The Death of Bessie Smith

The Death of Bessie Smith is a one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee, written in 1959 and premiered in West Berlin the following year.

[6] In the original British Actors edition approved by the Lord Chamberlain for performance in Britain, the scene with the line My love is like a tent with the pole pointing upwards (i.e. an erection) was censored.

[8] New Brooklyn Theatre produced The Death of Bessie Smith in January 2014 at Interfaith Medical Center to raise awareness about several New York City hospitals in danger of closing.

The incident upon which the play is based is a myth that was largely accepted as fact until convincing evidence to the contrary appeared in the original 1972 edition of Bessie, a biography of the singer.

The idea that she was refused entry to the whites-only hospital originated in an article by jazz writer and producer John Hammond in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat.