Thursday Night Tap! Feet Music!
My mom was a tap dancer. She was a Shirley Temple impersonator in the 1930's. Her mom used to bust her out of Catholic school to do shows at local clubs and venues. Once she went to dance at the Jewish Community Center. She said that the nuns told her she would go to hell . . .
Years later, on a tour of Radio City with my brother, crossing the stage behind the main curtain, she asked the tour guide "what's on the other side of that curtain?"
"That's where the audience sits," he replied. The tour went on, but without mom. When my brother went back to look for her, she was coming back through the curtain. She had gone out in front of it, stood before the empty Radio City Music Hall, and tapped a solo. When my brother asked why, she told him "When I was little, I wanted to be a Rockette. I always wanted to be able to say 'I danced on the stage at Radio City!'"
And for the rest of her life, she did say that.
I never knew any of this! I'm very glad to know now. Wanting to be a Rockette apparently runs in the family...I wanted to be one as well!
ReplyDeleteHo, how I loved your mother!! I have enjoyed seeing her pretty face in your pictures. She was always so sweet to us. Nothing but good memories.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to audition for Ringling, at Madison Square Garden (turns out they weren't having the audition), I ended up backstage a Radio City Music Hall checking into being a Rockette. They said that my dance resume was fine, but that I was too short. Back then you had to be 5'4" or more. I'm barely 5'2". Now, I think it's 5'6". A few years later I was a dancer on Nordmark's magic show. The choreographer had been a Rockette. That's as close as I got. I'd have loved to have seen your mom up on that music hall stage. She had to have been quite a hoofer. Thank you for writing about it.
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