After years in vaudeville and touring under the Theatre Owners Booking Assocation (also known as the 'Chitlin' Circuit'); writing a Broadway show, for a black cast, with Zora Neale Hurston in 1931; becoming the first African-American female to perform at The Apollo in 1939; taking bit parts in Hollywood "race films" in the 40s, Loretta May Aiken (aka Jackie Mabley) crossed over with 'mainstream' (read: white) audiences during the comedy record boom of the 1960s (when she was actually becoming the age of her long-standing character). Her political content was apparently more easily digestible in the guise of an old lady.
