Gene Bullard was a slash man: jazz drummer/entrpreneur/aviator/boxer.
He was also a heroof two World Wars.
But more relevant to the CpB sequence, he provided the welcome mat
when Ada "Bricktop" Smith first set foot on Parisian soil.
The date was May 11, 1924.
Mr. Bullard was managing Le Grand Duc where Bricktop sang and danced
with a personality descended from Mount Olympus:
Langston Hughes worked at that restaurant, eight years
before his infamous birthday party.
Fred Astaire danced there a few years before famously dancing on Broadway.
Scott Fitzgerald drank there before...ten CpB blogposts told the rest of the story.
The first of those posts includes the lyrics to Cole Porter's most controversial song.
At the time it was written, Mr. Bullard owned a club called Zelli's
and his fellow clubowner, Bricktop explains the inspiration for the song.
The idea of Love For Sale came out of an experience Cole had at Zelli's on the Rue Fontaine. About fifty percent of the girls there worked as taxi dancers. they weren't whores. When Cole asked one of them what she did, she answered,
"I've got love for sale."
It was a great title. Mabel Mercer brought it to Bricktop's.
***
I have saved the best for last.
From beginning to end, the two most important people in Bricktop's life
were her mother and sister.
The most important thing Hattie Smith taught her daughter was...how to learn!
Blonzetta Smith's success as a Chicago real estate broker provided
a financial cushion for her sister's final return to the United States.
2 comments:
Langston Hughes worked at the Grand Duc in 1924. The party was in 1938. Zelli's was owned by an Italian-American, Joe Zelli. Eugene Bullard worked there as the band manager until 1924 when he began to manage and later own Le Grand Duc.
Eugene Bullard deserves to be
more than a historical footnote.
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