Not a day goes by……. Yes they are missed…..
Watch and Enjoy some amazing tap dancing….pure and simple….
Sheer Rhythmic Musicality… The Tap Dancer is a Musician…
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[Daily Post] John Bubbles
Host Jim Morske finishing his interview of Dorothy Fields – Co-Author with Jimmy McHugh of I Can’t Give You Anything But Love – is joined by John W. Bubbles, age 58, to perform the song, tap dance and follow all that with the Charleston.
Bubbles (born John W. Sublett) was half of the team of Buck and Bubbles. It is said that around 1920 he gave tap lessons to Fred Astaire, and later worked with Astaire on the “Bojangles of Harlem” number in the film Swing Time. But Bubbles, who was known as an influential Vaudeville artist, will be forever remembered for creating the part of Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s 1935 Porgy and Bess. Enjoy…
[Daily Post] James Cagney
DID YOU KNOW THIS ABOUT JAMES CAGNEY:
** Brother of actor-producer William Cagney and of actress Jeanne Cagney.
** Father of actor James Cagney Jr.
** Pictured on a 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 22 July 1999.
** Had two adopted children, Cathleen “Cassie” and James Jr.
** Earned a Black Belt in Judo.
** Was of Irish-Norwegian origin.
** Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan’s campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney’s funeral in 1986.
** In his autobiography, he mentions that while in the chorus of the musical “Pitter Patter”, he earned $55 a week, of which he sent $40 a week home to his mother. As his salary increased, so did the amount he sent back home. In The Public Enemy (1931), he earned $400 a week, sending over $300 back home. Until his mother passed, he never kept more than 50% of his earnings.
** Often left the set early claiming he was too ill to continue filming in order to ensure an extra day of filming so that the extras and the film crew, whom he thought woefully underpaid, could get an additional day’s salary.
** Wrote that of the sixty-two films he made, he rated Love Me or Leave Me (1955) costarring Doris Day among his top five.
** Part of the first group of major stars to join the Screen Actors Guild in October 1933 as member number 50. Before his Guild presidency, he served nearly a decade on the Board and as First Vice President. Cagney was elected Guild president in September 1942.
** Although closely associated with his friend Pat O’Brien who co-starred with Cagney in 9 movies, Cagney actually made more movies with his other close friend Frank McHugh. 11 in total which included: The Crowd Roars (1932), Footlight Parade (1933), Here Comes The Navy (1934), Devil Dogs Of The Air (1935), The Irish In Us (1935), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), Boy Meets Girl (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Fighting 69th (1940), City For Conquest, (1940), A Lion Is In The Streets (1953).
** Cagney and best friends Frank McHugh & Pat O’Brien, were known collectively and affectionately as the ‘Irish Mafia’ and would often be seen out together around Hollywood nightclubs having a quiet drink and a chat. Other members of this close knit social group included actors Lynne Overman, Ralph Bellamy, Frank Morgan, Bert Lahr, Allen Jenkins and Spencer Tracy.
[Daily Post] Eddie Brown
Eddie Brown – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
To all dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us today 8/7/1918 to celebrate the Birthday of Eddie Brown, born in Omaha, a tap Master and National Treasure, known for creating “Scientific Rhythm”.
Eddie Brown, a dancer who won fame as a master of rhythm tap improvisation and schooled a generation of dancers, kept rhythm tap alive. He mesmerized audiences with his improvisation, spontaneously creating his intricate rhythmically musical steps, when bands played.
Brown was one of fourteen children, he learned tap dance on the street corners, growing up he memorized Bill “Bojangles” Robinson routines, who saw the young teen-aged dancer in Omaha and offered him a job. Originally a flash dancer Brown eventually found a way of incorporating his flash technique and vocabulary into a rhythm tap context. He dubbed the approach Scientific Rhythm.
[Daily Post] Bill Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple
The Little Colonel, a 1935 comedy drama film directed by David Butler, starred Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Bill Robinson, and Hattie McDaniel, among others. The story focuses on reconciliation of an estranged father and daughter in the years following the American Civil War. The Little Colonel was the first of four cinematic pairings between Temple and Robinson & features the duo’s famous staircase dance.
[Daily Post] Gene Kelly
Cover Girl a 1944 film starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly was the story of a chorus girl given a chance at stardom when she is offered an opportunity to be a highly-paid cover girl. The film was one of the most popular musicals of the war years. Gene used trick photography so that he could dance with his own reflection in this signature sequence from the film. Enjoy this master, really at play!!!