Spivy’s Roof

History

Born in Brooklyn to working-class Jewish immigrant parents of Polish-Russian origin, Spivy (aka Madame Spivy Le Voe; née Bertha Levine; 1906-1971) began her career as a church and theater organist before performing in Prohibition-era speakeasies. After returning in 1936 from a stint in Paris, she gained a following among gay businessmen in the backroom of Tony’s Restaurant, at 59 West 52nd Street (demolished). In 1940, at 139 East 57th Street, Spivy opened her own club in the penthouse, which had been converted into a restaurant in 1934. Spivy initially named it La Vache sur le toit (“The Cow on the roof”) in reference to the famed Parisian cabaret-bar Le Bœuf sur le toit and, many presumed, a self-deprecating joke about her large size (her nickname was “the Bulldog Bull Dyke”). She renamed it Spivy’s Roof for ease shortly after.

The interior of Spivy’s Roof was designed by then-prominent nightclub designer Vernon MacFarlane, with extensive input from impressionist Sheila Barrett and actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Patsy Kelly (both rumored lovers of Spivy’s). The main room, which officially seated about 100 but often “squeezed in” 300, featured peppermint-striped banquettes, red carpeting, white drapes, and blue walls adorned with paper sculptures by Jack Eisner depicting caricatures of such celebrities as Beatrice Lillie, Katharine Cornell, and Martha Raye.

During supporting acts, Spivy held court with her closest friends and lovers at reserved tables in the back. When she decided to perform, Spivy exited onto the L-shaped terrace, walked via a path concealed by plants, and then reentered through another door. At a baby grand piano atop a raised platform, she sang satirical, risque songs mostly written by John Latouche, which she recorded on two albums in 1939 and 1947. Critics applauded her “witty, acid, and tragicomic” material and likened her “rapscallion, yet dignified gaiety” and “triple-entendre sophistication” to Dwight Fiske and Noël Coward.

According to former Spivy’s pianist Buster Davis,

Historian George Chauncey explains that Spivy’s welcomed LGBTQ patrons provided “their numbers or overtness [didn’t] threaten the club’s reputation.” This policy, which led some lesbian women and gay men to visit as couples, was likely a cautionary measure to retain the club’s license at a time when the State Liquor Authority targeted premises with LGBTQ clienteles as “disorderly.” Regardless, it “encountered little opposition,” Chauncey notes, “for as successful businesspeople, many of Spivy’s patrons had every reason to hide their sexual identities.” LGBTQ patrons included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, performers Clifton Webb, Elisabeth Bergner, Libby Holman, and Martha Raye, writers Elsa Maxwell, Irving Drutman, and Patricia Highsmith, actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, lyricist and librettist Marshall Barer, composer Ned Rorem, and businessman Morris Golde.

Although Spivy was the main attraction, she booked numerous supporting acts. Many of them were LGBTQ, including musicians Bart Howard, Elsie Houston, Libby Holman, Martha Raye, and Liberace; comedians Mary McCarty and Paul Lynde; actress and singer Pola Negri; impressionist Sheila Barrett; female impersonators Arthur Blake and Rae Bourbon; a vaudeville duo featuring Patsy Kelly and Fred Keating; the Revuers, an improvisational comedy troupe that included singer-comedian Judy Holliday and a young Leonard Bernstein as piano accompanist; and John Bernard Myers, who performed multiple puppet playlets written by Jane Bowles and Charles Henri Ford, with music by Paul Bowles.

In 1948, Spivy’s hosted two fundraising events for the theater addition to the Cherry Grove Community House on Fire Island. According to that site’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the theater ultimately played an “enormous role…in shaping…‘America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town.’” Photographer Richard Avedon sold photographs of the first event, a Halloween Costume Party, to raise funds. The second event, a Roaring ‘20s Party sponsored by Martinson’s Coffee, “made history by scoring the first national brand sponsorship of a ‘gay’ fundraising event.”

Spivy resided nearby throughout the years she operated the club, initially at 105 West 55th Street, where the 1940 United States Census listed Spivy as a male living with a divorced woman named Elsie Wilson (no evidence confirms that Spivy, though androgynous, identified as a man or that Wilson was a lover), and then at 70 East 56th Street (demolished) from 1942 to 1950. In 1942, Spivy and actor-magician Fred Keating announced their engagement. However, no marriage records exist and many columnists viewed it as a joke from the start, so it is suspected that this was a lavender marriage, a publicity stunt, or simply a running gag in their routine.

Spivy’s Roof closed in 1951 due to mounting financial difficulties and increased competition. Spivy returned to Europe, operating her eponymous club in Paris and Ada “Bricktop” Smith‘s club in Rome. Upon returning in 1958, she performed at the Blue Angel, at 152 East 55th Street (demolished), appeared in Auntie Mame (1957) at the Broadhurst Theater, and then pursued a character acting career in Los Angeles, where she died in 1971.

Entry by Ethan Brown (project consultant), February 2026.

NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.