Page 80 of Score
DESSI
I didn’t know you smoked, Tilda.
TILDA
I don’t usually. These been in my purse for near ’bout a year, but we gotta use this.
From the table, Tilda picks up a red and blue matchbook with Ubangi Club printed in block letters.
Gladys Bentley takes the stage. A heavyset Black woman, with her hair slicked and closely cropped like a man’s, she’s wearing a cream-colored tuxedo and top hat. About forty effeminate pretty boys dance behind her onstage.
DESSI (GASPS, EYES WIDE, JAW DROPPED)
Well, I’ll be…
GLADYS
How y’all doing tonight?
TILDA (WHISPERS EXCITEDLY, EYES GLUED TO THE STAGE)
She even sound like a man, Bama!
Gladys plays a tune on the piano while the boys dance, but stands and starts sauntering through the club, singing popular songs and changing the lyrics. She combines “Alice Blue Gown” and “Georgia Brown,” but with her own raunchy words.
GLADYS
And he said, “Dearie, please turn around” / And he shoved that big thing up my brown /
He tore it. I bored it. Lord, how I adored it. / My sweet little Alice Blue Gown.
DESSI
Is she talking about…
TILDA (LAUGHING AT DESSI’S SHOCKED EXPRESSION)
Chile, bootie sex!
Gladys ends her set with a stirring rendition of “Worried Blues,” bows and walks off the stage.
DESSI
That was amazing!
TILDA
Bet you ain’t seen nothing like her in Alabama.
DESSI
She was… well, she was magnificent. She played the piano so pretty. And did you hear her? She made her voice sound like a trumpet!
TILDA
You didn’t mind her dressing like a man? I heard she likes girls, ya know?
DESSI (LOOKING EMBARRASSED)
