Here is a marvellous Paris Review profile of Bricktop, née Ada Smith in 1894, 'legendary saloonkeeper' and African-American performer in Paris some time before Josephine Baker. In Paris, she drove F. Scott Fitzgerald home from the club every night, taught the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to dance the latest dances (also the Aga Khan, who was very fat and said 'How does it feel to have royalty kiss this little freckled hand of yours?') and hung out with Cole Porter. I'd never heard of her before.  

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