Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Know Your LGBT History

There are so many stories about the life of legendary blues singer Bessie Smith. Let's clear up two. No, her death in an automobile accident was not the result of being denied entry at a white hospital. And yes she was bisexual and, to put it nicely, a bad ass one.

Bessie Smith - (1894-1937):

Bessie Smith was born poor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her parents died when she was eight years old and she began singing to support her family at age seven. She sang on street corners with her brother accompanying her on guitar.

Bessie Smith went on to become one of the most successful Black performers of her day. Her album "Downhearted Blues," released in 1923, was the best selling blues record of its time. At the height of her career, she was making $2,000 a week. Quite a sum for those days.

Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey:

At age 17, Bessie Smith met Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and went on the road with her traveling show. Ma Rainey became a mentor to Bessie Smith. There is some speculation that the two were also lovers, but little to back that up.

Bessie Smith and Jack Gee:

Bessie Smith was married to Jack Gee in 1923. Both Jack and Bessie had affairs with women and these affairs caused many fights between the two. There are accounts of Bessie firing a gun at Jack after learning of one of his affairs and of Jack threatening to kiss Bessie after finding her with a woman.

Bessie Smith ended her relationship with Jack Gee in 1929 after she found out he was having an affair with another singer.

Bessie Smith and Lillian Simpson:

Bessie Smith had affairs with various women through out her life. One that we know about is with Lillian Simpson. According to Bessie's niece Ruby, who traveled with her, Bessie Smith had an on and off affair with one of her chorus girls Lillian Simpson in 1926. At one point when Bessie spurned her, Lillian tried to kill herself and ended up in the hospital. The affair eventually ended when Lillian left the tour, afraid of Bessie's husband Jack finding out.

Bessie's Love of Women:

Bessie's husband Jack found out about her affairs with women when he caught her with a woman at a boarding house in Detroit. He threatened to kill her, but she managed to escape with her troupe and back to her train and out of town before he caught up with her.

Bessie Smith Blues Singer:

Bessie Smith performed for predominantly Black audiences. She played private parties, at speakeasies and "rent parties." She loved to tour and bought her own railroad car so she and her performers could travel in comfort from town to town, avoiding the Jim Crow laws of the time. Life on the road was tough, though. It often included heavy drinking and fights. Bessie and her husband Jack had a violent relationship, that eventually ended in 1929.

Bessie Smith died in September 1937, killed in a car crash on her way to a gig in rural Tennessee. She was 43 years old.

The following passage is taken from Lesbianism in the life of Bessie Smith by Chris Albertson and it tells of the tumultuous relationship between Bessie and Lillian:

On January 10, 1927, Bessie's show began a week's engagement at the Booker Washington Theatre in St. Louis. Jack had left the troupe again, and Bessie and Lillian continued their affair. On their first day in St. Louis, Bessie entered the room shared by Ruby and Lillian. She walked up behind Lillian, leaned forward, and kissed her.

Embarrassed, Lillian looked at Ruby and jerked away. "Don't play around with me like that," she said.

Bessie grabbed her around the waist. "Is that how you feel?"

"Yes!" Lillian said. "That's exactly how I feel."

"The hell with you, bitch," said Bessie. "I got twelve women on this show and I can have one every night if I want it. Don't you feel so important, and don't you say another word to me while you're on this show, or I'll send you home bag and baggage."

For three days and nights Bessie ignored Lillian totally. On the fourth night Lillian did not show up at the theatre. The show went on without her, but as soon as the curtain fell Bessie started to worry. "She's just tryin' to pout," she told Ruby. Just then, Maud burst into the room. "I had left the theatre and gone into the hotel," she recalls. "When I passed Lillian's room, I saw an envelope sticking out from under the door. The door was locked, so I pulled the envelope out, opened it and saw that it was a suicide note. That's when I ran back to the theatre to get Bessie."

Without taking time to read the note, Bessie, with Ruby and Maud at her heels, ran next door to the hotel. When they reached Lillian's door, they smelled gas. Bessie tried to force the door, panicked, rushed downstairs, and got the proprietor. When he let them in, they found Lillian Iying across the bed, unconscious. The proprietor had to break the windowpanes: Lillian had nailed the window shut. She was taken in an ambulance to the nearest hospital.

Bessie didn't sleep that night. The next morning she went to the hospital and got Lillian out. The episode apparently put an end to Lillian's inhibitions. "From that day on," says Ruby, "she didn't care where or when Bessie kissed her-she got real bold."

Bessie and company played the Roosevelt Theatre in Cincinnati during the week of January 17, and opened at the Grand in Chicago the following Monday....

During their stay in Chicago Lillian first tried to leave the show. She had lost her inhibitions but not her fear; Jack, she knew, would find out about her and Bessie sooner or later, and she wanted to get out while the getting was good. Bessie persuaded her to stay.

But when they opened at the Koppin Theatre in Detroit on February 5, Lillian decided to leave once and for all. This time Bessie expressed no anger, made no pleas.

The affair with Lillian had kept Bessie relatively sober, but on the night following Lillian's departure, she cut loose. Detroit was a fine town for that. On previous trips, Bessie had befriended a woman who ran a buffet flat. Buffet flats- sometimes referred to as good-time flats-were small, privately owned establishments featuring all sorts of illegal activities: gambling and erotic shows, as well as sex acts of every conceivable kind. These buffet flats were usually owned by women, who ran them with admirable efficiency, catering to the occasional thrillseeker as well as to regular clients whose personal tastes they knew intimately....

Each time Bessie appeared at the Koppin, her proprietress friend would send one or two cars to the stage door to transport Bessie and her party-usually a coterie of girls who knew how to keep their mouths shut-to the notorious establishment. The night after Lillian left, Bessie took five girls, including Ruby, with her. As they walked out the stage door she delivered a familiar threat: "If any of you tell Jack about this, you'll never work in my shows again."

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday, May 25, 2012

Know Your LGBT History - Bessie Smith

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