Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, better known as Bricktop, was born on August 14, 1894, in Alderson, West Virginia.
She emerged as a pioneering figure in 20th-century music and nightlife, celebrated as a dancer, singer, vaudeville performer and club owner.
Her involvement with the performing arts began at an early age. At five years old, she appeared as “Harry” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Chicago’s Haymarket. Following her father’s death in 1898, Smith and her family relocated to Chicago, which proved formative for her artistic pursuits. By age sixteen, Smith was performing on the TOBA and Pantages circuits, developing her talent within the vaudeville tradition. It was during these formative years that she received the moniker “Bricktop,” a reference to her red hair and freckles.
Bricktop’s career reached a turning point in 1924 when she moved to Paris. There, she became an integral part of the city’s cultural milieu. The composer Cole Porter frequently invited her to perform at his gatherings, where she taught dances such as the Charleston and Black Bottom to elite guests.
A notable encounter at Club Le Grand Duc in Montmartre introduced her to Langston Hughes, who at the time worked as a busboy. Bricktop’s unique presence and charisma soon made her a central figure in Parisian café society.
In 1926, she established Chez Bricktop, her own nightclub in Paris. The venue attracted prominent figures, including Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Cole Porter notably wrote “Miss Otis Regrets” for her.
The onset of World War II led Bricktop to close her Paris club and relocate first to Mexico City in 1944, supported by patron Doris Duke, and later to Rome, where her Via Veneto club became renowned among Hollywood and international celebrities.
Bricktop retired from managing nightclubs in 1961 and returned to the United States. Nevertheless, she continued performing into her eighties, recording “So Long Baby” with Cy Coleman in 1972 and making cameo appearances in films such as Honeybaby, Honeybaby (1974) and Woody Allen’s Zelig (1983).
Her memoir, Bricktop, co-authored with James Haskins, was published in 1983. She passed away in January 1984. In 2013, she was posthumously inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, reflecting her enduring legacy.
