Ada "Bricktop" Smith photograph collection

Abstract

The Ada "Bricktop" Smith Photograph Collection documents some aspects of her personal life and professional career, from the 1890s to the early 1980s.The collection includes studio and candid portraits of Bricktop, some members of her family and friends; views of the activities of individuals who patronized or performed at her nightclubs in Paris and Rome; and views of Bricktop during her later years after her return to the United States. The collection has no images of her Paris club, The Music Box, from the mid-1920s, or of her American and Mexican clubs from the 1940s.

Personal and family photographs include Bricktop, as an infant, in a group portrait with her mother and relatives (ca. 1894); a photo collage of Bricktop and her mother (1915); some portraits of her as a young woman before moving to Paris (1913-1924); her mother and sister, Ethel; Bricktop and her husband, saxophonist Peter Duconge, in Paris (1929); and an undated snapshot of Bricktop, Peter and a group of friends at an outdoor restaurant.

Images of Bricktop during her later years include views of her doing charity work in Naples, Italy, after World War II, and at an unidentified children's hospital in Denver, Colorado; audiences with Popes Pius XII (1957), John XXIII (1961) and Paul VI (1964); visiting with director Robert Wise and actress Julie Andrews on the set of the film "Star" (1967); snapshots of her 80th birthday party in Chicago (1974); being honored on "Bricktop Day" in Chicago (1978); meeting with songwriter Otis Blackwell and others gathered to present her with a citation (1978); and with a group of friends in her New York apartment (ca. 1980). Included in this series are various portraits, group portraits and snapshots of friends, some of which depict parties and social gatherings, including views of Bricktop and actor Errol Flynn clowning at a party for Flynn's wife, Pat, in Naples, Italy (1952).

Images of Bricktop's career as an entertainer and as hostess and proprieter of Bricktop's include a group portrait of her, with Jelly Roll Morton and others, outside the Cadillac Cafe in Los Angeles (1917); posing outside the Cafe Le Grand Duc, where she performed (1925); group portraits of her posing with entertainers and customers in her club, Bricktop's, in Paris, including Mabel Mercer, Spencer Williams, Fats Waller, and Louis Bromfield (1932); an undated view of the front of her club, spelled on the marquee as Brick Top's; views and group portraits of her chatting, singing to and posing with patrons in her re-opened Bricktop's in Paris (1950), and at Bricktop's in Rome (dated 1951-1962); and views of her singing at the casino at Estoril, Portugal (1952), and at various locations in New York City and Boston (1975, 1979). Among her patrons at the 1950 Bricktop's in Paris are Elizabeth Taylor, Duke Ellington, Salvador Dali, Arturo Lopez Willshaw, Burgess Meredith, Lena Horne, and Barbara Hutton; her patrons at Bricktop's in Rome include Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Bennie Barnes, Clifton Webb, Louis Bellson and Pearl Baily, with whom Bricktop is shown performing (1957).

A portion of the collection consists of portraits and group portraits, some of which are publicity stills and autographed to Bricktop, of celebrities, public figures, Roman Catholic clergy, and friends. Among these are images of singers Ray Charles, Odetta and Tony Bennett, diplomat Ralph Bunche, performer Josephine Baker, composer Cole Porter, New York City mayor Ed Koch, and Bricktop's goddaughter, Tiberia Mitri. Also included is a group of photographs of the Moses sisters, Julia, Ethel and Lucia, who were stage performers.

Dates / Origin

Date issued: 1890

Library locations

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Shelf locator: Sc Photo Ada "Bricktop" Smith Collection