Grab your gin and settle into your speakeasy booth, babs—we’re heading back to the roaring, smoky clubs of 1920s Harlem. In the sixth episode of Time Travelling Queers, we’re unearthing the life of a true original: the legendary blues pianist and singer, Gladys Bentley.
Clad in a sharp tuxedo, top hat, and cane, Gladys wasn't just performing, she was rewriting the rules of gender and desire. From headlining the Ubangi Club with a drag queen chorus line to turning popular hits into scandalous lesbian anthems, she was a Black queer icon before the world was ready for one.
But what happens when the party ends? We’re diving into her mysterious marriage, the hostility of the McCarthy Era, and the complicated, messy reality of survival that forced a legend to reinvent herself. Join celebrity guest Farrel Hegarty, and historian Paula Akpan as Don One travels back in time to celebrate the unapologetic, the glamorous, and the forgotten.
History has never been this queer.
#ttqpod
Website: www.timetravellingqueers.com
Social Media: @timetravellingqueers
Follow Don One on Insta: @don1drag
A Molly House Media Production.
www.mollyhousemedia.com
Host : Don One
Guest : Farrel Hegarty
Historian : Paula Akpan
Creator, Writer & Director : David Mark Graham
Writer & Producer : Marie Horner
Executive Producer : Rishi Khosla
Editor : Lesley Posso
Set Designer : Ellie Koslowsky
Sound Designer & Dubbing Mixer : Jon Gray
Theme music Composer : Adiescar Chase
CHAPTERS/TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - 2:57 intro
2:58 - 4:23 Time Travel
04:24 - 5:42 The great migration
05:43 - 13:31 Horoscopes, mummy issues and teacher crushes
13:32 - 18:30 The Clam House, a Harlem Queer Speak Easy
18:31 - 19:28 What’s on Trend?!
19:29 - 27:30 A queer prohibition triple threat
27:31 - 31:47 Filthy lyrics
31:48 - 34:57 From Clams to Crowns - Ubangi Club Royalty
34:57 - 39:11 Gladys’ or a “special friend”
39:12 - 52:36 A woman again- McCarthyism
52:37 - 56:03 Legacy
56:04 - 57:07 Sorting out the fare and outro
57:08 - 57:14 Easter egg
REFERENCES
Gladys Bentley and the Performance of Queer Black Female Masculinity
Gladys Bentley: The Life and Legacy of a Blues Singer
The Great Blues Singer Gladys Bentley Broke All the Rules
The Miraculous Masculinity of Gladys Bentley
Gladys Bentley (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
Gladys Bentley: Pioneering Queer Performer
IMAGE CREDIT
Gladys Bentley circa 1930, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture via New York Times
