Ada "Bricktop" Smith

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (August 14, 1894 – February 1, 1984), better known as Bricktop, was an American dancer, jazz singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper who owned the famous nightclub "Chez Bricktop" in Paris from 1924 to 1961, as well as clubs in Mexico City and Rome.

She has been called "one of the most legendary and enduring figures of twentieth-century American cultural history". She wrote her autobiography, Bricktop by Bricktop, with the help of James Haskins, a prolific author who wrote biographies of Thurgood Marshall and Rosa Parks. It was published in 1983 by Welcome Rain Publishers (ISBN 0-689-11349-8).