A quick note, this episode contains mature themes that may not be suitable for all listeners. This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Halima Shock. That deep voice accompanied by a trumpet-like scat is the sound of Gladys Bentley.

That deep voice accompanied by a trumpet-like scat is the sound of Gladys Bentley. She was a mainstay of nightclubs in early 20th century Harlem,

and her performances featured songs with pretty typical blues themes. Nowadays. Oh, a lot I thought I thought

money hard for you women to keep a real good man.

Now what they...

Gladys Bentley was a singer, performer, an entertainer who defied traditional gender roles in not

acting in expected ways.

This is Duandalen-Rise.

She's curator of music and performing arts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

One section of the museum explores the blues

in the 1920s and 30s and 30s and Gladys Bentley is part of that story even though

her name doesn't have the same recognition as some of her peers.

But that's changing. Today, Bentley is getting a second look from a new generation of

listeners. And it's because she's being revisited as a kind of trailblazer.

She pushed gender conventions for black women.

Gladys Bentley was a proud gender bender at a time when states had laws against cross-dressing.

Her signature look was a white tucks, top hat, and slicked back hair.

She sang raunchy songs and she was an out lesbian long before the sexual revolution and the gay rights movement. Let us, isn't gratitude any more.

Have a spot of her.

Those who seek a freebie, there's a door.

He just sees spiders no more giving way what she could tell.

...