to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 60s. She was one of the top women doing stand-up in her heyday, and recorded more than 20 albums of comedy routines. She appeared in movies, on television, and in clubs.

Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville Chitlin' circuit, earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career. She made her New York City debut at Connie's Inn in Harlem. In the 1960s, she become known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making a number of mainstream TV appearances.

Mabley was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World," and she tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism, one of her regular themes was her romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old "washed-up geezers", and regularly got away with it courtesy of her on stage persona where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat.

She added the occasional satirical song to her jokes; her version of "Abraham, Martin and John" hit #35 on the Billboard charts in the summer of 1969. At 75 years of age, Moms Mabley became the oldest person ever to have a US Top 40 hit.

She had four children (aside from the two who were adopted when she was a teenager) and five grandchildren.

Various sources have indicated that Mabley was a lesbian, although she never publicly confirmed or acknowledged this.

Mabley died in White Plains, New York from heart failure and was survived by her children, Bonnie, Christine, Charles, and Yvonne Ailey. She is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

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See you tomorrow.