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One the most successful entertainers of the Black vaudeville stage, also known as the Chitlin Circuit, was Jackie "Moms" Mabley, born Loretta Mary Aiken in 1894. At the apex of her long career, she was earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. Mabley focused on conventional topics such as family and others not normally covered by comedians of the era, white or Black, such as infidelity, poverty, welfare, and inebriation.

Billed as the Funniest Woman in the World, she adopted her original stage name from a boyfriend, Jackie Mabley, and began her career at 14. A teenage runaway, she joined the Negro troupe of Henry Bowman and Tim Moore and, in a short time, became a success. Quick-witted and quick-tongued, Mabley's unorthodox, self-assured routines as an outspoken grandma while wearing bag-lady clothes--old-fashioned print dresses and floppy hats--was a favorite with Black female audiences, particularly when she was lampooning the psychology of men. Her career spanned five decades, although white audiences did not know of her until the early 1960s. Mabley played Carnegie Hall in 1962. Mainstream TV appearances in the 1960s included variety appearances on shows hosted by Flip Wilson, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967). She was an inspiration for irreverent female comics of that era, including Phyllis Diller and, in her final years, Mabley poked fun at the president and other government officials.

Moms Mabley in Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley (2013)

A woman is a woman until the day she dies, but a man&#39;s a man only as long as he can.

There ain&#39;t nothing an old man can do for me except bring me a message from a young one.

Love is like playing checkers. You have to know which man to move.

Life is like a game of poker: If you don&#39;t put any in the pot, there won&#39;t be any to take out.

The teenagers aren&#39;t all bad. I love &#39;em if nobody else does. There ain&#39;t nothing wrong with young people. Jus&#39; quit lyin&#39; to &#39;em.

Quotes

Moms Mabley

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