The journey of Moms Mabley

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 27th, 2007

Kliph Nesteroff has written a lengthy biographical article on Loretta Aiken, aka Moms Mabley, for WFMU’s Beware of the Blog.

It’s a sprawling rundown of the fascinating life of Mabley, whose time on earth saw her connected, in one way or another, to Shakespeare, Mantan Moreland, Robert Taft, Howard Hesseman, Richard Pryor and Milton the Monster among many others.

Moms Mabley was the star of the all-Black cast film Boarding House Blues (1948) in which she played landlord to a building full of vaudeville performers behind on their rent. The script is credited to Hal Seeger. Seeger wrote four pictures for the all-Black genre– his first jobs in show business. Seeger was a white man that became famous in the world of television animation with the shows Milton the Monster and Batfink. Boarding House Blues also featured “Crip” Heard, a tap dancer with only one arm and one leg who provides the movie with its greatest moments (obviously).

Check out Nesteroff’s site, Generation Exploitation, also.

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