Kennedy Center Honors 1987, tribute to honor Sammy Davis Jr.
The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green and Sandman Sims.
Enjoy a loaded deck… Rhythmically Musical… True Talent…
Preserving and Advancing the Art of Tap Dance.
By Tap Legacy
Kennedy Center Honors 1987, tribute to honor Sammy Davis Jr.
The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green and Sandman Sims.
Enjoy a loaded deck… Rhythmically Musical… True Talent…
By Tap Legacy
A Special performance from 1967 in France featuring tap Masters Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, Chuck Green and Baby Laurence.
Enjoy…
By Tap Legacy
To all dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us in celebrating the Birthday of Mable Lee Queen of the Soundies today 08/02/1921.
she began performing at the age of 4 in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and became a soloist with the Red McAlister Band by the age of nine.
As a teenager, Ms. Lee came to New York City where she worked in the chorus line of the West End Theatre followed by that of the Apollo Theatre before being given a spot as a soubrette, a featured soloist with a line of girls behind her. Mable toured with big bands led by the likes of Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake, Louis Jordan, Fats Waller, Lucky Milinder and many more.
During World War II, Mable performed in the first all-black USO unit, conducted by Eubie Blake and his sixteen-piece orchestra, and would later take her own show, complete with chorus line and band, out with the USO.
From 1942-1946, Mable Lee appeared in over 100 SOUNDIES, earning her the title, Queen of the Soundies.
Ms. Lee has also made her mark in theatre starring in Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along, the national touring production of Bubblin’ Brown Sugar, and AMAS Repertory Theatre’s production of Suddenly the Music Starts – alongside Harold Nicholas. She was also the only female member of the cast of The Hoofers, which opened at the Mercury Theatre and included such luminaries as Lon Chaney, Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde, Sandman Sims, and Buster Brown, among others.
Ms. Lee has received the Flo-Bert Award for lifetime achievement, has been inducted in the Tap Dance Hall of Fame and is a member of the Tap Legacy™ Honorary Board. She was nominated for an Audelco Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in Suddenly the Music Starts, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been on the cover of Ebony Magazine.
Mable Lee can be found performing today at the Tap Extravaganza®, and other tap dance events.
By Tap Legacy
To all dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us in celebrating the Birthday of Dr. James Buster Brown today 05/17/1913.
A Tap Master and National Treasure. As a solo tap artist, Buster toured with Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and others.
His career highlight was with Duke Ellington.
Buster was a member of the Original Hoofers and the Copasetics, Also known for Broadway, Film & TV.
Buster is center in the opening of clip. Also from screen right to left, Lon Chaney, Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, Harold Cromer and Chuck Green.
By Tap Legacy
Introduced by Walter Cronkite at the 1987 Kennedy Center Honors five Tap Masters paying tribute to the Honoree Sammy Davis Jr.
Fayard Nicholas, Harold Nicholas, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green, Howard Sandman Sims.
Enjoy this rare performance with a loaded stage.
By Tap Legacy
To all dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us in celebrating the Birthday today 11/06/1919 of Charles Chuck Green, born in Fitzgerald GA, a Tap Master and National Treasure.
Green started tap dancing when he was a child by sticking bottle caps on his bare feet. In 1925 at the young age of six Green won third place in a dance contest where Noble Sissle was the bandleader. Soon after, Green would be touring the South, tap dancing.
Green came to New York City when he was only nine years old to study tap dancing. At only twelve, Nat Nazzaro, a well known and famous talent agent of his time signed Green up as a client. Green and his childhood friend James Walker teamed up as Shorty and Slim with Walker being Slim, he was a talented comic dancer, and Green would be Shorty.
Soon they changed their Act’s name to Chuck and Chuckles, Their Act went on until 1944 where due to Green’s stress the team broke.
Chuck & Chuckles played New York’s prestigious Palace Theatre. The Chuck and Chuckles Act toured overseas in Europe, Australia, and throughout the United States, performing in such venues as Radio City Music Hall, the Paramount, Apollo, and Capital theatres. They were busy and work was abundant to the extent that they would double up on performances averaging five stage shows a day. They played nightclubs, and toured with big bands.
July 6, 1963 Green appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival along with Charles “Honi” Coles, who would introduce Green as Chuck Green, the greatest tap dancer in the world, in 1964, at the Village Vanguard, the infamous tap challenge between Green and tap dancer Groundhog took place. In 1969 Green appeared with members of Harlem’s Hoofer’s Club for a series of Tap Happenings that were produced in New York City by Letitia Jay. Through the seventies and eighties, Green continued to perform with the Copasetics.
Awards and Honors:
Honorary Professorship – Washington University
Bessies – For innovative achievements and technical skill in dance.
Bessies – For his work in Black and Blue 1989 Broadway show.
Movies he appeared in:
No Maps On My Taps (1980)
Masters of Tap (1983)
Dance Black America (1984)
About Tap (1987)