33 Facts About Gladys Bentley

Gladys Alberta Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.

Gladys Bentley's career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York City in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer.

Gladys Bentley headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens.

Gladys Bentley dressed in men's clothes, played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.

Gladys Bentley tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past.

Gladys Bentley was the eldest of four children in a low-income family living at 1012 W Euclid Ave.

Gladys Bentley did not match the early-twentieth century beauty ideal of being slender and boyish, and she preferred to wear her brother's suits instead of dresses or blouses.

Gladys Bentley recalled dreaming and being infatuated with her primary school female teachers but did not understand those feelings until later on in her life.

Gladys Bentley's behavior was seen as abnormal and "unladylike" which led to her family sending her to doctors to fix Gladys Bentley's desires.

Gladys Bentley moved from Philadelphia to Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City in 1925 at the age of 16.

Gladys Bentley heard that Harry Hansberry's Clam House on 133rd Street, one of the city's most notorious gay speakeasies, needed a male pianist.

Gladys Bentley's salary started at $35 per week plus tips and went to $125 per week, and the club was renamed Barbara's Exclusive Club, after her stage name at the time, Barbara "Bobbie" Minton.

Gladys Bentley toured the country, some destinations being Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Hollywood, where she was well liked by Cesar Romero, Hugh Herbert, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, and other celebrities.

Gladys Bentley had great talent as a piano player, singer, and entertainer.

Gladys Bentley's performances were "comical, sweet and risque" for the era and the audience.

Gladys Bentley was known for taking popular songs and putting a promiscuous spin on them.

Gladys Bentley sang loud, and her vocal style was deep and booming, sometimes using a growling effect and imitations of a horn.

Gladys Bentley mostly sang in a deep, low range, but reached high notes.

Gladys Bentley's performances appealed to black, white, gay, and straight audiences alike, and many celebrities attended her shows.

Gladys Bentley tried to continue her musical career by playing in a number of gay nightspots but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past.

Gladys Bentley claimed that she had married a white woman in Atlantic City.

Gladys Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era, she started wearing dresses and married Charles Roberts, age 28, a cook, in a civil ceremony in Santa Barbara, California, in 1952.

Gladys Bentley studied to be a minister, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones.

In 1933, Gladys Bentley found herself in the middle of a Supreme Court battle with Harry Hansberry and Nat Palein.

Hansberry and Palein sued Gladys Bentley to prohibit her from taking her musical to the Broadway division.

The duo insisted that Gladys Bentley left them high and dry at the rise of the club and wanted to pursue other interests that she could financially benefit from.

In 1930, Gladys Bentley lived with a woman named Beatrice Robert.

In 1931, Gladys Bentley had a civil ceremony in New Jersey, in a public union with a white woman whose identity is unknown.

Gladys Bentley died of pneumonia unexpectedly at her home in Los Angeles on January 18,1960, aged 52.

Gladys Bentley is buried beside her mother at Lincoln Memorial Park in Carson, California.

Fictional characters based on Gladys Bentley appeared in Carl Van Vechten's novel Parties, Clement Woods' novel Deep River, and Blair Niles' novel Strange Brother.

In 2016, musician Shirlette Ammons released an album entitled Twilight for Gladys Bentley, which paid tribute to Bentley's legacy and "reimagined" Bentley in relationship to hip hop culture.

Gladys Bentley was one of the featured obituaries in Overlooked No More.