Moms Mabley: The ‘Mother’ of Stand-up Comedy
Trailblazing career spanned more than 50+ years; First successful female solo comedy act and openly gay comic who released two dozen albums and performed at The Apollo Theater and Carnegie Hall
Many around the world are celebrating Mother’s Day over the weekend, except France who will observe Mother’s Day this year on the first Sunday in June. This Mother’s Day, I am not only recalling times with my late mother and grandmother who raised me in my native Baltimore, but also another ‘mother’, comedy legend Jackie “Moms” Mabley. In a career that began long before the likes of Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg, and Wanda Sykes, Mabley is credited as the first woman to establish herself as a single act as a stand-up comedian — essentially making her the ‘mother’ of stand-up comedy.
Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina on March 19, 1894 to James Aiken, who ran several successful businesses and the former Mary Smith, a housewife who took in boarders, she began performing as a teenager in the minstrel show Butterbeans and Susie. She would eventually get her break in 1920s vaudeville touring with the Theatre Owners Booking Association(aka “The Chitlin Circuit” for Black performers.) Her father died tragically when a fire engine exploded while he was volunteering as a firefighter. Loretta, as she was then known, was just 15 years old. Her mother, took over her husband’s businesses after his death, but was killed a few years later after being run over by a truck. At the beginning of her career, Mabley was an openly gay comic who wore men’s clothing before it became acceptable to be an openly queer entertainer, earning the nickname “Mr. Moms”. This was long before Ellen Degeneres made headlines with her character coming out on her ABC sitcom Ellen in 1997’s “The Puppy Episode”, while at the same time coming out to the public. She took her stage name Jackie Mabley from a former boyfriend, Jack Mabley, and adopted the nickname “Moms” because she mentored and had become like a mother to many younger performers coming up. Though she never married, Mabley had six children of her own. Dressed in frumpy clothes, she would gain a reputation for performing edgy material that contained racial, sexual, and political themes in her stand-up routines which included parodies of popular songs.
Mabley’s pioneering career in comedy spanned more than 50 years in which she released more than two dozen comedy albums and made appearances on television programs like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour(which introduced her to mainstream audiences) and The Merv Griffin Show, at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater(where at one point, she earned $10,000 per week) and at Carnegie Hall, and on film, including 1933’s The Emperor Jones opposite Paul Robeson; 1948’s Boarding House Blues; and 1974’s Amazing Grace. A cover of the song “Abraham, Martin, and John” hit #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 19, 1969 making Mabley, at the age of 75, the oldest living person ever to have a US Top 40 hit. Moms Mabley died May 23, 1975 of heart failure at age 81.
The Emmy Award-nominated HBO documentary Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley(2013) explored Mabley’s life, career, and influence. Goldberg served as the documentary’s director and executive producer. Comedienne Wanda Sykes appeared in season 3 finale of the Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel portraying Mabley in the episode “A Jewish Girl Walks Into The Apollo…”.
