She wouldn't even nurse me and my grandmother had to raise me for 6 months on a bottle before they could persuade my mother to take care of her own baby. Inevitably, even the vaunted Ubangi club closed its doors in 1937, kicking Bentley out along with its regular clientele. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7634493/gladys-alberta-bentley. Not content with changing her outward appearance, in the 1950s Bentley began to change her insides as well, going to a doctor and beginning to take female hormones to overcome her more masculine traits. Gossip suggested her doctor had covered up the real cause of death, an overdose of . This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. In 1952, her first husband J.T. In an article she wrote about her life for Ebony magazine, she said that soon after arriving in Harlem she auditioned at the Mad House, a venue on 133rd Street, which was in need of a male pianist. According to Elvis History Blog, Gladys Presley, the mother of Elvis Presley, died "of a heart attack" at the age of 46, the cause of death given in an Associated press story from the time.. 03.12.2019. The cause of her death was most likely due to the stress of Elvis' career and the demands of being a single mother. Funeral arrangements announced for Betsy Layne Elementary School teacher After a long climb, Bentley had finally made it to the topbut with stardom came scandal. Later psychiatrists would coin Bentley's non-heteronormative behavior as "extreme social maladjustment." Please reset your password. There is a problem with your email/password. Michael Bekoev was a Ukrainian bodybuilder who died of a heart attack at age 54. By the late 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance and Gladys Bentley, had lost their allure. The Tragic Life Of Elvis Presley's Mother Gladys | Ben Vaughn African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. We have set your language to She found one, alright. Gladys Alberta Bentley was born on August 12, 1907, which makes her a Leo. Want just a taste of Gladys Bentleys scorching lyrics? Despite those challenges Bentley likely encountered in New Yorks entertainment business, it is no surprise that she moved to Harlem. She had a recording contract for her raunchy songs, put out a series of records with her broad, booming voice, and was just positioning herself to take over the bright lights of Broadway. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Like in many school districts today, Floyd County students are attending class remotely, due to forecasts of severe weather moving into the region. Gladys Bentley joined New York's Harlem Renaissance jazz scene at age 16 and became an instant sensation and gender identity pioneer, performing piano and vocals at the most popular gay bars . She moved to speakeasies and night clubs in Jungle Alley, the center of Harlems sporting life. Lamont Bentley, a promising actor who appeared in more than a dozen films and television shows but was best known for his role on the comedy series "Moesha," died early Wednesday in a car crash in . Did Gladys Knight pass away? Death rumors debunked - Sportskeeda Gladys Bentley had told the gossip columnist that she had just gotten married. . Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? You have chosen this person to be their own family member. When Bentley came up to a hot young thing, she had one go-to move. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. His mother was the daughter of a cotton farmer and she met his father at church. Name a Woman: Pioneering Drag King Gladys Bentley Her performances were "comical, sweet and risqu"[9] for the era and the audience. Eventually, Bentley got tired of performing for small crowds, and began looking for gigs at bona fide clubs around New York. Openly lesbian, she sang raunchy remakes of popular tunes in a deep voice, dressed in her signature mens style of tuxedo and top hat. Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Places would bill her as a male impersonator or even an actual male performer, thanks to her dapper styling and masculine energy. But she still had one more legacy left. As times progressed and federal laws continued to change, there became a point where Bentley had to carry special permits to allow her to perform in men's clothing. Decades after his death, Baldwin's work is still celebrated, with his ruminations of life as a Black gay man still holding true for many today. Lea Bentley, a primary teacher at Betsy Layne Elementary, died on Thursday. Bentley made her spectacular debut on the Great White Way in 1933until it turned into an utter disaster. After a lifetime of loneliness, she wrote that she had undergone medical treatment that awakened her womanliness. She claimed to have married twice, though Wilson says that one of the men denied ever having been married to Bentley. Gladys Bentley should be remembered for being a gender outlaw, says Wilson. In the early 1930s, she headlined at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. Since she was a schoolgirl, she had started daydreaming about her female teachers, and developing intimate feelings for the women she knew. Shortly after, Gladys was diagnosed with hepatitis, and her condition worsened very quickly. You may request to transfer up to 250,000 memorials managed by Find a Grave. Gladys Bentley: Gender-Bending Performer and Musician Gladys Bentley - National Museum of African American History and Culture Gladys Bentley Obituary (1934 - 2021) | New York Mills, MN She moved from Philadelphia to Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City in 1925[7] at the age of 16. The cause of death is pending toxicology results from the Frankfort lab, said Mercer Coroner Sonny Ransdell. There was an error deleting this problem. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. Lila Gladys Young was a Canadian woman who operated The Ideal Maternity Home, a discreet residence for unwed pregnant mothers in Nova Scotia between 1928 and 1947. . In fact, she was often the source. My mom never told me how her best friend died. Gladys Love, Elvis Presley's mother, died due to heart attack and liver failure. On May 15, 1958 she appeared as a contestant on You Bet Your Life, engaging in discussion with host Groucho Marx before accompanying herself on piano as she sang "Them There Eyes". A large, masculine, Black womana "bulldagger," in the language of her dayshe was known for wearing a. Wilson also says that Bentley, who was aging and no stranger to reinvention, was likely making deft use of the press. Maybe thats why things took a turn for the tragic. According to the stories, Bentleys new partner was also a white woman. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. This article reflects that. When Gladys Presley passed away on August 14, 1958, Elvis was only 23 years old. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Actor Lamont Bentley, Known for Sitcom Role, Dies in Freeway Crash Early the next morning at 3:15 AM on August 14, Gladys Presley, the 46-year-old mother of Elvis, died from a heart attack due to hepatitis complications. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. There she received many complaints about her raunchy performances which resulted in the police locking up the doors of places she performed. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Floyd school mourns teacher - Mountain Top Media Retiring in 1998, after a career spanning more than 40 years, she and Ira decided to mark this new era in their life by travelling. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Gladys Alberta Bentley I found on Findagrave.com. She was larger in size and preferred to wear her brother's suits instead of dresses or blouses. She was predeceased by : her parents, Lloyd . In fact, she became the most prominent mannish lesbian of the Harlem Renaissance. Bentley was the most popular and infamous speakeasy performer in Prohibition-era New York. Although Bentley used feminine pronouns in her public life, some experts believe she would have been a transgender man today, while others insist she only played with gender expectations and never tried to pass as a man. Haleema Shah is the host and associate producer for the Smithsonian's "Sidedoor" podcast, and a journalist who believes in using audio to enable audiences to delve deep into the ideas that shape our world. Although she was a talented singer and pianist, her lyricism and queer presentation truly made her stand out. He was inconsolable as he sank to his knees beside his mother's bed. When Bentley finished her performance, the room burst into applause. And that was the least of her revelations. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Scholars who have studied Bentleys life said that the story Bentley told about being cured in the Ebony article was likely a response to the McCarthy Era and its hostile claims that homosexuality and communism were threats to the country. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Heck no. musician. Millvina Dean - Death, Family & Facts - Biography She was a pioneer in pushing the envelope of gender, sexuality, class, and race with parody and exaggeration, personally and professionally. Gladys Bentley, one of the most flamboyant blues entertainers of the 20th century, began performing in New York City as a singer and male impersonator. "Biblical Gender Bending in Harlem: The Queer Performance of Nugent's Salome. The Wayward Life of Gladys Bentley - Paris Review Drag images here or select from your computer for Gladys Alberta Bentley memorial. At the time, the comings and goings of Bentleys inner boudoir were public knowledge, and that was just how she liked it. The Tragic Death Of Elvis Presley's Mother From Hepatitis Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Gladyspassed away on month day1963, at age 54 at death place, Kentucky. She moved to speakeasies and night clubs in Jungle Alley, the center of Harlem's sporting life. The cause of death was a heart attack, and it was later discovered that one of the contributing factors was liver failure due to alcohol poisoning. 01/18/1960 . Gladys Bentley was a triple threata singer, a dancer, and a lesbian. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line . Born in working-class Philadelphia, Bentley moved to New York City at the age of 18 at a time when gay and lesbian nightclubs began to emerge and the . Looking back, this might have been a bad omen. The family struggled financially. pneumonia. Elvis' family didn't come from riches or anything of the sort. "It broke my heart," Elvis Presley said. Bentley claimed that she and her white female lover went through a civil union in New Jersey. That all changed in the blink of an eye. [13] In 1930 she recorded a side with the Washboard Serenaders for Victor,[14] and later recorded for the Excelsior, and Flame labels. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, crossdressing performer. Try again. In 1958, Bentley, who grew up in Philadelphia, appeared on Groucho Marxs game show You Bet Your Life where she said she was from Port-au-Spain (her mother happened to be Trinidadian). Learn more about merges. The hit show about a Yorkshire corner shop, which starred Ronnie. Gipson passed, but the spitfire performer didnt wait until he was cold in his grave to jump into bedwith yet another man. On August 8, gravely ill, she was taken by ambulance to Methodist Hospital. According to Jim Wilson, author of the book Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem was also a community that the police turned a blind eye to during the Prohibition Era. In her music, she called out men and openly sang about sexual relationships which was seen as risqu behavior at the time. She relocated to southern California, marketing herself as Americas Greatest Sepia Piano Player and The Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs, a cheeky nod to her inelegant lyrical double entendres. Elvis Presley Cause of Death: How Did 'The King' Die? Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. The report will reveal what was in Tewmey's system at the time of his . In 2016, musician Shirlette Ammons released an album entitled Twilight for Gladys Bentley, that paid tribute to Bentley's legacy and "reimagined" Bentley in relationship to hip hop culture. By 1933, Bentley had parlayed her fame into country-wide domination. She also appeared at the the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club. No doubt, Gladys Bentley won a fair few beautiful conquests in her day by picking them out of the crowd and mixing business with pleasure. In the summer of 1952, while married to Gipson, Bentley penned an article for Ebony magazine looking back on her stardom and her personal life. She was one of the most well-known and financially successful black women in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Gladys Bentley - WorldCat At the Mad House, the boss was reluctant to give me a chance, Bentley wrote. Get it, Gladys. So Gladys Bentley abandoned that and seems to want to restart her career as a more traditional black woman performer., In 1952, Bentley wrote her life story in an article for Ebony magazine, entitled I Am A Woman Again. In the article, she described the life of a glamorous performer who silently struggled with herself. Making distraction rewarding since 2017. Her success picked up again during World War II with the expansion of gay bars on the West Coast. ", Gladys Bentley performing "Them There Eyes" with Groucho Marx on, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Gladys Bentley, Gender-Bending Blues Performer and '20s Harlem Royalty", "The Great Blues Singer Gladys Bentley Broke All the Rules", "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem", National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gladys Bentley, more than a liberated singer, "Blues Singer Gladys Bentley Broke Ground with Marriage to a Woman in 1931", "shirlette celebrates Gladys Bentley in PBS American Masters Series, UNLADYLIKE2020", Collection of newspaper clippings and recording information about Gladys Bentley, from Queer Music Heritage, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gladys_Bentley&oldid=1147239415, The Mad House, 133rd Street, Harlem, New York City, New York, Harry Hansberry's Clam House ("Gladys' Clam House"), 133rd Street, Harlem, Harlem, New York City, New York, Ubangi Club, Harlem, New York City, New York, Connie's Inn ("Jungle Alley"), 2221 Seventh Street, Harlem, New York City, New York, "Worried Blues" / "Ground Hog Blues" (August 1928) #8610, "Wild Geese Blues" / "How Much Can I Stand" (November 1928, with piano, not released), "Wild Geese Blues" / "How Much Can I Stand" (November 1928, with guitar) #8643, "Red Beans and Rice" / "Big Gorilla Man" (March 1929) #8707, "Washboards Get Together" / "Kazoo Moan", #38127, scatting vocal on A-side only (title often listed as "Washboard Get Together"), with the Washboard Serenaders, recorded March 1930; reissued twice, as Bluebird B-5790 (circa 1934) and B-6633 (circa 1936), "Boogie'n My Woogie" / "Thrill Me Till I Get My Fill", #164, "Red Beans & Rice Blues" / "Find Out What He Likes (and How He Likes It)" #165/166, "Big Gorilla Blues" / "Lay It on the Line", #166/165, "Notoriety Papa" / "It Went to the Girl Next Door", #169, "July Boogie" / "Gladys Could Play", #337, as Fatso Bentley, July 4, 1953, "Easter Mardi Gras" / "Before Midnight", Flame 1001, Cincinnati, early 1950s, label misspells name as Gladys Bently; mentioned in her August 1952 article in, This page was last edited on 29 March 2023, at 17:37. She is buried beside her mother at Lincoln Memorial Park in Carson, California. And while the performance of what an observer called a masculine garbed smut-singing entertainer led to the shutdown of Kings Terrace, Bentleys powerful voice, fiery energy on the piano and bold lyrics still made her a star of New York City nightclubs. Like a great number of lost souls, I inhabited that half-shadow no mans land which exists between the boundaries of the two sexes.. She scoffed and said, Man? Rustin's sexuality was a cause for debate by others in the movement, but toward the end of his life, he began to openly fight for queer causes. singer. Black and white audiences loved the risqu lyrics, the sonorous deep voice, the open flirtation with the most attractive women in the audience, the jokes about sissies and bull daggers.