Da’Vine Joy Randolph The Holdovers 2024

Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays the real-life Lady Nancy Reed, who was a spoken-word sex performer.

The real-life Nancy Reed went from working in a recording studio to being in a film, making her acting debut in the 1975 flick “Dolemite.” Fast forward to 2019, and the film “Dolemite Is My Name” is a behind-the-scenes look at the filming process of this iconic movie, “Dolemite.” In that 1975 film, Nancy would play the character “Queen Bee,” who runs a brothel. But away from the cameras, the real-life Lady Nancy Reed was also known as “The Madam,” who was a spoken-word sex performer.

Between the 1950s and the mid-1970s, there was an industry for sexually explicit phonograph records. Today, with cable television and porn on the internet, adult-themed recordings have received little attention.

But in the 1930s and 1940s, recordings of pornographic content were known as “blue discs.” It wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that they gained a new level of cultural prominence. One of the most popular recording artists in this field was Rudy Ray Moore, who produced and performed the “speak sex” record “The Sensuous Black Man.” After that album took off, he collaborated with Lady Nancy Reed for “The Sensuous Black Woman.”

On this record, Lady Nancy Reed plays “the Madam.” On one side, the “instructional” dialogue is quite XXX-rated; in bitchy mode, the Madam gives a guy verbal instructions on how to properly make love to a woman. The “Rap Session” on side two is a sort of Q&A where the Madam shares some additional sex-related information while listening to bluesy music.

Lady Nancy Reed didn’t stop her work at a recording studio. She would go on to mentor sex workers as a result of her reputation as a sex guru in the Black community. She enabled those women to ensure their financial security and safety. She would also teach them to be confident in their commercial dealings and to manage every circumstance.

The Madam – The Sensuous Black Woman – Vinyl LP Album 1972

To read more about other Oscar-winning actresses playing characters working in the sex trade industry, please continue perusing Oscar Hookers