The #1 source in the world for all things Harlem.

Gladys Alberta Bentley, August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960, was a Harlem blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem’s Ubangi Club, where she was backed up…

The post Harlem’s Gladys Alberta Bentley, Friend Of Cary Grant, Stanwyck, And Others, Way ‘Out’ Ahead Of Her Time appeared first on Harlem World Magazine.

* This article was originally published here