May 23, 1975: First African-American Stand-up Comic Dies-Jackie Moms Mabley

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BY WALTER OPINDE

On this day, May 23, 1975, the first African-American standup comedian, Jackie Moms Mabley, dies. She achieved a great professional and commercial success during the age in which there were very few African-American females on the comedy platforms.

Famous with her stage name, Jackie Moms Mabley; Loretta Mary Aiken was born on 19th March 1894, in Brevard, North Carolina. She was brought up in a family of 16 children. Her mother took care of the households while her father owned and operated several businesses successfully. At a mere age of 13 years, Jackie Moms Mabley had been raped twice (by an old black man, at 11, and a white sheriff, at 13).

At a teenage age of just 15 years of age, Loretta escaped from her parental home to Cleveland with a travel vaudeville-style minstrel show, where she realized her potentials of entertaining and singing. She later acquired the name “Moms” as indeed, she was a Mom to many comedians in the 1950s and 1960s circuit. She was one of the most successful entertainers of the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” the other name for the T.OB.A. (Theater Owners Booking Association), which was also satirically known as the “Tough On Black Asses” Circuit.

By the mid-20th century, the 1950s to be precise, Jackie Moms was already one of the most famous and successful female comedians in the U.S., receiving up to approximately $10,000 as her weekly earnings while performing at the Apollo Theater, in Harlem. Mabley recorded over twenty albums of various comedy routines. Some of her most well-known albums included “Jackie Moms Mobley at the U.N.,” recorded 1961, and the “Moms Mabley Breaks It Up,” which she recorded a year later, in 1962. She also appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and the Ed Sullivan Show.

Jackie Moms was billed as “The Funniest Female in the World” as she tackled a range of topics that were too uneasy to many mainstream comedians of her time, such as sexuality, romance, and racism. In 1969, Jackie Moms Mabley recorded a satirical song, famously known as “Abraham, Martin, and John,” which trended and emerged as hit number 35 on the Billboards and Charts. This song made her name a history after ranking as the oldest female ever to feature on the Top 40 hits in the U.S.

Jackie Moms Mabley is the subject of the “Whoopi Goldberg” Presents Moms Mabley- a documentary film that was first aired on 18th November 2013 on HBO. The film was nominated twice for the “Creative Arts Emmy Awards” during the 66th ceremony held at Nokia Theater on 16th August 2014, in Downtown Los Angeles. Recently, in 2015, Jackie Moms Mabley was named as one of the 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT Historical Month by the Equity Forum. She remains an iconic legend in the history of American black comedy.

Read more of the story via:

http://www.biography.com/people/moms-mabley-38691

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/nov/14/comedy-gold-jackie-moms-mabley-compilation

4 Comments

  • Mkina May 23, 2017 - 2:41 pm

    Do you know who caused the federal debt? It started with Reagan under advice from Greenspan. Greenspan lied to Reagan that the economy comes from the top rich to down to the poor. So Reagan wanted to make the rich richer and freedom for them to do what they wanted with their extra money. He did not know once the rich get richer and have freedom, they move their businesses out of country. That is what happened. Romney and other rich people invested in China, Japan, Egypt; Malaysia where they would meet their mistresses; thus leaving people here jobless or on welfare; and they laughed at people as free-loaders. That is what caused the 2008 meltdown. President Obama came in and repaired the economy and people felt good again. By the time Obama left, people of all races and creed were enjoying life in USA and the world. It seems our friend Trump is going back to Reaganomics-the trickle-down economics. It never worked and will never work.

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