Moms Mabley

At one time the most successful woman standup comic in America -- she remains the highest-charting comedienne in Billboard history -- social satirist Jackie "Moms" Mabley is largely unknown to contemporary audiences, but her impact on successive generations of both female and African-American comics remains inestimable. Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina on March 19, 1894, her early life was marred by tragedy -- one of a dozen children, her father, a volunteer fire fighter, was killed when she was 11, when his fire truck overturned and exploded, and her mother ...