Moms Mabley

Moms Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina, one of sixteen children; her birth year is given as 1894 or 1897. Her childhood was marked by violence: she was raped twice before the age of 14, and her parents died early. At 14 she ran away and joined a travelling vaudeville show. She took the stage name Jackie Mabley from an early boyfriend – he had taken so much from her, she said, the least she could do was take his name.

She became one of the most successful performers on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” of Black vaudeville, though her pay was meagre. She came out as a lesbian in the 1920s, one of the first openly gay comedians, appeared in androgynous clothing and recorded “lesbian stand-up” routines. In 1939 she became the first woman comic to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

From the 1950s she appeared as “Moms”, a toothless old woman in a house dress and floppy hat. This harmless-looking figure let her joke about racism, sexuality and politics – and about her preference for young men over “old washed-up geezers” – at a time when other comedians could not. In the 1960s she reached white audiences, played Carnegie Hall and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. In 1969 her version of “Abraham, Martin and John” reached the US charts.

She died in White Plains, New York, in 1975. Whoopi Goldberg made her name with a one-woman show about her and later a documentary.