Private Letters to Black Vaudeville Star "Cousin Ida," or Ida Mae Lester, Correspondence Between Black Entertainers During Jim Crow Touring Circuit, 1953

Ida Mae Lester Black Vaudeville

Ephemera

Ida Mae Lester, New York based Black entertainer's received correspondence, circa 1945 and 1953, tracing the offstage network of the singing comedienne known professionally as Cousin Ida, who performed across clubs, touring revues, burlesque houses, and maintained personal relationships extending from Washington and Buffalo to Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York. Ms. Lester was working professionally by the early 1940s and appeared in December 1943 at Detroit’s Club Three Sixes on a bill with Bobbe Caston and blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson; in 1950 ASA Records issued her “A Rough and Ready Man” and “Woogie Boo,” backed by the Freddie Washington Quintet. These letters record the less documented infrastructure behind that career, spanning performers passing judgment on cities and clubs, shows leaving on the road, theater engagements, deaths within the circle, money sent between lovers, wartime marriages, and travel plans. Its geography follows the Black entertainment districts and touring routes created within segregated American cities.
Two autograph letters sent to Ida Mae Lester, nine manuscript pages total, c. 1945 and July 20, 1953, the latter retaining its mailed envelope addressed to “Mrs Ida Mae Lester / 134 W. 111 St. / New York N.Y.”:

[1] Arleta. Racine, Wisconsin, circa 1945. Autograph letter signed, 5 pages. Addressed “Dear Cousin Ida,” the letter immediately treats Washington as a professional destination: “I hear club Bali is a fine spot,” after reporting that “All the entertainers that I have met that have been there don’t like it.” Arleta then follows a touring show through Buffalo, writing that “Freeman took his show on the road from Buffalo” and “He played a week there at the burlesque house and the show was fairly good.” Her own movements extend through Akron, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo, Montreal, Racine, and St. Louis. She plans to go to Cleveland “the 17th to watch Betty Taylor at a theatre,” reports without elaboration that “Hattie Rose died and Baby Smith got killed,” and asks Lester to “Tell Cousin Mitch hello.” The letter repeatedly crosses between stage life and the private arrangements surrounding it. Wartime shortages appear in the memorable complaint, “I’ve forgotten what a pork chop looks like. I’ve eaten so much fish I can swim side ways,” while a postscript discusses Gene’s military service in France and Germany, a stopped allotment, and a gambling debt. Arleta then writes, “I got a white Canadian soldier wants to marry me. I met in Montreal,” adding on the final page that while on furlough “he came to Buffalo to see me” and “Once a month he sends me money.” The closing news returns to nightlife: “Cal has opened the bungalow” and “Mayme lost her license. She can’t even go in the joint.”

[2] Mande. Chicago, Illinois, July 20, 1953. Autograph letter signed, 4 pages, with original envelope. Written from 6736 South Lafayette Avenue and opening “Hi Sis,” the letter shows the same network several years later functioning through personal and family news sent to Lester in New York. Mande reports that Willie, Maggie, Carter, and the writer are purchasing a house for “$11,900.00,” with “$2500.00 down” and payments of “$125.00” per month, explains that Willie was “tired of paying $16.00 a week,” and passes along court proceedings concerning support of a child. Deaths and marriages continue to circulate through the correspondence: “Mary Jane Wilkerson were buried on the third of July” and “Alberta Allen died in Los Angeles,” followed by news of relatives and acquaintances. Even leisure travel is reduced to the economics of the moment: “Going to Nigra fall $17.00 round trip I wont to go,” Mande writes, before explaining that the new house and furniture have made the trip impossible.
Club Bali fixes Arleta’s first letter within one of the principal Black entertainment districts of wartime Washington. U Street’s “Black Broadway” developed in a deeply segregated city, with clubs, theaters, hotels, restaurants, and Black owned businesses supporting a cultural economy that mainstream Washington often excluded; Club Bali, opened in 1943 at 14th and T Streets, became a regular venue for Black performers including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. Smithsonian Folkways Betty Taylor supplies another connection to Lester’s professional orbit. Contemporary accounts identify a Chicago choreographer named Betty Taylor at Detroit’s Club Three 666 and describe a 1943 “Betty Taylor production” there; Cousin Ida herself appeared at the club later that year. D-Scholarship Arleta’s casual progression from Washington club gossip to a Buffalo road show, a Cleveland theater date, deaths among acquaintances, Montreal romance, military allotments, and the licensing troubles of a “joint” shows how professional and personal relationships overlapped within this mobile Black show business community. The 1953 letter continues that record after the immediate wartime setting, with Lester still receiving intimate news from Chicago at her West 111th Street address in New York. Folded as mailed, with moderate toning, handling wear, scattered staining and ink transfer; envelope with edge wear, staining, and loss along the lower margin. Overall good condition. A private record of the Black entertainment world under Jim Crow as it moved between clubs, road shows, segregated entertainment districts, and the domestic lives of the women within its social circle.

Item #23989

Price: $880.00