As a child growing up in Bradford in the late 1800s, young Gertrude Elizabeth Curtis was the daughter of a local barber and an average student at Bradford High School when she graduated in 1900.

Curtis, whose name was also spelled Curtiss, would go on to not only attend Philadelphia Dental College, Dental Division of Temple University, but would also graduate in 1909 with honors and later was recognized as one of the pioneering black women of her time.

The information on Curtis, who grew up in the Bradford area, was provided by Sally Costik, curator of Bradford Landmark Society, in honor of Black History Month celebrated in February.

Costik said Curtis was born in 1881 in Buffalo, N.Y., the daughter of Stephen and Agnes Curtis. Stephen, who died in 1907, was a barber at a shop on Pine Street and the family lived on West Washington Street. Curtis had a sister named Ida and a brother named Harry.  

Following Curtis’ graduation from dental school with honors, the Bradford Era acknowledged the accomplishment with an article and photo. The article read, in part, “She believes dentistry is one of the best professions for women and has encouraged” other young black women to take up the study.

Following graduation, Curtis began a dental practice in Harlem of New York City, and would continue on with the profession into the 1930s. She also had opened her home to her widowed mother after setting up her practice, according to the newspaper account.

“Somewhere along the way she met Richard Cecil McPherson, whose stage name was Cecil Mack,” Costik stated. “They were married on April 9, 1912. She was 32 years old and they were married for 32 years.”

Costik said Mack was an enterprising figure during the Harlem Renaissance, a period described as an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem and spanned the 1920s.

“Think Cotton Club, and all that in Harlem,” she explained. “He was involved in one of the biggest dance crazes of the century, the Charleston, and played an integral part in the first African American owned music company in the U.S. called the Gotham Music Publishing Company. It was organized in 1905 later becoming the Gotham-Attucks company. Documents indicate Mack married Curtis shortly after having broken free of Gotham-Attucks.”

In providing more background on Mack, Costik said he was an African-American composer, lyricist and music publisher. When he died in 1944 at the age of 70 in New York City, Mack’s obituary observed that “Not even Irving Berlin exceeded the output of this talented New York Negro. His songs were as American as Stephen Foster’s — one or two of them may be remembered as long — and were typically representative of the pre-radio era when fortunes were made over the 10-cent-store counters. Cecil Mack’s songs were pure fun and never had an off-color line.”   

One of Mack’s songs was “You’re in the Right Church, But the Wrong Pew.”

An obituary noted Mack was “married to Dr. Gertrude Curtis, a pioneering African-American dentist who had an office in Harlem. They had no children.”

Costik said research shows Mack may have considered retirement from music briefly, “as the 1920 census taken in Harlem showed Gertrude running a dentist office in their home, and Cecil as a manufacturer of dental supplies.”

Costik said Curtis apparently married again to Ulysses Thompson after Mack’s death,  “although I could find no record of any marriage, death notice or anything at all that links the two of them together, except a Wikipedia article. She would have been in her mid-60s if this is true.”

That article stated, “Ulysses “Slow Kid” Thompson (August 28, 1888 – March 17, 1990) was a comedian, singer, tap and acrobatic dancer whose nickname was inspired by his ability to perform a comical, and incredibly slow, dance routine. His career included work in circus, medicine, minstrel, vaudeville and Broadway. Years later, Thompson married Dr. Gertrude Curtis, noted in her own right as New York’s first black woman dentist. She was the widow of lyricist Cecil Mack who contributed the words for many Williams and Walker Show tunes. Thompson continued to be active in the entertainment industry until approximately 1969.”

Costik said she believes it is logical that Curtis may have married Thompson, as “he certainly was in the same musical circles as she and Cecil Mack were, so it’s very likely that she knew him.”

In summary, Costik said she believes “it’s remarkable that a girl from Bradford goes on to become one of the first African American woman dentists in the United States and marries one of the important figures in the Harlem Renaissance period.

“Just imagine all the musicians, singers and dancers she must have known,” Costik concluded.