“Never lose your head, not even for a minute—you need your head. Your brain’s in it.”
TRQ: Moms Mabley, Born March 19, 1894
One of America’s most successful black vaudeville comedians, Loretta Mary “Jackie” Mabley, known as “Moms Mabley,” was born in Brevard, North Carolina, U.S. By the age of fifteen, she had mothered two children. After moving to Cleveland, Ohio to escape her stepfather, Mabley discovered and embraced the livelihood performers made for themselves on the “chitlin circuit” that catered to African American audiences.
Though she entered show business under the name of her boyfriend at the time, Jack Mabley, she soon earned the nickname “Moms” because of her compassionate nature. Mabley made her way to New York City after being discovered by the vaudeville team Butterbeans and Susie, and began performing at Connie’s Inn. Soon Mabley was peforming at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and was the first female comedian to perform at the Apollo Theater. She went on to perform at the Apollo more often than any other act in its history.
For her stage persona, Mabley drew inspiration from her grandmother. She dressed in a frumpy housedress, a floppy hat, and made toothless, exaggerated facial expressions. Edgier than most comics at the time, Mabley joked about racism and sexuality, claiming to be much more interested in handsome young men than “washed up geezers.”
She acted in a number of films, in addition to her live stand-up acts, twenty of which were recorded live. Mabley appeared in Boarding House Blues in 1948, recorded her act Moms Mabley, The Funniest Woman in the World in 1960, and acted in again in Amazing Grace in 1974. She also appeared on the television show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
While filming Amazing Grace, Mabley had a heart attack. Then, on May 23, 1975, Moms Mabley died of heart failure. She left behind little evidence of how she lived her life. What is known that she was survived by six children, and had an estate worth half a million dollars. Whoopi Goldberg’s directing-debut documentary, Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, and Professor Bambi Haggins’s book Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post- Soul America are two sources that provide some insight into her private life.
Goldberg and Haggins both corroborate reports that Mabley was bisexual. Goldberg points to a photograph in which Moms is dressed as a man, which was not common at the time.
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Sources:
“Moms Mabley Biography”. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Thomson Gale. 2009. Archived from the original on October 16, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
